David Attenborough on Life Story and the Licence Fee

At a preview screening in Bristol yesterday (Tuesday 14 October) for the forthcoming BBC One series Life Story narrated by David Attenborough, the veteran broadcaster participated in a discussion. The Radio Times highlighted his comments in David Attenborough: Cutting the licence fee would "weaken" the BBC:

“The series, which is narrated by Attenborough and airs next week on BBC1, took four years and many millions of pounds to make. But he told the audience in Bristol that any changes to the licence fee would jeopardise comparable series being made in the future. Indeed, he suggested, this might be as good as it gets.

“We may be seeing a particular peak because to do this takes a lot of time - this was four years – a lot of concentration by a lot of talented people and that means a big investment.

“The BBC can do that because it has the security of the licence fee. And in the end it pretty well gets its money back because these (series) go everywhere.

“If it were to be the case that the BBC didn’t necessarily lose the licence fee but had a reduced licence fee that strength would be weakened and people would make easier programmes which don’t require so much investment, so much endeavour and so much ambition. That’s the danger.” ”

This extract can be read in full in the original feature posted on the Radio Times website. 

Hannah Khalil is Digital Content Producer for About the BBC Website and Blog.