BBC Drama "Wolf Hall" won "Best Drama" at the BAFTA ceremony held at The Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.

During his acceptance speech the director, Peter Kosminsky, took the opportunity to call for the safeguarding of the BBC's (and Channel Four's) future.


"The Guardian" reported his speech (which was followed by a standing ovation) in this article.

Kosminsky said: “In the week in which our secretary of state John Whittingdale described the disappearance of the BBC as a tempting prospect, I’d like to say a few words in defence of that organisation.”

He said government proposals to appoint a majority of members on a new BBC board threatened its independence and would turn it into a state broadcaster “a bit like ... those bastions of democracy Russia and North Korea”.

He said the government wanted to tell the BBC what programmes to make and when to schedule them.

“It’s not their BBC, it’s your BBC,” he said. “This is really scary stuff, folks, and not something I thought I would see in my lifetime in this country. All of this is under threat right now, make no mistake.

“We should stand up and fight for it, not let it go by default. If we don’t, blink and it will be gone. No more Wolf Halls, no more Dispatches [on Channel 4], just a broadcasting landscape where the only determinate of whether it gets made is whether it lines the pockets of shareholders.

“It’s time to stand up and say no to this dangerous nonsense.”
(The speech was edited for broadcast and references to Russia and North Korea were edited out).

Several other acceptance speeches referred to the current BBC / Government negotiations.

The BBC won more than half the awards during the evening.
BBC 14.
Channel Four, 6.
ITV 2.
SKY 1.
Amazon 1.