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More than 30 years have passed since Tim Westwood joined the BBC, 12 since he left and three since Guardian and BBC journalists reported on allegations of abuse by a man considered by the corporation to be the voice of hip hop. Then this week, some of the many concerns raised during his 19 years working there were detailed in the latest edition of one of the BBC’s weightiest and longest-running series, Official Reports into Men We Employ Behaving Very Badly.
Westwood’s career at the Beeb ended in 2013, amid a flurry of accusations and a sense of deja vu best summarised as “oh God, not another one”. But the 174-page report is well worth reading, not just for what it says about the BBC but, as so often with the media, what it says about attitudes in Britain.
First, there’s the heartbreaking testimony from so many young women, mainly young Black women – claims of abuse that they say left them feeling so awful they blamed themselves or ended up contemplating suicide. Many did not realise the alleged behaviour was wrong until they were much older and admitted they didn’t report it at the time as they feared they would not be believed or would be blamed. The worst allegations are redacted because of ongoing police investigations. Westwood has denied all allegations of inappropriate behaviour and says he has not had the opportunity to answer the allegations, partly because of the ongoing police investigation.
Then there was the apparent blind-eye turning to let’s just call it dodgy behaviour by a man who was not only considered a star, but was one of just two BBC presenters in 1997 to have, according to BBC research “made an impact with young Black and Asian listeners”. Yes there are the many junior staff members who complained of bullying and harassment but ended up being moved instead of the main man, but there is also in this scandal the extra spice of the BBC’s patronising efforts to be not only down with the kids but down with Black and minority kids. Let’s call it the “Ali G factor”.
Westwood, the public school-educated son of an Anglican bishop turned pirate radio DJ, joined BBC Radio 1 in 1994 to launch the UK’s first national hip-hop radio show. He was described as a “dominant force” in rap music, a genre popular among the young people, particularly Black ones, who didn’t listen to the BBC. Both of the BBC Radio 1 controllers in charge during Westwood’s tenure mentioned the need for the BBC to attract this demographic. The Radio 1 controller between 1998 and 2001 described Westwood as being “bilingual”, able to speak to BBC management in a language they understood and could also “authentically connect” with a young minority audience. Westwood’s bad language and sexualised commentary was, according to a BBC executive quoted in the report “a sort of swaggering hip hop cartoon character”. When asked in 2017 for the highlights of his time running the station, Matthew Bannister started with “Westwood’s rammed stage at the Notting Hill carnival”.
So, in summary, the BBC hired the white, middle-class son of a vicar who affected the vulgar language of rappers (and once met the Notorious BIG and was, sort of, friends with Pharrell Williams) in an effort to increase cultural representation and appeal to Black and Asian listeners on the national broadcaster. Let that sink in. Could there be a greater example of the dangers of Auntie throwing all caution to the wind to be down with the kids, kids she feels are not her own, kids she doesn’t understand, kids she apparently made little genuine effort to understand?
The report leads to many conclusions, but one that seems inescapable is how much the BBC still needs diversity among its staff. It must be obvious this does not mean middle-aged posh white boys pretending to be Black. It means more people of colour, some of them minority women.
The problem of under-representation in the media is not unique to the BBC and at least the corporation has made strides to get better. In 2019 Lorna Clarke, a Black woman, became first, controller of pop and then director of music at the BBC. But despite a target of 20% minority ethnic staff, just 17% of its staff are not white.
The BBC response to this latest report shows that some things have been learned since the run of scandals going back to Savile in 2011. In a statement that outlined changed processes since and promised to do better, the BBC admitted that it had for too long “been too siloed [and] deferential to high profile individuals”. New processes for complaints to allow allegations to be looked at together rather than piecemeal are also in place. A review into its broader culture launched by Samir Shah, its first minority ethnic chair as well as a distinguished former journalist, will be produced by the end of this year.
This review should consider the culture of silence around inappropriate behaviour by many powerful men, some of whom were moulded and feted by the BBC. But it should also address the lazy thinking that led to this scandal, this trauma – continuing for so many victims – while everyone looked the other way.
The problem with saying “not again” is that we keep on having to say it.
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Jane Martinson is a Guardian columnist
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