Abstract
The relationship between British government and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is once more under scrutiny as both the BBC's funding mechanism and its entire mission are to be reviewed in the next few years. This article examines the attitude of the Labour governments of Harold Wilson towards the BBC in the run-up to the 1966 White Paper on Broadcasting and asks whether Wilson's commitment to modernise British institutions extended to the BBC. Using archive material from government sources and the BBC, the article argues that government policy was affected by Wilson's contradictory approach to the BBC as well as by the deteriorating state of the British economy which led the government to apply constant pressure on the licence fee. Reflecting on the implications for television policy in the future, the article concludes that the Wilson governments' legacy towards the BBC was one of electoralism and pragmatism rather than innovation or transformation.
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