Still catching up from the past few weeks… some pretty miserable stuff associated with the PSB review.  First, there is Tim Gardam’s piece in the Telegraph - ‘Quality TV could disappear from our screens‘.  Wow, what a pessimist.

Newsflash, Tim:  The earth will still rotate around its axis if more public money is not pumped into TV.

Anyway I think most of us are just looking to be inspired by someone who can step forward and say they’ll make great television without a state handout.  But it seems like the leadership in this area comes from the regulator, Ofcom, not the industry.  That’s a shame.  I think it shows that public money — and the prospect of more public money — is part of the problem, not the solution.

Then there is also the news, perhaps a bit exaggerated, that the BBC staff are taking loads of first-class flights and train journeys.  (That’s the price of plurality, he he…).  I’ve said it before:  Ofcom asks whether the public is willing to pay more, but no one seems to ask whether the state-owned broadcasters are willing to waste less.

Speaking of spending less and still creating great content, I love this classic scene from The Kid Stays in the Picture where Robert Evans begs the Gulf + Western board to keep Paramount studios open (watch him mention ‘little offices in Beverly Hills’):