I watched the film ‘Priest' by Jimmy McGovern and the subsequent interview with the author. I thought Mr. McGovern to be a modest man, concerned with seeking deeply into the hearts of mortal man and portraying the pathos through his characters.
I did not see ‘Accused', broadcast on Monday evening, 22nd November but was only aware of the controversy it aroused. Only I know a great many people were offended by it. As I did not watch the programme and so not qualified to comment on it, all I can say is that it feels like ‘here-we-go-again' time.
The jolly old BBC thinks it can do as it likes and, indeed, seems very happy to be in that position. The jolly old tax-payer will fund the whole circus, from payment of ridiculously high salaries to managers and performers, to putting on screen anything from high quality programmes to shoving in our aces other programmes which at best seem to be aimed at delinquents or idiots and presented by people you would not wish to have in your homes.
There is a mystery here. Why, when the Corporation does not have to chase ‘ratings' in order to fund its operations, why does it spend so much time in the gutter?
I am all for free speech and pushing the boundaries of the arts and sciences but there is a fine line between where good taste falls away and gratuitous indulgence takes over. There are plenty of sophisticated people in place, on high salaries, well able to know the difference. Do I detect a conspiracy here? Is the BBC in thrall to some faceless cult, determined to destroy our culture and leave to our children and grandchildren in a desert of the dust of our glorious inheritance?
Free speech is a wonderful thing but don't you think it can go too far? Is tact of no value any more? Surely ‘tact' is a velvet aid to avoid the cruelty of the tongue?
I may be a mere minnow in the great scheme of things but I like the truth, all the same – but ‘truth' can be very cruel. I would like to put before the panjamdrums at the BBC an extract from ‘Fragments from my Diary' by Maxim Gorky. Mr. Gorky lived through tumultuous times in Russia and saw many dreadful things – but here is what he says.
I hope this book is sufficient proof that I do not avoid the truth when I do not wish to avoid it. To my mind, however, truth is not so necessary either to the extent or in the completeness which pleases people to imagine that it is. Whenever I have felt that such and such a truth merely slashes cruelly at the soul and teaches nothing, that it degrades a man without explaining him to me, then, of course, I have thought it better to omit it.
There are, I assure you, many truths which it is best not to remember. These truths are born by lies and possess all the elements of that poisonous untruth which, having distorted the relations of man with man, has made of life a hell, at once filthy and absurd. What does it serve to remind humanity of something which should disappear as quickly as possible? It is an ugly task to record and to expose only the ugly things of life.
With grateful thanks to Maxim Gorky
Isabella Knight
Author of The Adventures of Robertson Golly
