BBC Mortified When People Learn The Truth About It

                                                 Only mortified by being exposed

If the Chris Evans’ face is anything to go by we can expect mass firings at the BBC in the next few days. After all the BBC fired its most recognizable and bankable star, Jeremy Clarkson, merely for abusing and striking a producer for screwing up on the job. Imagine what they will do when it turns out that dozens and dozens of BBC employees conspired in using the most sacred memorial to Britain’s war dead as the backdrop to a cheap stunt.

In the first case we are talking about the feelings of just one man, whereas in the second the hurt was caused to millions. The first was an understandable professional slip that happened as a result of booze, fatigue and stress. The second was the result of six months meticulous planning involving many presumably sober BBC managers. The second incident causing as it did offence to millions makes the split lip that Jeremy Clarkson gave Oisin Tymon look as trivial as, well, as in fact it was.

Count on it, if the BBC values its reputation and the special position of trust it occupies in British life then heads will roll and lots of them. The rot must be cut out however painful and embarrassing it may be. After all this is Britain’s national broadcaster we are talking about. These are the people that the nation turns to in times of danger as well as those of national celebration. They couldn’t possibly tolerate leaving the impression with the British public of a corporation staffed by people who don’t know or couldn’t care less about the symbolism of the Cenotaph.  

But then again…

Although Chris Evans looks suitably chastened in the interview above, the giveaway to his and the BBC’s real feelings on the matter is his use of the phrase “We are all mortified by it!” The “it” can only be the outrage Top Gears’ cheap stunt has caused, not the stunt itself. They can’t be mortified by the donuts being performed around the Cenotaph. If they were then they wouldn’t have planned that particular shot for the last six months, then watched in their serried ranks as it was performed. If “We are all mortified by it!” meant they thought the stunt was disgraceful then logically they would be mortified by all those BBC employees who planned it and carried it out. And they’d want their heads for the damage they’ve done to their beloved BBC.

But they are not mortified and nobody is going to lose their job. How could they fire somebody for offending conservatives and patriots? That is pretty much the raison d’etre of the BBC these days.

The reality is that the BBC is staffed by people who don’t know or couldn’t care less about the symbolism of the Cenotaph. By people who could plan and watch the outrage of performing cheap stunts around the country’s most sacred site with satisfaction at a job well done. They are only mortified when this fact becomes known to the British people.