Stephen Fry has recently released a set of ‘podgrammes’ available from both his blog and iTunes. They have become very popular with the podcast audience and on release will typically reach a high spot within the ‘Top Podcasts’ chart on iTunes.

Thus far the subject matter of the podgrammes has revolved around Stephen’s travels around the United States, his hatred of all types of dancing and the suffering he experienced after breaking his arm whilst attempting to board a boat in the Amazon.

The fourth podgramme in the series, though still delivered with the same wit and humour, tackles an altogether more universal and profound subject matter and one that is linked with the work of the Spoken Word Project. This subject matter is the continual struggle that the BBC faces in justifying the amount of funding that they recieve.
The podgramme outlines a speech that Stephen Fry made to a collection of broadcasting officials and politicians at Millbank in London. The BBC asked Mr Fry to speak about whether or not the licence fee should be ‘top sliced’ and share some of its funding with other television channels such as channel 4 who are percieved to be in financial trouble due to lower viewing figures brought on by such things as an increase in the number of television channels available and decreased advertising revenue.

Stephen Fry is in oppostition to this top slicing of the BBC’s funding. He does want to ensure that channel four is in a stable condition but does not believe that this stability should be at the expense of the BBC. The podgramme contains an interesting discussion of the BBC’s practices and the political and social changes that have changed and transformed the corporation into the being that we are now served by today. The podgrame is clearly presented by someone for whom the BBC is ‘deeply stitched into their being’ but regardless of this it is still gets to the root of where the BBC has been and where it is going.