 | |
| Company type | Journalist association |
|---|---|
| Industry | Entertainment industry |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Manori Ravindran (Chair), Kate Bulkley (Awards Chair) |
The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. [1]
The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. Its membership includes more than 100 staff and freelance journalists who write and broadcast about TV, radio, streaming and the media for UK national newspapers, specialist journals and online outlets.
One of the Guild's most recognized activities is the hosting of luncheons where leading industry figures are engaged in dialogue. The Guild has entertained most BBC director-generals and chairs and government ministers responsible for broadcasting along with a wide range of top executives from TV and radio channels in the UK and overseas. [2] Previous lunch speakers include Sally Wainwright, Peter Fincham, David Abraham, Charlotte Moore, John Whittingdale, Chris Patten, Jeremy Hunt, Greg Dyke, Kevin Lygo, Carolyn McCall, Michael Grade, Martin Sorrell, Mark Thompson and Gary Lineker.
The BPG’s Best Actress winners include Diana Rigg, Eileen Atkins, Helen Mirren, Peggy Ashcroft, Gillian Anderson, Vanessa Redgrave, Maxine Peake, Anne-Marie Duff, Zoe Wanamaker, Gina McKee, Julie Walters, Olivia Colman and Juliet Stevenson.
The BPG Best Actor award has been presented to Alec Guinness, Albert Finney, Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth, Charles Dance, Robert Hardy, Jim Broadbent, Christopher Ecclestone, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Whishaw and Dominic West among others.
It is common for major media announcements or changes in policy to be made at the BPG's luncheons. In 2012, Richard Klein, the BBC Four Controller, announced the network would be pulling broadcasts of Top of the Pops re-runs in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. [7] [8] At the same event, Klein announced that the network had purchased the broadcast rights for the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation . [9]
In a 2012 luncheon, Lord Patten announced that some BBC freelancers, including Fiona Bruce and Graham Norton, would be offered staff contracts following a review of the BBC's tax arrangements, while at the same time denying that the broadcaster had engaged in tax dodging. [10] During the same event, Patten also broke his silence about the Jimmy Savile scandal, clarifying widespread allegations of a corporate cover-up. [11]
Speakers sometimes make news during the annual BPG Awards ceremony. In 2016, the former Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies criticised the lack of gay characters on TV. [12]
At a BPG lunch in 2024, Gary Lineker discussed his Goalhanger podcast productions and the controversy over his Twitter pronouncements. [13] [14]
To mark its 50th anniversary in 2024, the Guild invited its members to choose their Top 50 Landmark TV Programmes. The top spot went to the ‘7 Up’ series of documentaries started by Granada Television in 1964. [15] [16]
Gary Winston Lineker is an English sports broadcaster and former professional footballer. Lineker is the only player to have been the top goalscorer in England with three clubs: Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. He also played for Barcelona in Spain, and won 80 caps for England. His media career began with the BBC, where he has presented the flagship football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s, the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter. Lineker is also the BBC's lead presenter for live football matches, including coverage of international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup. He has also worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network, and BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League.
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster.
Alistair Charles McGowan is an English impressionist, comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression, which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes – winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003. He has also worked extensively in theatre and appeared in the West End in Art, Cabaret, The Mikado and Little Shop of Horrors. As a television actor, he played the lead role in BBC1's Mayo. He wrote the play Timing and the book A Matter of Life and Death or How to Wean Your Man off Football with former comedy partner Ronni Ancona. He also provided voices for Spitting Image.
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile was an English media personality and DJ. Savile was well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image, charitable work, and hosting the BBC shows Top of the Pops, a pop music programme, and the popular children's programme, Jim'll Fix It. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender and possibly one of Britain's most prolific. There had been allegations during his lifetime, but they were dismissed and accusers were ignored or disbelieved.
Match of the Day is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary Lineker, with regular analysis from fellow former players Alan Shearer, and occasional relief analysts such as Micah Richards, Frank Lampard, Shay Given, Ashley Williams, Danny Murphy, Martin Keown, Theo Walcott and Dion Dublin.
