David Hare says BBC DG ‘inarticulate’

The playwright David Hare (pictured) has launched a withering attack on the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, accusing him of being "inarticulate" and completely lacking in ideas. He made his remarks on Monday to the Guardian writer Michael Billington during a highly-charged Q and A interview at the British Film Institute.

"When Jonathan Ross offended the newspapers [over the 'Manuelgate' affair], Mark Thompson went traipsing round the studios and you just thought, ‘This man can't speak. He can't articulate.’ And usually the reason you can't articulate is because you don't have an idea to articulate.

“When you listen to Neil MacGregor talking about the British Museum, or Nick Hytner about the National Theatre, or Nick Serota about the Tates, you know what it is they want. But when Mark Thompson is asked, ‘What is the future of the BBC?’, he replies, ‘Continuing to do everything that we're doing at the moment.’ “

Sir David, who has come under fire for The Reader, the Oscar-tipped film starring Kate Winslet - some critics believe his treatment of the central character, a former Nazi concentration camp guard, is morally ambivalent - went on to complain about the corporation's general ethos.

"Television has always been run by journalists. Journalists distrust the central claim of fiction: that by lying you get to the truth. The BBC is being incredibly stupid in pitching its claim for its own survival on news-gathering. All their propaganda is about, ‘We're the greatest news-gathering organisation in the world.’ Frankly, the commercial sector can do news just as well. What we're talking about is an organisation that's lost its nerve."

Sir David, who is married to the fashion designer Nicole Farhi, went to make some tart remarks about drama on television. "Great writing goes on, but largely in genre. Everything is labelled. Say, six lame plays about comics: Tony Hancock, Kenneth Williams. Or you take a known person and say, ‘Lord Longford was interesting - we'll do a play about him. Mary Whitehouse was interesting - we'll do one about her.’ The thinking is: ‘They'll be interested in this - they know about it already’. “

He concluded: "It's a very depressing approach to drama because the imagination has no currency."
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