The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume V: Competition

Book excerpt: Like many of the stories it broadcasts to the population, the BBC itself is often headline news. A constant source of debate, and a profound influence on many millions of lives, the British Broadcasting Corporation's charter has recently been extended until the year 2000. Now available in five volumes, Asa Briggs' History of British Broadcasting in the UK provides an exhaustive chronicle of the BBC's activities, achievements, and personnel - from the early days of wireless broadcasting and the Corporation's foundation, through its establishement as a part of home life and role in the Second World War, to the end of its monopoly and attempts to reflect the needs of a changing society. Competition, the lastest volume in Asa Briggs' monumental history, covers a period of 20 years, from the end of the BBC's monopoly in 1955 to the mid 1970s and the first meetings of the Annan Committee. Unlike the previous volumes it looks at the history of the BBC in an age of competition, so inevitably contains much fascinating material on the `independent' radio and television companies as well as the BBC. There are chapters on the reporting of the Suez Crisis, the Pilkington Committee, the governorship of Hugh Greene (the man Mary Whitehouse said was `responsible for the collapse which characterized the sixties and seventies'), Radio Piracy, the introduction of new technologies, and the BBC Jubilee.