主播大秀

In the first of an eight-part series published in the Guardian today, Charlotte Higgins 聽about the origins of the 主播大秀 and asks whether ninety years after the organisation was started whether founding director-general John Reith's original aims can still apply today.聽

Of today's 主播大秀, she writes:聽

"...听with its workforce of 21,000 and its income of 拢5bn, is such an ineluctable part of British national life that it is hard to imagine its birth pangs, comparatively recent as they are.

In only its 10th decade, the 主播大秀 looms larger in most of our daily lives than properly long-lived British institutions such as the monarchy, the army and the Church. Its magical moving pictures, its sounds and words are not just 鈥渃ontent鈥�, but the tissue of our dreams, the warp and weft of our memories, the staging posts of our lives.

The 主播大秀 is a portal to other worlds and lives, our own time machine; it brings the dead to life. Once a kindly auntie鈥檚 voice in the corner of the room, it is now the daemonic voice in our ear, a loving companion from which we need never be parted. It is our playmate, our instructor, our friend."

""听by Charlotte Higgins is published on the Guardian website.聽