Plugs for BBC

For 30 years the British Broadcasting Corp. has led a prim, completely non-commercial existence. Last week BBC learned that, for the first time, it might have a brazen, home-grown commercial rival. The scandalous revelation was made in the House of Commons, where the Tory majority submitted a white paper that will 1) let BBC continue its simon-pure monopoly on radio, but 2) let some commercial TV stations be built by private enterprise to compete with BBC's four-station TV network.

Tory Benches. The Tory raid was led by Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe. To the charge that sponsored TV would eventually reduce British programs to the low level of those in the U.S., Fyfe replied, patriotically: "I am not impressed by analogies from the United States. We have our typical British way of resolving problems of taste . . . We are a much more mature and sophisticated people." Labor's Herbert Morrison interrupted to taunt: "That sounds like anti-Americanism." With feigned astonishment, Fyfe replied: "I am very surprised that the right honorable gentleman should take me to task for paying a compliment to our fellow citizens."

The heaviest fire against the government's plan came, surprisingly, from its own benches. Canadian-born Conservative Beverly Baxter, who is also theater critic for the London Evening Standard, revealed that he was "fortunate" enough to visit the U.S. every winter, and he warned that horrific tales about American TV are not exaggerated: "To sit over there through a three-or four-hour sponsored program is to come under a terrorization of mass suggestion of advertising. I mean this seriously. The American girl, for example, is supposed to be the finest of her kind in the world. She is supposed to be the quintessence of feminine charm. What do advertisers say about her on the radio, on television? I shall put it as gently as I can. She suffers from dandruff, from body odor, from halitosis. I could go on . . ."

Christmas Hymn. The white paper reminded Baxter of a rather old story--an offer once made by Beecham's liver pills to provide a church with hymn books in return for a bit of concealed advertising. One Christmas, said Baxter, the congregation found itself singing:

Hark, the herald angels sing,

Beecham's pills are just the thing;

Peace on earth and mercy mild,

Two for man, and one for child.

Nevertheless, because he would rather have "sponsored programs than a Socialist government," Baxter and other Tories voted reluctantly with their party, in favor of the white paper. They consoled themselves with the reflection that TV licenses will not be issued to private enterprisers until the long-term defense program is well over the hump. For the next five years at least, Britain's "mature and sophisticated" public seems safe from the blandishments of commercial plugs.

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