Monday, March 31, 2014

Hopes for greater books coverage dwindle as BBC axes The Review Show

Despite director general Tony Hall's announcement of the biggest arts push for a generation, the BBC shows no sign of producing topical book shows or books documentary series

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Liiterature is liable to be marginalised in the arts coverage at the BBC. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Asked in last week's Radio Times if she would like to see more "programmes that cater for bookworms", Kirsty Wark replied: "I have to be diplomatic because there's going to be a big announcement about BBC Arts". And when the big announcement came this week, in director general Tony Hall's presentation detailing "the biggest arts push for a generation", literary initiatives were indeed mentioned, but on inspection they don't amount to much that's new.

Noticeably they're largely short-lived projects, annuals not perennials: there's no sign of a topical books show or books documentary series. Dead writers will have to await their anniversaries to be feted (next up: a Dylan Thomas season), while the only hope for living ones who are not global celebrities lies in the multi-arts programmes, Imagine, The Culture Show and, until it was scrapped this week, Wark's The Review Show. Although the BBC is to replace Sky as the Hay festival's broadcast partner – focusing on authors, but tellingly in their second lives as performers
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