The proposed cuts to the BBC represent a form of “cultural vandalism”, according to Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky, as he revealed he had a “real old barney” with culture secretary John Whittingdale in a meeting to discuss the issue.

Kosminsky said voices were raised during the encounter on Thursday morning. He said he came away feeling that the cuts to the broadcaster were “ideological” and “payback” for its election coverage.

He said the two men argued over whether or not the licence fee should be considered a tax. “[Whittingdale’s] line was that ‘it is a tax and we do not like taxes’, and I thought we were getting closer [to the truth], which was that the cuts were ideological.”

The filmmaker argued the license fee could not be considered a tax because people without televisions and radios did not have to pay it. He also questioned why the government was seeking to cut an organisation that was a “huge net earner ... that drives inward investment into the UK”. The discussion was finished with “raised voices and a shouting match”, Kosminsky revealed on Friday.

“The truth is that they cover [the cuts] with all of this talk about difficult times. But, what I have been forced to conclude is that they have a rather extraordinary ideological objection. And, in there somewhere, is a bit of payback. We know they did not like the coverage of the election and the difficulty in setting up the debates [where the prime minister and broadcasters had disagreed about the format of the pre-election leadership debates].

“They are trying to eviscerate the BBC and it is not their BBC, it belongs to the British public. They are trying to dismember our BBC and it is for the British public to say no. I feel pretty angry – this feels like injustice and someone has to stand up and say that this has to stop.”

Kosminsky’s comments came as another prominent TV figure – the former Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies – struck a more pessimistic tone, saying the BBC was doomed. “My take on it is that we’ve lost,” he told the Radio Times festival at Hampton Court on Friday.



“The problem is that this isn’t the fight for the BBC,” Davies said. “People keep on saying, ‘Oh I’d fight to death for the BBC’. There isn’t a fight. You can submit some opinions to the green paper. In 10 years’ time, everything we understand the BBC to be, will be gone.”

The writer, who revived and ran the BBC series Doctor Who from 2005 until 2010, added: “What the government wants, and what is going to happen – because I honestly think this battle has been lost – is we’re heading towards some sort of subscriber service.” He called the threat to the broadcaster “a disgrace”.

Davies, whose other series include Queer As Folk and Cucumber, also addressed the revelation that the government has been considering privatising Channel 4, which is currently a publicly-owned, commercially-funded trust.



“The culture secretary John Whittingdale said in Edinburgh, ‘I’m not looking at privatising Channel 4’. And now it turns out, of course, and we know this – yes they are looking at privatising Channel 4 and the plans have been there for a long time.”