As the row over Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead continues, it looks as if the BBC has opted for the worst of all possible worlds. The corporation has just announced that the Radio 1 Chart Show will not the play the song in full when it enters the top 40 on Sunday (it is currently on track to reach number 3) but will broadcast “a short clip” during “a news item explaining why the song is in the charts”.
Here’s the full statement:
The BBC finds this campaign distasteful but does not believe the record should be banned. On Sunday, the Radio 1 Chart Show will contain a news item explaining why the song is in the charts during which a short clip will be played as it has been in some of our news programmes.
Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper adds in a blog post:
Nobody at Radio 1 wishes to cause offence but nor do I believe that we can ignore the song in the chart show, which is traditionally a formal record of the biggest selling singles of the week. That in turn means that all songs in the chart become an historic fact.
I’ve therefore decided exceptionally that we should treat the rise of the song, based as it is on a political campaign to denigrate Lady Thatcher’s memory, as a news story. So we will play a brief excerpt of it in a short news report during the show which explains to our audience why a 70-year-old song is at the top of the charts. Most of them are too young to remember Lady Thatcher and many will be baffled by the sound of the Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz.
In attempting to please everyone, it looks as if the BBC will please no one.
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