Steven Berkoff speaks for millions in comments about the dumbing down of the BBC
Actor and director Steven Berkoff has never been known for mincing his words. That’s why we like him. In his latest comments describing much of what the BBC broadcast as “garbage” and ITV1’s Downton Abbey as featuring “a lot of silly old tarts in costume” he is once again right.
Interviewed at the Edinburgh Festival where he is starring in An Actor’s Lament with Jay Benedict and Andree Bernard, Berkoff commented:
“Last year, I was trying to watch the BBC on Saturday night. They had Strictly Come Dancing and Bruce Forsyth. And I watched almost with tears because I remembered when I was 17, 18, I used to see Hamlet and Death Of A Salesman on a Saturday night. That educated me”.
Berkoff, who also attacked the salaries of BBC bosses, is bang on the nail. It is time that the axe that was meant to follow in the wake of the Savile scandal struck. It is time for heads to roll.
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His comments regarding Downtown are absurd and out of touch – he’s like a real-life Victor Meldew. Downtown Abbey is one of the most successful shows broadcast on ITV in recent years, both in terms of viewing figures and financially. So if that’s what silly old tarts in costumes can achieve, I say here’s to more of them!
What bull. ‘DumbDown’ is dumbed down television and hardly up there with the classics. Watch ‘The Remains of The Day’ if you want real period drama. Watch ‘Downton Abbey’ if you want to see television antennae, plastic drainpipes and “old tarts in costumes”.