The
BBC has scrapped its long-running Edinburgh
festival show, prompting a furious reaction
from performers. Instead, the corporation will
restrict its coverage of the world-famous event
to its existing Newsnight Review programme on
Friday nights.
Hosted by Kirsty Wark, festival Newsnight Review
will be broadcast live from Edinburgh’s
Point Hotel on BBC2, and is expected to feature
high-profile reviewers including Ian Rankin
and A L Kennedy.
Out
of the Ark
Four half-hour comedy shows will also be broadcast
from Edinburgh nightclub The Ark, presented
by Royle Family star Ralf Little, and there
will be a one-hour documentary on the life of
photojournalist Lee Miller, the subject of an
exhibition at the Scottish Gallery of Modern
Art.
However, the decision to use the Newsnight Review
slot as the main festival coverage - rather
than have a dedicated programme to showcase
the five major festivals held throughout August
- has met with dismay among those who see it
as a further scaling-down of the BBC’s
commitment to the arts.
Back
to Bakewell
One former Edinburgh Nights employee said: "This
takes the whole festival coverage back 14 years,
when Joan Bakewell used to come up from London
to tell the UK what was happening in Scotland.
BBC Scotland might be producing these shows,
but it is still a scaling-down of coverage -
Edinburgh Nights used to be on three times a
week, sometimes more. "
Liz Smith of the Assembly Rooms, one of the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s biggest venues,
said they were disappointed by the BBC’s
decision, and said that the four comedy specials
did little to quell their worries.
"The fact that we will get much less coverage
is worrying . The coverage with Edinburgh Nights
was always very good and it will be greatly
missed."
Reduced
Coverage
A spokeswoman for the Edinburgh International
Television Festival added: " It sounds like
the BBC is continuing to reduce arts coverage
in general."
Last year, Edinburgh Nights was renamed the
Edinburgh Review. There were four 40-minute
shows, presented by Mariella Frostrup and supplemented
by three Friday-night Fringe comedy specials.
The BBC has already come under fire for tampering
with arts coverage, and has been accused of
preparing to hive off arts programming to one
of its proposed new digital channels,
Strong
Package
However, BBC Scotland refuted suggestions that
they were reducing the coverage of Scotland’s
major arts festival. "We’ve got a strong
package of quality programmes and we’re
delighted to be producing Newsnight Review live
from Edinburgh. It is an established arts slot
and it has built up a sizeable following," said
a spokeswoman.
" We have found that the public are moving away
from magazine type shows and instead prefer
more satisfying single subject programmes like
the Lee Miller documentary .
"Newsnight Review will have a very strong representation
among its guests, and we have one of the hottest
names in comedy, Ralf Little, presenting for
us as well. That, with coverage by Radio Scotland
and our televising of the Tattoo, amounts to
a strong package."
A spokeswoman for the Edinburgh International
Film Festival backed the BBC’s move and
said: "To us it’s quite a positive thing
in using a programme format where they already
have a dedicated arts audience."
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