I don't normally watch much TV and am generally very critical of the BBC, but I thought last night's series of broadcasts relating to Jerry Springer, the perverse show he hosts in the USA, which bears his name, and the British opera that satirises it, laudable in the extreme.  My attention was only drawn to it by reports of certain Christian groups protesting and pressing the BBC not to broadcast it, which made me think that it might be worth watching. It certainly was.  And I am horrified at the thought that the BBC might have given in to the protestors. Thank God it didn't. The opera was a brilliant satire of something in great need of it. It would have been a sad day indeed for British democracy if the BBC had given in to the protestors; also it would have set a precedent for other religious faiths to demand censorship of anything offending their particular religious sensitivities. The BBC did an excellent job of putting the opera in context, which in part was necessarily shocking, but also very educational, and it was also made abundantly clear to viewers that what was about to be broadcast contained language and scenes that some people might find very offensive. 

Many of those protesting, I suspect, hadn't actually seen the opera. If they had, they might well have realised what an important and morally valuable piece of satire it was. I would be very interested to know what effect it had on Jerry Springer himself, since he saw it at the Edinburgh Festival. Hopefully it was profound and helped him realise the error of his ways. He deserved to be shot (metaphorically) and to go to Hell for hosting such a grotesque and perverse show, the value and "success" of which could only have been measured in dollars.

This is the sort of broadcasting for which I would be happy to pay a licence fee, in contrast to most of the rubbish that the BBC now churns out, and its revolting imitation - especially in the way it tries to sell itself (despite already being paid for!) - of commercial broadcasters.