This article outlines, in chronological order, the various controversies surrounding or involving the BBC.
Jim'll Fix It is a British television series broadcast by the BBC, presented by Jimmy Savile and running for almost two decades, between May 1975 and July 1994. Devised by Bill Cotton, the show encouraged children to write a letter to Savile with a "wish" that would come true at the end of each episode, upon which the child would be granted a medal. Famous people who appeared on the show included Muhammad Ali, Doctor Who stars Tom Baker and Colin Baker, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, Margaret Thatcher and Peter Cushing.
Timothy Douglas Davie is a British media executive, and the Director-General of the BBC since September 2020, taking over from Tony Hall. He was previously appointed as the acting director-general of the BBC in November 2012 following the resignation of George Entwistle, until Hall took over the role permanently in April 2013.
Gerald "Gerry" Kelly is a Northern Irish broadcaster and journalist, best known for his presenting career at UTV where he presented the Friday night talk and variety show Kelly from 1989 until 2005.
Meirion Jones is a Welsh journalist. He worked for the BBC from 1988 until 2015 and is now the editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman described Jones as "a dogged journalist with that obsessional, slightly nutty commitment that marks out all successful investigative reporters".
This is a list of events that took place in 2012 related to British television.
Peter William Rippon is a British broadcasting executive. He is the editor of the BBC Online Archive. He was previously the editor of BBC Television's current affairs programme Newsnight, but he departed due to the controversy over his decision not to broadcast a posthumous investigation into the sexual abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile.
George Edward Entwistle is a former broadcasting executive, who was Director-General of the BBC during 2012, succeeding Mark Thompson. After a career in magazine journalism, he joined BBC Television in 1989, becoming a producer with a primary focus on factual and political programmes. He rose to become the director of BBC Vision, and became the Director-General of the BBC on 17 September 2012.
Operation Yewtree was a British police investigation into sexual abuse allegations, predominantly the abuse of children, against the English media personality Jimmy Savile and others. The investigation, led by the Metropolitan Police (Met), started in October 2012. After a period of assessment, it became a full criminal investigation, involving inquiries into living people, notably other celebrities, as well as Savile, who had died the previous year.
In late 2012 it emerged that Jimmy Savile, a British media personality who had died the previous year, had sexually abused hundreds of people throughout his life, mostly children but some as old as 75, and mostly female. He had been well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image and was generally respected for his charitable work, which associated him with the British monarchy and other individuals of personal power.
In 2012 and 2013, the British Broadcasting Corporation was involved in a series of investigations, accusations and scandals related to sexual abuse committed by employees, and the reporting of allegations of abuse by others. The issue of child sexual abuse by BBC employees was publicised nationally in October 2012 as part of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. Savile was a radio DJ and TV personality who presented the programmes Top of the Pops, Jim'll Fix It and Clunk Click, and was a well known charity fundraiser. Allegations of sexual abuse by Savile and other BBC employees were reported to have taken place in a number of locations across the country, including BBC Television Centre.
Elizabeth Mary MacKean was a British television reporter and presenter. She worked on the BBC's Newsnight programme and was the reporter on an exposé of Sir Jimmy Savile as a paedophile which was controversially cancelled by the BBC in December 2011. The decision to axe the Newsnight investigation became the subject of the Pollard Inquiry. She and colleague Meirion Jones later won a London Press Club Scoop of the Year award for their work on the story. She also won the 2010 Daniel Pearl Award for her investigation of the Trafigura toxic dumping scandal.
Mark Alan Williams-Thomas is an English investigative journalist, sexual abuse victim advocate, and former police officer. He is a regular reporter on This Morning and Channel 4 News, as well as the ITV series Exposure and the ITV and Netflix crime series The Investigator: A British Crime Story.
The Reckoning is a British docudrama television miniseries that depicts the career and sexual crimes of British media personality Jimmy Savile, portrayed by Steve Coogan, from the early 1960s to his death in 2011. It is based in part on the book In Plain Sight: the Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies.