Outraged Mancunians are
hitting back after BBC presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, slammed Salford when talking
about the BBC’s MediaCityUK.
Clarkson, 51, said
Salford, in Greater Manchester, is a ‘small suburb with little to
offer beyond a Starbucks and a canal with ducks’.
He added: “Every
year we’d end up making a Christmas special from the Dog and Duck or the
nearest Arndale Centre.”
He also said he
would rather quit his job than move up to the BBC’s new venture in Salford.
BBC legend and It’s
A Knockout presenter, Stuart Hall, 81, has come to Salford’s defence with a
characteristically eccentric response, calling Clarkson ‘deluded’.
He said: “Does he
imagine that at the advance of effete southerners we retreat to our outside
lavatories with ripped-up copies of the News of the Screws?
“Manchester is a
seat of knowledge, a breeding ground for brains.”
Once again, the
so-called north/ south divide is highlighted and designer Peter Saville and
comedian Victoria Wood have defended Salford and Manchester.
Wood said she did
not really follow Clarkson’s career and that all she knows about him is that he
wears a denim jacket.
Mr Saville, who was
a designer for Factory Records, said: “Manchester is a great place for it to
be.”
I think Salford can
look after itself though. Northerners know the sorts of things Southerners
think about them and vice versa. It is the way it has always been.
The Today
Programme’s Evan Davis wrote an arguably patronising article following Clarkson’s comments, saying: “I have
been up there for the first time this week."
The heading to his
article on the BBC website said the ‘BBC should give Salford a try’. I’m not
sure how Salfordians will take that. They probably feel like they are coping
fine as they are.
Cllr Bernard
Lea, who will be Salford’s mayor in 2012-2013, said: “Having lived in Surrey
during my teenage years, I can appreciate the image seen by Southern Softies.
The reality is quite different.”
He added: “If I
were to use two words to describe his (Clarkson's) utterances they would be PITY and PRAT.
“A PITY he chose
to make an uninformed comment, and he has made himself look a right PRAT.”
I am from Cheshire
but I have spent plenty of time in Salford and I don’t even feel slightly
offended about comments like Clarkson’s.
Salford is a city
on the up and everyone who lives and works there should be proud of this.
Salford, in my
opinion, is not the most beautiful place in the world and yes, beauty is in the
eye of the beholder, however, that is a reason MediaCityUK will be a brilliant
thing for the city.
In fact, the plans
have already created hype in the area; there is more hope and people want to
come to live and work in the city because they see it as something which will
become better and better in coming years.
The argument
that there is more working talent in London and that the BBC might not produce
the same quality of TV as it does there is a valid one and it is not hard to
see why the young and gifted would want to leave the provinces to test
themselves in the country’s melting pot.
However, people
seem to be missing the point about this new venture. They are wondering, ‘What
can Salford do for the BBC?’ but the question should be, ‘What can the BBC do
for Salford?’
The BBC says that it is paid for by the whole of the UK and it needs to reflect the depth
and breadth of our culture.
It added that BBC
North will help meet the commitment to get as close to their audiences as
possible.
I doubt many
Northerners were not surprised when they heard the BBC would be moving several
of its departments to Salford but surely most people will
support something that will help to improve an area which still requires a leg-up.
