The 20th century gave the world a unique institution known as the BBC, that soon became the pinnacle of broadcasting. Nearly every radio network that sprang up in its wake emulated it. All India Radio and, later on, Radio Pakistan, were modelled on the BBC, but both deviated to become the mouthpiece of the government in power, thus turning away from their main objective which was to be a real public service organisation.

My association with the Beeb (as it is known) goes back a long way. I well remember a grey September afternoon, in 1953, when I entered the portals of the Broadcasting House, in Langham place, and was awe-struck, not so much by its grand reception hall, a rotunda, but by the respect and dignity offered to anyone who came in. It mattered not whether it was the Bishop of Colchester, a minion of the Salvation Army or a drama student like myself who was only there to deliver a letter to the Head of Features. All were treated with unostentatious courtesy.

Before I went to England I had spent a year working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. My experience stood me in good stead because I was able to find some freelance work with the BBC Overseas Services which sustained me during my student days at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. My first professional job was to act in a play on BBC television when television was in its infancy.

The half a century that followed the Second World War was the golden period of the Beeb. Its Radio was not one radio, but four radios catering to different sections of Society. It pandered to all tastes without becoming tasteless. Radio Three, of which I was an avid listener, was, to my mind, the finest example of refined, cultured broadcasting. It gave, in a profound manner, any dissertation, from the mysteries of the Tutankhamun tomb to the walkways of Worcestershire. The broadcasters were the most knowledgeable people of Britain.

Over the years I worked for both BBC Radio and BBC Television (I and II) on many occasions and always found it to be a most agreeable experience. The producers that I worked with were helpful and able, which made the process of rehearsals a pleasant and simulating activity. I loved radio work and I learned a lot about acting from radio plays. On radio, you require a different technique because you have to evoke a character without the help of your face -- and your personality -- to register grief or joy, anguish or surprise. You have to rely entirely on your voice and your inflection. It was a marvel to see how the top-notch actors of the time, with whom I had the privilege to work with, moulded the timbre and texture of their voice. And I never saw any of them, Ernest Thesiger, Michael Horden, Alan Badel, Stephen Murray, Harold Kasket, Mary Morris, Athene Seyler etc., assume any airs.

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But something happened to the British Broadcasting Corporation towards the end of the 20th century. It began to play the ‘ratings’ game. In so doing, it dropped its standards and pursued a course aimed at becoming an empire. Its competitive impulses led it to add to its domain BBC3 and BBC4, a 24 hour News channel, and many other projects.

Empires and emperors invariably lose track of their original purpose. Today, the Beeb is a monolith. It has twenty thousand people on its payroll and a revenue of £5 billion and yet it does not think it is enough to do what it thinks it ought to do. Today, it is on the horns of a dilemma: how to expand its income on the one hand and, at the same time, not to compete with its rival commercial channels.

News and current affairs have long been the powerhouse of the Beeb. The breadth and depth of its coverage -- and its objectivity -- was exemplary. The Tories always felt a bit uncomfortable with the BBC news coverage and its analytical current affairs programmes because they felt that the Beeb was inclined towards leftism. The conservatives have always been the Beeb’s traditional enemies (In a lunch I once had with Lord Windlesham, the titular head of Associated Television, he referred to the Beeb as "that bunch of Bolshies"). That bias has been increasing and now that the Tories have been returned to power with a substantial majority, the BBC is in real trouble. The government has decided to issue a green paper which will examine its inept governance and investigate routes for its privatisation.

The Beeb has many enemies. Its commercial rivals in the media and the free market ideologues loathe its very existence. The Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has accused the corporation of Imperialism. Tories worried about ‘Imperialism’? Well, I never.

Mr Osborne has taken the line that the BBC has had a very serious impact on regional newspapers. The print media are having a rough time and there is a serious danger that they will close down. The national newspapers are also being affected. The BBC, he feels, is now a serious threat.

A few decades ago the editor of a national newspaper did not lose any sleep over the BBC website, but then their readers began to get all the news online. The circulation of the newspapers fell and they began to feel the pinch. Meanwhile, the BBC website has become more like a regular newspaper with articles, written by some of the best known brains, appearing along with recipes and sports and many other features.

Even the editor of the New Statesman, (the intellectual face of the left) has questioned the BBC’s method of running a website. Why should it try to compete with national newspapers and magazines? he asks. In his view, the Chancellor is right to force the BBC to justify its purpose and overhaul its practices -- and do less.

The Beeb, seriously alarmed by the government’s intentions, has no other choice but to curtail its services. The general view of all the pundits in England is that the BBC’s 24 hour channel will be scrapped; there will be less in-house productions, and classical and period drama, which it produced to perfection, will be a thing of the past.

The Tories will be happy for the Beeb to go commercial. The Beeb has resisted it for many, many years. Its strength lay in its Charter which proclaimed its independence from the government as well as from the market forces. Alas! the Charter runs out in the beginning of 2017 when the Tories will still be in office. It saddens me to think that the BBC’s days are numbered.