Nick Hornby says BBC should be ‘untouchable’ after coronavirus pandemic

‘Netflix can help us forget it, but it can’t explain, inform, illuminate’

Writer Nick Hornby has penned a heartfelt plea in defence of the BBC and the licence fee following the coronavirus pandemic.

In an essay for Penguin, the About A Boy author argued that the current health crisis has highlighted our dependence on and need for a fair and neutral public service broadcaster.

“Before all this started, the BBC was under assault, apparently because of its independence,” he wrote. “It was, is, being threatened with all sorts, including the loss of its lifeblood licence fee. The BBC, one of our crowning achievements as a nation!”

“The current weekly applause for the NHS is valuable in all sorts of ways, but doing the same thing at the same time as other people, a simple pleasure that we used to take for granted, is clearly important to us.

“We love Netflix because it allows us to watch what we want when we want; watching live TV reminds us that, for better or worse, we are a small part of something bigger.”

Hornby continued: “Right now, the BBC is helping me to live through and understand a crisis... Netflix can help us forget it, but it can’t explain, inform, illuminate.

“I would like to think that the BBC’s service, its calm intelligence and dedication to our health and our ability to cope with what 2020 has thrown at us, might make it similarly untouchable [as the NHS], and give those who wish it harm pause for thought.”