Buzz
The BBC, or British Broadcasting Corporation, holds the title of the UK’s official public broadcaster. However, it prides itself on its independence from the British government, even going as far as calling out the latter when necessary. Given its storied history, there are some truly fascinating aspects to the BBC.
For example, the BBC has a detailed contingency plan in place for announcing and covering the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, despite her being alive and well. It also experienced the first-ever on-air hacking incident, banned a song because people clapped along to it, and even began airing pop music after a tragic murder.
10. The BBC Practices Announcing the Queen’s Death Every Year
Since the 1960s, the British government has maintained a protocol known as Operation London Bridge. This plan outlines the steps to be taken immediately following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, with her passing supposedly being signaled to the Prime Minister by the phrase 'London Bridge is down.'
The BBC used to be the first news agency to learn about the death of a royal. However, this time around, it will receive the news simultaneously with other media outlets. All BBC channels will switch to BBC Channel One to rebroadcast the announcement of the queen’s passing.
BBC broadcasters are always ready for such news. In fact, BBC stations keep black ties on hand, allowing their presenters to quickly put them on before delivering the announcement.
The BBC also has a meticulously planned strategy for covering the queen’s burial. Every detail is accounted for, from camera positions to the placement of the cables. The plan even covers the location of tree branches that could obstruct the view of the cameras.
The BBC practices announcing the queen’s death at least once a year. It also runs rehearsals for covering the passing of other royals, such as Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip. On one occasion, the BBC staged a scenario where Prince Philip was shot by his son while on a hunting trip.
9. The BBC Once Announced That There Was No News
The BBC is renowned for its news coverage, but it also made headlines for not reporting any news. On April 18, 1930, the BBC had no news to broadcast. At 8:45 PM, a presenter went on air and stated, 'Good evening, Today is Good Friday. There is no news.' The station then played piano music for the next 15 minutes.
While there is always something to report, it was unusual for the BBC to claim otherwise. This was because the BBC held a monopoly on news in Britain at the time, giving it control over what was considered worthy of broadcasting.
The BBC only reported stories that it believed would enhance the moral fabric of the British public. Rather than covering news it deemed inappropriate, the BBC often chose to withhold information. Some argue that this was an attempt to demonstrate the BBC's independence from the British government.
At that time, the British government was attempting to suppress a scandal that had been covered in the newspapers the previous day. Since the newspapers did not publish on April 18 due to Good Friday, the government may have turned to the BBC to communicate its perspective. However, the BBC could have chosen to refrain from reporting any news instead of providing coverage that supported the government's narrative.
8. A Secret MI5 Agent at the BBC Prevented Communist Presenters from Going On-Air
The Cold War was a perilous time for communists in the Western world. The British government was so terrified of communists infiltrating the media that they assigned an undercover MI5 agent to screen all BBC broadcasters to determine who was allowed to be on-air and who was not.
MI5 agents worked covertly at the BBC from the late 1930s until the end of the Cold War in 1991. Editors and broadcasters who were considered potential troublemakers or communists were marked with green Christmas tree-shaped stamps on their personal files. BBC staff had no idea what the stamps meant, and the BBC never explained it to them.
Figures like folk singer Ewan MacColl and his wife, Joan Littlewood, were among those who received the green stamps. These marks came after BBC director John Coatman raised concerns with MI5 that the couple might be communists and could potentially spark a revolution.
7. A Controversial Murder Led The BBC To Play Pop Music Instead
As we noted earlier, when the BBC was founded, it had a strong moral stance. As a result, certain music genres, like rock ‘n’ roll, were seen as inappropriate for broadcast. The BBC deemed rock ‘n’ roll music unsuitable, so the British public rarely heard popular bands such as the Beatles on the airwaves.
In 1967, things began to change when a controversial murder and a new law paved the way for the BBC to start airing pop music. Despite its earlier refusal to play pop, pirate radio stations had started to broadcast across the UK, playing pop music to eager listeners.
Pirate radio stations operated without official licenses, transmitting from ships (like the one pictured above) located in international waters just off the British coast. This allowed them to broadcast to British citizens while staying out of the British government's reach.
The pirate radio stations quickly attracted the attention of the British government, which struggled to decide how to handle them. The situation changed after a businessman named Oliver Smedley shot and killed a pirate radio station manager during a dispute about the stations. Smedley was acquitted of murder after the courts ruled he had acted in self-defense.
However, the government used the incident as an opportunity to pass the Marine & Broadcasting Offenses Act, which made it illegal for British businesses to interact with pirate radio stations. The BBC, in response, hired top pirate radio DJs and launched BBC Radio One to serve the 15 million listeners who had been tuning into the pirate stations.
6. Dow's Stock Plummeted by $2 Billion After a Hoax Interview
On December 3, 1984, 45 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a Union Carbide Corporation pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. The event, known as the Bhopal disaster, spread the toxic gas into nearby homes, resulting in the deaths of between 15,000 and 20,000 people. More than half a million individuals also experienced adverse health effects from the leak.
The disaster led to a surge of negative publicity for Union Carbide Corporation. The company eventually handed control of the factory to the Madhya Pradesh state government in 1998. Three years later, Union Carbide was acquired by Dow Chemical Corporation. However, the Bhopal disaster continues to spark controversy to this day.
