BBC Raw has come under fire for mocking the Bible and Jesus, promoting drug use, being politically biased and insulting the queen, reported the Daily Mail.
When BBC Raw was introduced to British television viewers in February, the channel was supposed to be “an incubator for socially and racially diverse young people who want to develop into filmmakers for the BBC,” according to its official description. The content for each film—created by people with working-class backgrounds between the ages of 18 and 28—“is based on their own ideas, stories and issues from their life experience.” So why is it that these thought-provoking videos are suddenly being questioned? Because some officials feel the topics are just way too controversial.
Filmmaker Ciaran Varley has been criticized the most for his often shocking on camera viewpoints, said the Daily Mail, including calling Prime Minister David Cameron a “f***ing idiot,” mocking “the Bible with an image of a dinosaur in white robes and a halo, above a tagline about God’s supposed views on sex” and arguing “the Queen should not talk about austerity as she has ‘never done a day’s graft in her life.’”
In one of his most talked-about video rants, the 28-year-old Varley said: “These Christians, you could call them a bit hypocritical, couldn’t you? I mean, after all, don’t these guys spend half their time worshipping a fellow—Jesus that is—who himself had two dads? I mean, he turned out alright, didn’t he? I mean, ‘don’t be gay’ didn’t even make it into the Ten Commandments.”
Some Members of Parliament (MP) called for an investigation into this offensive material. “This is the sort of output hard-working license fee-payers will be disgusted by,” said Tory MP Andrew Percy. “If [people] want to produce this sort of trash, they should do it on their own money and have it aired on a platform not funded by license fee-payers. It’s not ‘cool’ or ‘edgy.’ It’s just rude and offensive and the producers should grow up.”
Now it’s also been uncovered that Varley is the son of the BBC’s social mobility executive, Cheryl Varley, who also leads the BBC Raw initiative, according to PinkNews, and nepotism may be at play.
Although his film’s are produced on a voluntary basis, he does get paid for his work as an assistant content producer for the children’s channel CBBC. And one of the video’s he’s made for BBC Raw, about Record Store Day, primarily focused on a shop owned by his brother James.
“This is the type of content the BBC should have nothing to do with, let alone commission,” said Tory MP Damian Collins, according to the Daily Mail. “I can’t understand how this was allowed to happen.... The BBC needs to explain why money from [its] budget has been used to benefit [family of staff].”
The BBC’s response? “We are urgently working with the people involved in running the scheme to ensure [BBC Raw] fully adheres to the BBC’s rigorous editorial standards,” a spokesperson said. “'This is a pilot scheme where young people from a range of backgrounds can post their short, personal—and sometimes provocative—films about issues they care about.”
“The central issue is that almost everyone who watches TV in the U.K. must have a license to do so, with the fees that come from purchasing the permit going to fund the BBC,” according to the Blaze. “This makes any perception of bias problematic, though it is unclear whether BBC Raw content would show bias, or whether Varley, among others, is simply freely sharing his views on a platform that welcomes everyone’s perspective.”
To check out some of the provocative BBC Raw films on YouTube, click here.
