When the George Orwell Memorial Trust proposed a statue of the writer for
outside the BBC’s new headquarters it expected an enthusiastic response.
By Anita Singh: However, not everyone appeared enamoured of the plan.
According to Baroness Bakewell, who is backing the campaign, Mark Thompson,
the Corporation’s outgoing director general, said the statue could not be
erected on BBC premises because Orwell was “too Left-wing”.
Orwell worked as a BBC journalist, producing radio programmes at Broadcasting
House during the Second World War before leaving to publish Animal Farm and
Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Mr Thompson’s remark will surprise critics of the BBC, who have long accused
the corporation of liberal bias.
Lady Bakewell said the exchange took place earlier this year.
“I met Mark Thompson at a BBC reception and mentioned the project. He said,
'Oh no, Joan, we can’t possibly. It’s far too Left-wing an idea’,” she said.
Writing in today's Daily Telegraph, Lady Bakewell said the BBC should “honour the greatest British journalist of his day” with a statue in the piazza outside the new Broadcasting House in Oxford Circus, central London.
A number of serving BBC journalists, including Andrew Marr and James Naughtie, have helped to raise more than £60,000 for it to be made.
Mark Thompson is currently on leave and could not be reached for comment.
The BBC confirmed that plans for the Orwell statue to be situated in the piazza had been turned down — the area already houses Mark Pimlott’s £1.6 million work World — but said there were plans to site it on nearby Portland Place, which does not belong to the BBC.
“We cannot put the statue immediately outside New Broadcasting House as the BBC piazza already has artwork by Mark Pimlott built into the pavement which would be obscured. We are, however, working with Westminster city council and those involved with the statue to find an appropriate location nearby,” a spokesman said .
The statue has been commissioned by the George Orwell Memorial Trust, which is run by Ben Whitaker, a former Labour politician. Martin Jennings, the sculptor who created the John Betjeman statue in St Pancras Station, has been commissioned to create it.
Mr Jennings said: “George Orwell is regarded as something of a patron saint of political journalism so his presence near the BBC could surely act as some kind of inspiration to all independent-minded broadcasters.”
Orwell worked for the BBC’s Eastern Service from 1941 to 1943, producing broadcasts to India designed to counter Nazi propaganda.
Soon after resigning, he became the literary editor of the Left-wing Tribune magazine.
His experience at the BBC became unlikely source material for Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell is said to have based Room 101 on a conference room at Broadcasting House where he attended staff meetings.
Source
Writing in today's Daily Telegraph, Lady Bakewell said the BBC should “honour the greatest British journalist of his day” with a statue in the piazza outside the new Broadcasting House in Oxford Circus, central London.
A number of serving BBC journalists, including Andrew Marr and James Naughtie, have helped to raise more than £60,000 for it to be made.
Mark Thompson is currently on leave and could not be reached for comment.
The BBC confirmed that plans for the Orwell statue to be situated in the piazza had been turned down — the area already houses Mark Pimlott’s £1.6 million work World — but said there were plans to site it on nearby Portland Place, which does not belong to the BBC.
“We cannot put the statue immediately outside New Broadcasting House as the BBC piazza already has artwork by Mark Pimlott built into the pavement which would be obscured. We are, however, working with Westminster city council and those involved with the statue to find an appropriate location nearby,” a spokesman said .
The statue has been commissioned by the George Orwell Memorial Trust, which is run by Ben Whitaker, a former Labour politician. Martin Jennings, the sculptor who created the John Betjeman statue in St Pancras Station, has been commissioned to create it.
Mr Jennings said: “George Orwell is regarded as something of a patron saint of political journalism so his presence near the BBC could surely act as some kind of inspiration to all independent-minded broadcasters.”
Orwell worked for the BBC’s Eastern Service from 1941 to 1943, producing broadcasts to India designed to counter Nazi propaganda.
Soon after resigning, he became the literary editor of the Left-wing Tribune magazine.
His experience at the BBC became unlikely source material for Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell is said to have based Room 101 on a conference room at Broadcasting House where he attended staff meetings.
Source
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