Broadcaster Libby Purves blasts ‘self-congratulating’ BBC for obsessively plugging its own shows
- Libby Purves says the BBC is always bragging about how good its shows are
- She criticised the corporation’s ‘coverage of its own navel’ as being ‘naff’
- ‘A new Doctor Who is greeted like a Nobel Prize announcement’, she said
Libby Purves has accused the BBC of ‘needy self-congratulation’
Libby Purves has accused the BBC of ‘needy self-congratulation’ and said it acclaims its own shows as if they were a football cup final.
The broadcaster and author blasted the ‘braggart’ corporation for its obsessive promotion of its own programmes, calling it ‘naff’.
She claimed the BBC’s ‘coverage of its own navel’ has increased tenfold in the last few years, and that executives think ‘the world revolves around Broadcasting House’.
‘A new Doctor Who is greeted like a Nobel Prize announcement,’ she wrote in Radio Times.
‘Strictly is like a cup final and a bit of forgettable fiction like the Bodyguard sparks chin-stroking discussion on [Radio 4’s] Today, for all the world as if something in the real world had happened.’
Miss Purves, 68, said even Radio 4 was guilty of endlessly trailing its shows.
The presenter said she noticed the trend after Top Gear star Richard Hammond crashed in 2006.
She wrote: ‘Seven minutes of the evening news was devoted to Richard Hammond getting over his crash.’
The broadcaster and author blasted the ‘braggart’ corporation for its obsessive promotion of its own programmes, calling it ‘naff’