Is Peter Bazalgette ruining British TV? One report to the Lords says he is

British television is being dumbed down by vulgarity, reality shows, celebrity news and sex as it becomes increasingly driven by market forces, a report submitted to the House of Lords alleges. And Peter Bazalgette, the man behind Big Brother, is singled out for attempting to pass off "the stuff of the vulgate" as high art.

In a highly critical essay, Professor Michael Tracey, a media academic, warns that the proposals in the Government's Communications Bill, which loosens the reins on broadcasting ownership and proposes lighter regulation, are "unworkable and dangerous''.

He said: "We need to resurrect the idea of vulgarity, loutishness, moral and intellectual impoverishment in contemporary life. What Peter Bazalgette and others of his ilk have done and would, post-Bill, continue to do with ever greater relish, is to take the stuff of the vulgate and present it as if it were the equivalent of Rilke and Joyce, Green and Hemingway, Picasso, or Dali, the Beatles or Beethoven, Rawling or Tolkien, Hancock or Python, Attenborough or Murrow, Tony Garnett or David Chase, Paddy Chayefsky or Dennis Potter.''

"Well, it isn't and the suggestion that it is, mouthed by apparently highly intelligent individuals, is so stupid, so lacking in substance that there has to be an explanation. And there is: self-interested cynicism, with an IV drip of greed.''

The professor is a former head of the Broadcasting Research Unit who now runs the University of Colorado's media research centre. His essay, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, was submitted to the Lords, which is debating the Bill next week, by the Campaign for Quality Television, a lobby group of broadcasting professionals.

Professor Tracey also attacked Channel Four. "If you wanted to make a documentary about gerbils and the gay community, there would be no problem, but if you wanted to explore the euro, forget it.''

He criticised programme makers for accepting the argument that broadcasting must contain sex or that news must be about celebrities so it could be aimed at the 18 to 34 age group beloved of advertisers. He attacks Mr Bazalgette again for saying that programme makers who are 50-plus and complain that they cannot get documentaries commissioned are simply "out of time".

Professor Tracey said: "What is being renounced are ways of thinking about the purpose of broadcasting, and through that, the character of the society we wish to have in place. They are being presented as remnants of a time before.''

Mounting a strong defence of public-service broadcasting, Professor Tracey says he rejects the suggestion that such values are no longer relevant. "What exactly is it that is no longer relevant? Creativity, diversity, standards, serving a citizenry, not pandering to a superficial mass taste, being optimistic that the audience can discover pleasures and understandings that they might otherwise have not known?"

Professor Tracey said yesterday he was worried that British television would follow the path of American TV, which was, largely, "a disaster" with an overdose of reality shows and an erosion of news

He added: "Everyone cites programmes such as The Sopranos and Six Feet Under as proof of how good US television is. What they forget is that they are made by HBO, which is a high-premium cable channel and the nearest thing the Americans have to public- service broadcasting.''

Mr Bazalgette's company, Endemol UK, said yesterday that he rejected the criticisms made in the essay. Mr Bazalgette also told Broadcasting magazine that Endemol had never claimed to produce great art, but made "informative entertainment". He said the report lacked any statistical analysis to demonstrate television was being dumbed down. Channel Four also rejected the criticisms, saying that it was committed to diverse public- service broadcasting.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

BIG BROTHER

Endemol for Channel Four

Average 4.3m viewers for current series

The original reality show, now in fourth series.

Professor Tracey's verdict: "Presents rather ignorant people as though they were players in a Shakespearean drama."

CHANGING ROOMS

Endemol UK for BBC1

5m viewers last week.

The house makeover show that caught an interior design boom and spawned a host of imitators.

Professor Tracey's verdict: "It's not so much the problem with the show but the endless replication of the same idea."

TONIGHT WITH TREVOR McDONALD

Granada for ITV

3.1m viewers last Monday

A sop to critics who mourn the end of 'World in Action'. Criticised for populist agenda.

Professor Tracey's verdict: "Represents 'flattening' of news into a late-night slot, often focusing on celebrities.''

SO GRAHAM NORTON

So TV for Channel Four

Viewing figures not made public by broadcaster.

Irrepressibly camp five night a week chat show.

Professor Tracey's verdict: "A tacky, juvenile example of a programme designed to appeal to a demographic group.''