BBC hits back over 'patronising' attacks

Broadcasting debate: Corporation defends 'discerning' viewers

The controller of BBC1, Lorraine Heggessey, spoke out yesterday after weeks of sustained attacks on the corporation's increasingly commercial output.

In a side-swipe at critics of the corporation, including David Liddiment, the outgoing ITV director of programmes, she dismissed as "patronising" the belief that viewers of popular shows are not "discerning".

Speaking exclusively to The Independent on Sunday at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, she defended BBC1's forthcoming autumn season, which includes a "Crime Night" in which the public will be invited to vote for their preferred sentences for convicted criminals, as a shining example of public service broadcasting.

"When you look at the audiences, it's not just about our share going up, but that viewers are showing their appreciation," she said.

"I think it's really patronising to think that viewers are not discerning. They are discerning, and in an age with hundreds of channels to choose from they will soon switch over if they aren't happy with the quality of what we do."

Referring to recent comments by Paul Bolt, director of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, in which he branded BBC1 drama series such as Holby City as "humdrum and formulaic", she said: "You need strong, popular returning drama to bring people to a channel in the first place."

She confirmed that BBC1's long-running Sunday lunch-time political strand, On the Record, could well be dropped as part of the corporation's review of its Westminster coverage. Asked if presenter John Humphrys might go too if the programme was replaced, as many predict, by a younger, funkier strand, she said: "It's possible."

Earlier, Mr Liddiment was forced to defend his tenure and that of his predecessors when ITV became the subject of the first genuine spat of the festival. In a session entitled "ITV's Rocky Road: Where Next?", David Elstein, the former chief executive of Channel 5, criticised what he called a "decade of mismanagement" at the network. "ITV was taken over by business executives who know nothing about broadcasting, but are supposed to know about finance. Their ability to lose money hand over fist has been extraordinary," he said.

Replying to the charge, Mr Liddiment stoutly denied Mr Elstein's claims that his scheduling decisions had been dictated for years by ITV shareholders.

Commenting more generally on Mr Elstein's remarks, he said: "I don't accept it, no. It's too easy to categorise ITV as a cataclysmic set of failures.

"It's led the market in drama throughout the entire decade, and that's something ITV is immensely proud of."

In a surprise announcement yesterday, Channel 5 was named as the festival's first "Channel of the Year" by a panel of experts, including Ruby Wax, Michael Grade, Emily Bell and PR guru Matthew Freud.

The extraordinary improvement in the station's standing under the tutelage of its current chief executive, Dawn Airey, has intensified speculation that she will shortly be announced Mr Liddiment's successor at ITV.