In 2004, the BBC invited Jude Finisterra, a representative of Dow, to discuss the incident. Finisterra claimed that Dow had taken responsibility for the leak and had agreed to shut down Union Carbide, offering $12 billion in compensation to the victims.
The interview lasted for two hours before the BBC discovered that 'Finisterra' was actually an imposter named Andy Bichlbaum. Unfortunately for Dow, the damage was already done—two hours was long enough for the company's stock to drop by $2 billion.
Bichlbaum and his close associate, Mike Bonanno, were members of a group known as the Yes Men. They created a fake website that closely resembled Dow’s actual site, but with their own contact email for anyone seeking to reach a spokesperson from the company.
The BBC discovered the fake website through a web search and contacted the email for an interview. Interestingly, Bichlbaum and Bonanno had set up the fake site two years earlier, and had completely forgotten about it until the BBC reached out.
5. The BBC Banned a Song Because It Encouraged Clapping During Its Lyrics
“Deep in the Heart of Texas” was written by June Hershey and Don Swander and performed by Perry Como in 1941. Como recorded the song just two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The song became an instant hit in both the US and the UK, even staying at the top of the UK charts for five consecutive weeks in 1942.
“Deep in the Heart of Texas” became famous for its catchy lyrics and the distinctive clapping sounds. Many listeners, including factory workers and students, clapped along as Como sang. The BBC, however, realized this could pose a problem, as workers in munitions factories might accidentally drop their bombs while clapping. As a result, the BBC banned the song from being played during work hours.
4. The BBC Once Had Strict Guidelines on What Constituted a Joke
In 1949, the BBC distributed a pamphlet titled The Green Book to its writers, editors, and broadcasters. This pamphlet outlined the guidelines for using humor on the BBC. It was both detailed and, in many ways, amusing.
The Green Book made it clear that jokes should never be vulgar. Topics such as bathrooms, immorality, honeymoons, fig leaves, ladies’ underwear, prostitution, maids, animal behavior, and travelers were strictly off-limits. Jokes about illnesses, war injuries, or physical disabilities were equally forbidden. The book specifically mentioned jokes about stutterers, a characteristic often found among presenters.
It was also prohibited for presenters, writers, and editors to use Biblical stories, phrases, or characters in jokes. This restriction extended to jokes about other religions and religious practices. The use of American slang was also banned, due to concerns that American films and music were gradually undermining British English.
While jokes about drunks were allowed in moderation, jokes about infidelity were permitted but required heavy censorship. Certain words, such as “basket” as a substitute for “bastard,” were also banned.
3. The BBC Is Supported by a License Fee Collected from British Residents
Many people outside the UK may not be aware that the BBC is financed by a license fee, which is collected from British residents who own televisions or access BBC programming through iPlayer. This fee is currently set at £154.50 annually.
This unique funding system has allowed the BBC to remain free from advertisements and independent of both shareholders and, according to the BBC, governmental influence. The fee is mandatory for all British residents, regardless of whether they watch the BBC on TV, phones, tablets, computers, or any other device.
Those who refuse to pay the license fee can face criminal charges and fines of up to £1,000. In 2012 alone, 180,000 people were taken to court for not paying the license, with 155,000 of them receiving criminal records and fines. Some who continued to refuse payment even ended up in jail.
By 2014, it was reported that around 70 people were sent to prison each year for failing to pay the fines. However, due to the large number of court cases, MPs began to suggest that the offense should be downgraded from a criminal to a civil matter.
2. The Zircon Scandal
In 1985, the BBC hired freelance journalist Duncan Campbell to investigate and uncover the details of several government secrets kept hidden from the public. This led to the creation of a six-part investigative series titled Secret Society.
Two episodes of this series proved to be particularly damaging to the government. One of them revealed the existence of Zircon, a £500 million spy satellite that had been secretly developed by the intelligence community without informing Parliament or the Public Accounts Committee, which oversees government spending.
The other episode exposed the existence of covert committees within Parliament that made key decisions on government policies without the scrutiny of the public. The documentary series was initially scheduled to air in 1986, but the government intervened after learning of its contents and launched raids on both Duncan’s home and the BBC’s Scotland office.
The government managed to seize the recordings of the two most contentious episodes. However, Duncan later shared the details of these episodes in a column for the New Statesman. The episode on the Zircon satellite was eventually broadcast by the BBC in 1991, but the episode about the secret parliamentary committees remains under government control.
1. The BBC’s First On-Air Hacking Incident
In 1983, the first on-air hacking incident took place when an e-mail account was compromised during a live demonstration of e-mail. At the time, e-mail was a relatively new technology, and the BBC sought to educate its viewers on its advantages over traditional postal mail.
While presenters Ian McNaught-Davis and John Coll were logged into the e-mail account on live television, they discovered that someone had uploaded a ‘jovial pirate’s song’ to the account before them.
The incident caused embarrassment for British Telecom, the provider of the Telecom Gold e-mail service involved in the breach. British Telecom, which had marketed the service as highly secure, accused the BBC of orchestrating the hack to damage its reputation. The BBC denied these allegations.
The hack is believed to have happened when the program’s producer accidentally shared the e-mail password with Coll while the microphone was still on before the show. It is suspected that one of the guests overheard the password and relayed it to a friend outside the studio, who then accessed the account and left the song along with other messages.
