Birt calls for 'scholarly, non-formula schedule' on television

The former BBC director general Lord Birt has called for public service broadcasting to be more "scholarly", warning that television drama has become too formulaic and urging deeper analysis of politics on television.

In the 30th annual MacTaggart lecture, the keynote speech of the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Lord Birt delivered a paean to public service broadcasting, but said the tradition was facing a "looming, intensifying threat" in the run-up to digital switchover.

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In a speech viewed by many as pulling his punches - rumours abounded beforehand that he would use the platform to attack individuals - Lord Birt gave his vote of support to the current BBC regime, even declaring his 20-year feud with the BBC chairman, Michael Grade, at an end.

Lord Birt was at pains to profess his enjoyment of shows such as ITV's I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here. His praise was diluted, however, by his criticism of the lack of intellectual programmes, groundbreaking drama and political analysis in the television schedules.

"We need more scholarship ... there's too little of it and much programming that should be scholarly is not," he said, singling out BBC2's recent series on Auschwitz and Channel 4's series on the English Civil War as the sort of shows broadcasters should aspire to. He had equally harsh words for drama. "Today's drama practitioners ought to rent a great skip and throw away the stereotypes and the formulae," he said. Channel 4 must be "well funded to be able to snap at the heels of the BBC", he said, and consideration given to keeping ITV's public service dimension, when analogue switch-off makes it commercially unviable.