When Romesh Ranganathan asks at the beginning of the film what the BBC has actually done for him, the answer does not come through statistics or explanations of public service broadcasting. Instead, he sets off from the Queen Vic pub on a journey through BBC programmes, radio, news, sport and entertainment.
He moves through EastEnders, Casualty, BBC News, Radio 1Xtra, Wimbledon and the stage of Strictly Come Dancing, meeting almost 90 familiar faces and characters along the way. Among them are Chris Martin, Claudia Winkleman, David Jason, Greg James, Alan Carr, Cate Blanchett, Clive Myrie, Daleks, Hey Duggee and contestants from The Traitors.
The film What has the BBC ever done for me? was directed by Dougal Wilson, known for Paddington in Peru and his work on John Lewis Christmas campaigns. The campaign launched on social media, while its television premiere took place during the World Cup final.
The idea directly revisits a BBC advert from 1985, in which John Cleese, after buying a television licence, asked in a pub what the BBC had actually given him for his money. Familiar guests including David Attenborough, Terry Wogan and David Jason provided the answers. The advert itself was inspired by the What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us? scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
More than four decades later, the same question carries greater weight. The number of households paying the BBC television licence continues to decline, with around half a million additional households opting out during the past year alone. At the same time, the public broadcaster is competing for audience attention with streaming platforms, YouTube and TikTok, while preparing for the renewal of the charter that defines the framework for its operations.
That is why the film shifts tone near the end. Backstage at Strictly Come Dancing, Ranganathan meets Louis Theroux beside a large switch capable of turning the BBC off, with the reminder that none of what the audience has just seen exists by default.
After the campaign launched, Ranganathan explained that he does not see the BBC as an institution without flaws, but strongly believes in its continued existence and its role in British society. For him, that connection is also personal, as the series Goodness Gracious Me helped him imagine a future for himself in comedy when he was a child.
What has the BBC ever done for me? ultimately arrives at the same answer as its 1985 predecessor: once everything starts being listed, the question of the BBC’s value becomes considerably harder than it seemed at the beginning.
