March 2005 - Evangelicals Now - Christian Newspaper

Antony Pitts is the Senior Producer from BBC Radio 3 who felt it necessary to resign his post in protest over BBC TV showing the controversial production Jerry Springer - the Opera in January.

This newspaper was able to contact Mr. Pitts, who very kindly allowed us to interview him.

EN: Why did you feel it necessary to resign from your post at the BBC?

AP: When the BBC made it clear in early January this year that the broadcast of Jerry Springer - the Opera was to go ahead despite an unprecedented level of listener protest, I thought I should attempt to sound a warning bell within the Corporation. So I emailed Mark Thompson (the Director-General of the BBC) with my concerns and said that if the broadcast of blasphemy went ahead I felt I would have 'no choice but to consider resigning'. Following the broadcast and two substantial discussions with Mark, I resigned from my staff position at the BBC: in order both to be able to speak freely about this issue, and to accept publicly my portion of corporate responsibility for the BBC's action. The full text of my resignation statement is at http://www.tonusperegrinus.co.uk/Resignation.pdf. (In his resignation statement Mr. Pitts points out a few specific examples of offensive material in the broadcast. These are the introduction of and dialogue with the Jesus figure, containing all kinds of abuse, insults, profanity and deliberate mocking of the Lord's name; the ridiculing of the figure of Jesus on the cross, dressed to imply sexual perversion; the repeated mockery of the wounds of Jesus linked to acts of crudeness; the singing of 'Jerry eleison' as a contemptuous travesty of an act of worship.)

EN: The BBC must have pressures on it from many different groups. How do you think the BBC should have handled the situation over Jerry Springer - the Opera?

AP: The level of external concern over a broadcast is always relevant - we cite 'trust', 'audiences', and 'respect' as three of the BBC's core values. In the case of JStO the BBC publicly denied the claim of many protestors that the broadcast was a case of blasphemy. Having made this denial, it became and continues to be difficult to shift position over its suitability for transmission.

EN: What do you think will happen to your career now that you have resigned?

AP: I don't know. I do a number of things outside the world of radio, such as composing music and conducting a professional choir - and I hope that these activities will continue to expand. However, I would also hope that this current crisis will not be the end of my broadcasting career.

EN: How can Christians make their concerns about such things as Jerry Springer - the Opera known to the BBC in a way which will change things?

AP: The BBC is always keen to understand the concerns of listeners, and particularly those audiences which may have been misunderstood in the past. At the beginning of February this year a new Complaints procedure was launched (there are details online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints), about which Mark Thompson has said, 'We want to begin with the presumption that the licence payer is right not wrong. There will be a greater willingness at the BBC to admit mistakes and where appropriate put things right'. So it is important not to give up writing in with concerns and complaints - the more specific and temperate the better. Whether things will change at this point is up to the will of the Lord and to the hearts of man, but I would encourage all forms of reasonable dialogue.

EN: How would you like to see the BBC develop?

AP: At the entrance to Broadcasting House in central London there is a Latin inscription which tells how the building was 'dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors of Broadcasting in the year 1931'. It continues with the Governors' prayer that 'good seed sown may bring forth a good harvest' and that 'the people, inclining their ear to whatsoever things are beautiful and honest and of good report, may tread the path of wisdom and uprightness'. Some 70 years on, those words seem more vital than ever.

EN: I am sure people would like to pray for you. What should they pray for?

AP: For wisdom to be able to speak the truth in love.

Antony Pitts started work at the BBC in January 1992 as a Secretary, and after a couple of years began producing programmes. For the last few years he has been working three days a week as a Senior Producer for BBC Radio 3 (90-93FM), working particularly on programmes in the Between the Ears series. A recent example of the more unusual work Antony has been involved in is A Passion 4 Radio in which all four gospel accounts of the Passion story are told in parallel. It is being re-broadcast this Good Friday, March 25, from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm on BBC Radio 3.

Antony lives in a small village on the Kent/East Sussex border where there is only one church - the parish church - where he and his wife and children worship regularly. He was baptised as a very small child and explains he has always believed in the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He says he tends to shy away from denominational or doctrinal labels and prefers to emphasise the inherent unity of the Body of Christ, and its returning Head, the Lord Jesus.

Why I resigned from the BBC

Antony Pitts, Senior Producer from BBC Radio 3, explains