Public Banned from the BBC

It seems extraordinary that the council couldn't just issue a temporary licence or a temp exemption, pending a proper sorting out. It's not as if they are dealing with some dodgy nightclub, or a rave. Sounds like a severe breakdown of common sense to me.

Or perhaps both council and BBC were paralysed by fear of litigation. Once you've realised that (a) a licence is required; and (b) one has not been issued, what happens if you go ahead anyway and someone is injured? Is the council liable for failing to properly exercise its supervisory responsibility, or is the BBC for failing to have the right chit? I guess once the licence is issued, the risk of incident is unchanged, but the council is in the clear.

It's also causing problems for non-BBC programmes shot at TVC. Apparently Paul O' Grady has been told he can't play his organ.

These restrictions I hear of seem to be getting increasingly OTT...

I hadn't heard about any of this licensing business until a few days ago, and now all of a sudden it appears to be having a prominent impact on shows or aspects of shows which I thought were always running within the rules, as it were.

There's no answer to that...!

The position seems to be that both the BBC and Hammersmith & Fulham Council thought they were playing by the rules, but then the legal departments of both organisations read the rules again and came to the conclusion that a licence was needed.

I love it when a thread title way more dramatic than the truth of the subject. There's obviously a lot of Tabloid Headline writers in this forum...

I agree wholeheartedly. Why bother causing such a fuss now when it has been fine in the past?

Well although Paul played his organ making his anger along the way shown on camera. The studio audience were not allowed to sing to anything he played.

He also launched into a rant at the start of the show, making the whole thing sound like a laughing stock.

I wonder how long it will take the BBC to get a licence

Then at the end during the credits he started sining and was dragged off by 2 'policemen'.

I wonder why Louis Walsh didn't dress up with the Egyptian theme going on. I wasn't home in time to catch the very start of the interview.

Those 'policemen' had been brought in at the beginning of the show and stole his instrument.

From what I gathered the only thing they weren't allowed to do was let the audience sing. Other than that everything seemed normal unless they just broke all the rules lol.

i know of another cases where a broadcaster and a council have come unstuck when it comes to licences. it seems the recent changes have taken many by surprise.

as for temp licences - i don't know what specific licence tv centre would require - but i do know for one type of entertainment licence, you can only have 12 events covered within a year on a temp licence - with gaps of x hours between events etc etc.