‘The BBC’s attitudes to gay people are as dated today as they were when I came out’
Former TV presenter tells of old-fashioned corporation
JOHN Nicolson was best known on TV as a presenter of BBC Breakfast and won plaudits for anchoring the corporation’s breaking coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Now, the Nationalist MP has spoken out about how he came up against old-fashioned attitudes in the BBC’s corridors of power 15 years ago, after he went public in a newspaper interview about his homosexuality.
And he believes the corporation’s attitude to gays has changed little.
Mr Nicolson, who is among the SNP’s newly elected 56 MPs, said staff at the corporation were “aghast” when he told them he had been honest about his love life.
He was prompted to come out in 2000 after a newspaper wrongly claimed he had a long-term girlfriend. In the original interview, he said that he did not want people to think Dale Winton was the only role model for gay men.
Yesterday, in a political debate at Westminster, the East Dunbartonshire MP said he was informed no-one in any field had been openly gay at the BBC when he came out.
He said the biographical notes of Generation Game star Grayson – famed for his catchphrase “Shut That Door!” – and John Inman – who played an effeminate character in the sitcom Are You Being Served? – stated they were still waiting to find love with a woman.
In a parliamentary debate on broadcasting, Mr Nicolson said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are still underrepresented on our airwaves.
Mr Nicolson, who began a career in broadcasting after graduating from Glasgow University, said: “When I came out as gay when I was presenting BBC Breakfast on BBC 1, I found that I was the first mainstream TV news presenter to do so.
“When I told the press office staff that I had given an interview to the Daily Mail, and that when asked about my home life I had been honest, they were aghast and told me that no BBC presenter had ever been openly gay before.
“They said that no-one in any field had ever been openly gay. Larry Grayson and John Inman were, according to their BBC biographical notes, apparently just waiting for the right woman to come along.
“That was in the year 2000, and I am not sure that much has changed.
“Why does it matter? As (Labour’s Chi Onwurah) rightly said, the faces and voices on TV, especially in news, should reflect the society in which we live. “It is all about trust.” Mr Nicolson went on: “The BBC Trust in Scotland reports that less than half of the people in Scotland believe that the corporation represents their life.
“That is the lowest level of trust in the BBC of any of the nations in the United Kingdom, but it is no coincidence, given the number of TV programmes that are commissioned in Scotland and the jobs in Scotland.” The SNP’s culture, media and sport spokesman also noted Scotland is maybe the “only country in the world” where no foreign news is run on the main six o’clock news programme.
Speaking in Westminster Hall, Mr Nicolson said: “There could be Armageddon in Carlisle and it would run an airshow in Carluke as the main news story. It is a most peculiar position and it is one reason why the SNP is keen on having a Scottish six o’clock news with proper news values – local, national, UK and international news chosen on the basis of merit.”
Mr Nicolson later said a perceived lack of objectivity by the BBC during last September’s independence referendum left many Scots feeling a “bit like disappointed lovers discovering the infidelity of someone we rather cared for”.
He said this differed to the UK Government’s view on the BBC, with many on the Conservative frontbench feeling a “post-divorce visceral hatred”.
IN speaking out about the BBC’s attitude to gay TV figures, SNP MP John Nicolson has raised some pertinent questions about how the media reflects society. Mr Nicolson, a former BBC Breakfast presenter who is himself gay, told MPs in a debate that things had changed little at the corporation since the days when BBC biographies of stars such as Larry Grayson and John Inman said they were “waiting for the right woman to come along”.
The MP for East Dunbartonshire says the broadcaster’s press office was “aghast” in 2000 when he was open and honest about his sexuality in a newspaper interview. There is little doubt that society has changed significantly in its attitudes since the time of Inman and Grayson, and even since the turn of the century as the legislation on civil partnerships and, later, gay marriage highlights.
BBC dramas such as EastEnders have played a part in this change by including characters who just happen to be gay, rather than having their sexual orientation presented as their reason for being.
Mr Nicolson’s comments suggest the broadcaster still has some work to do. As audience research in Scotland showed only this week, the BBC is not adequately reflecting the lives of its audience. Perhaps it could do better.