Bush House in the Strand in London, the legendary home of the World Service, has always had an exotic allure for me.
On my first day in the BBC I was sent down there to work in the Overseas Talks department. I was 21 and clueless, having had no journalistic training, knowing no shorthand, and having come from a small city in Cumberland to an extremely small bed-sitter in Queen’s Park. I spoke only two languages, Cumbrian and rather halting French.
I was most impressed by the canteen in the basement where an extraordinary range of the world’s cuisine was available to a young man used to lunching out in Wimpys.
There seemed to be whispered conspiracies going on everywhere – well, this was the height of the Cold War - and I must have sat next to many future political leaders as they schemed their way to power.
Soon I was on air, conducting a bizarre interview about the introduction of giant rabbits into Australia for food. It had been a disaster, the animals had run wild and bred joyously and now there was a search for an effective predator which would not itself multiply by the millions and require yet another animal to prey on it.
I was not to conduct another on air interview for twenty five years.
Still my debut was heard by a former girlfriend working deep in the African bush, and she was impressed; well that’s what she said but by then she was engaged to be married, and I never saw her again.
I showed off, of course, taking my friends to eat in the Bush House basement whenever we were nearby on a night out. John Tidmarsh was already presenting Outlook, and he was married to Sheila Sweet, an actress with whom I had fallen in love when she starred in a BBC TV children’s serial about refugees after the second world war, the Silver Sword. I was all ready to hate him but he was very charming and considerate. I never met Sheila though- another of life’s regrets, not quite up there with a cancelled meeting with Julie Christie.
Also on air was the veteran Robert Reid, a hangover from the war who missed its great drama and wished we could be involved in another life-threatening conflict in which he- and the BBC - could play an important part. Then there was the producer who could never be found at lunchtime because he was having an affair with a leading actress who was on the stage every night and only available during the day.
Most of the journalists seemed to spend lunchtime in the BBC Club and be notably less coherent in the afternoon when they slumped into sleep before leaping up to meet the approaching deadline. After the programme it was back to the Club again for “just the one”.
I was too poor, and too sober, to follow them.
Now of course the World Service has left Bush House for New Broadcasting House and its news operation has been integrated into the main domestic news operation. The boss of the World Service no longer has a seat on the Corporation’s top management board and the Service itself is no longer funded by a direct grant from the Foreign Office but from the licence fee and so has to compete with BBC Television for funds. Not an easy task.
It also now takes some sponsorship and some advertising which causes concern among those who feel editorial decisions will inevitably be influenced by the sources of income.
In this week’s I talked to the outgoing boss of the World service who is retiring after 33 years on the Corporation’s staff.
Peter Horrocks has had a distinguished career, including editing Panorama and Newsnight , an has managed to choose his own date of departure from the BBC, not a feat many people manage.
You can listen to the programme here.
In three weeks time, the Controller of radio 4 will be on answering your questions. So let me have them!
Roger Bolton
Roger Bolton is the presenter of
