Beeb’s cruel insult to our elderly
From the presenter who’s donating his latest BBC fee to help over-75s pay for their TV licences...
DURING my career as a broadcaster, I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world having adventures, making programmes and meeting all kinds of inspirational characters.
The most interesting and charismatic ones of all have invariably been the elderly.
That’s one of the reasons I was so disgusted by the BBC’s announcement this week that the licence fee is no longer to be free for everyone over 75. What an insult to our elders, and what a terrible example for a national institution to set.
If the BBC treats the ‘greatest generation’ with such disrespect, how will the rest of society behave towards them?
I need to be clear that I love the BBC which, as I know from my travels, is a recognised and trusted brand around the world and a cornerstone of Britain’s ‘soft power’.
Like almost everyone, I grew up watching its programmes. I also owe my whole career to the Corporation: my role in 2000 as a volunteer on the programme Castaway gave me my start on screen and, since then, I have worked on dozens of BBC shows.
But the decision to impose the licence fee on over-75s, who have been exempt for almost 20 years, is disastrous. We should be ashamed that the idea has even been proposed.
That’s why I immediately pledged to give my entire salary this year from my BBC1 series Animal Park to subsidise free TV licences for the elderly.
We ought to respect and, yes, revere our older generation. That is commonplace wisdom around the world – but increasingly forgotten, it seems to me, here in Britain.
Like so many, I was deeply moved by the D-Day remembrance ceremonies earlier this month, when the country paused to celebrate and commemorate the heroics of all those who fought for our country.
Even those not battling on the frontline dedicated their best years to rebuilding a shattered nation – which all of us today have had the good fortune to inherit.
Yet, at the same time, all too often this same generation is treated as aburden on society. We must be out of our minds – they ought to be loved and honoured.
My own grandparents helped calibrate my moral compass, gently guiding me to understand the difference between right and wrong. There isn’t a day that passes when I don’t remember their lessons with fondness and gratitude. My father’s parents were Canadian and both lived to a great age: Grandpa to 99, my grandmother to 100. I lost my maternal grandfather, Dick – who had served in the Royal Engineers – when I was in my teens. But, as a child, I spent many happy hours walking on Sussex beaches with him and my grandmother, Jean, absorbing their wisdom and learning from their kindness. I’m proud to call them my role models.
Not long ago, for my show New Lives In The Wild, I spent a week with octogenarian Judith, who lives ‘off-grid’ on the west coast of Ireland, brewing her own moonshine potato vodka, spinning her wheel and drawing water from a well.
Hers has been a full and somewhat eccentric life well-lived; and she taught me – in the way that older people often teach us – that having the courage to be yourself is one of the most important lessons of all. My grandparents would have been lost without the Beeb in their later years. And the same applies to millions of older folk today. According to the charity Age UK, 3.6million people live alone – of whom 2million are over the age of 75. One recent study found that 1.9million older people feel ignored or invisible.
Television brings great comfort to so many. It is estimated that at least a million people have the television as their only company; it is the main company for perhaps millions more. That vital link to common humanity should not be denied to anyone, especially on financial grounds. It is true that those older people in receipt of pension credit will remain eligible for free licences. But two-fifths of those entitled to this benefit – about 1.2million elderly people – aren’t currently receiving it.
Some don’t know they can claim, many struggle to apply and others feel embarrassed about asking for help. These people are often some of the poorest in our society.
Many might have struggled their whole working lives to save enough for retirement.
The full state pension is currently £730 per month: barely enough on its own tofeed, clothe and shelter anyone, let alone allow for any luxuries. An extra cost of £150 a year could tip the balance for many poorer pensioners.
They may, according to the state’s means-testing, be able to afford it – but perhaps only by sacrificing other costs, including food or fuel. For these people, there is no money set aside for a ‘rainy day’. And one of the cruellest aspects of this decision is that it strips this right from the very people who enjoy the BBC the most.
THE average age of a BBC1 viewer is now 61, as younger viewers are drawn to online rivals such as YouTube and Netflix.
That number seems destined to rise even higher.
The Corporation appeals especially to an older generation, one that can remember ‘black-andwhite and two channels’. For them, Auntie stands for continuity, familiarity and friendship.
But if that friendship were truly mutual, this decision would never have been made.
One possible solution seems obvious. It should be much easier for the better- off elderly to opt out of the free licence. My parents, approaching their mid-70s, are in a fortunate position: my father still works as a vet and my mother is a successful actress – who has recently appeared on the BBC shows Doctor Who and Holby City.
They can afford the licence fee, and I’m quite sure they would gladly continue to pay for it if they knew it meant that others, less fortunate than they are, could rest assured that this benefit would not be stripped from them.
In other words, we should be appealing to the basic decency of older people and trust them to do the right thing. I’m confident that would work – and I’m certain my late grandparents would approve.
The fee for this article has been donated to Age UK