Re: [Swprograms] BBC E-mail: World Service soap Westway axed

[Daniel Say <say@xxxxxx>]

> Richard Cuff saw this story on BBC News Online and thought you
> should see it.
> ** Message **
> >From the BBCWS themselves...
> 
> ** World Service soap Westway axed **
> BBC World Service radio soap opera Westway, heard by millions of people worldwide, is to be axed.
> < http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4400735.stm >
----------
	They have their own site
   Linkname: Westway Home | BBC World Service
        URL:          
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/westway/index.shtml            
----------

And the actor's union, Equity, is furious.

 
X-URL: http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=625330&host=3&dir=61
Lines: 98

The Independent  (London, UK)

            Axed: soap with more followers than 'Coronation Street'

  By Ciar Byrne, Media Correspondent

    01 April 2005

   For eight years, radio listeners around the world have been gripped by
   tales of life and love in a west London medical centre. The plot has
   just thickened.

   From October, the BBC's World Service is axing Westway, its popular
   twice-weekly radio soap opera, claiming that it "just doesn't fit in"
   with a revamped schedule.

   It is difficult to estimate how many people listen to the serial,
   which has a loyal fan base from Uganda to Jamaica and Iran to Alaska.
   The actors' union Equity believes that between 15 million and 20
   million people tune in. The BBC's marketing department cites a much
   more conservative 1.7 million. In comparison, Coronation Street
   attracts an average of 13 million viewers, and 2.16 million people a
   week listen to The Archers on Radio 4.

   The decision to discontinue the radio serial from October has
   infuriated Equity, which believes it flies in the face of the
   commitment by the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, to greater
   diversity.

   Westway won the Commission for Racial Equality's award for Race in the
   Media in 2001 and recent plot lines have included a Muslim girl
   bullied at school for wearing a headscarf, an immigrant doctor who
   discovers she is HIV positive and the problems between Africans and
   Caribbeans living in London.

   Paul Bazeley, who plays the Westway Health Centre practice manager,
   Jamsheed Dastoor, said: "Westway covers so many issues that might be
   taboo in countries where people are listening. It's trying to present
   a view of modern city life that's honest and not idealised. It's also
   a diverse company of actors, with Nigerians, Asians and West Indians.
   Surely this is what public service broadcasting is all about?"

   Glen Barnham, Equity's national organiser for BBC television and
   radio, said: "We're shocked by the decision and we have written to
   Mark Thompson asking him to look at it again. He has been talking in
   terms of more popular drama and more diversity at the BBC. As far as
   diversity goes, Westway is far ahead of any other programme at the
   BBC, covering issues like asylum-seekers, Aids and same-sex
   relationships."

   A World Service spokeswoman said the serial was being dropped to make
   way for a new-look schedule for the English language service, which
   will focus on factual programmes during the week and arts at the
   weekend, including a new strand of world drama starting in 2006.
================
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