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Yes, the words "licence" and "television" in the title - I bet that you can guess what I am about to talk about here...
We take owning television sets, (or anything that is equipped to receive TV signals) for granted so much these days that to some people, living without a working TV set is like having limbs amputated - so why don't enough people think of the TV Licence as something a bit more precious than what it is generally associated with?
Most of pay Council Tax in order to receive local services in our communities, and it is due to our regular contributions that most of the services are made possible. We pay money for tickets to see shows at the theatre, the cinema and even DVDs from shops and online, and so what is wrong with paying for TV porgrammes that we see within reason?
And no, ITV, Channel 4 and the commercial television companies don't do programmes for nothing: every time you see a commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes a Tesco in the advert breaks of Coronation Street, a trip to Tesco reminds you when looking at the shelves that advertising goes towards the cost of the products that the supermarket sells, if you put a Tesco or a Kellogg's brand of Corn Flakes into your trolley. A shopping channel like QVC makes its money from the products its sells just like a shop does. It is a Television Licence rather than a BBC licence: in other words, you need one to watch Channel 4 but one doesn't need one to listen to BBC Radio 4.
And if you don't have a TV set, DVD, video, computer, mobile phone or anything else that has TV signals on it, if you can prove it, one can opt out of paying the £159.00 or so a year, but no matter what, they will still be paying VAT for products towards advertising them on television and elsewhere. I personally prefer to pay "directly" rather than via some third party organisations for most items to be honest - online shopping can sometimes drag you from pillar to post in that way.
The Television Licence (not to mention TV Licensing themselves) has always seemed to have lucrative cultural currency in Great Britain, especially from the 1970s onwards, just like what one can be allowed to see on it as a result - the Bristol and later Darlington-based organisation is famous for the "now and again" appearance of "the Bogeyman is coming to get you" television commercials, reminding Mr and Mrs Public that the cost of a new Licence is cheaper than a big fine, and the "Charley Live" PIFs from around 1977-ish, containing white vans with aerials and gadgets on top, and probably a house brick-sized remote control resting in the glove compartment, insisting that the people they were about to visit were at home watching Columbo. They must be psychic if that was the case...
In popular culture, even fictional characters have been caught with their trousers down with their television sets: looking at Coronation Street's 62 year (and nearly 11,000 episode) history for example, they have had a good go at "satirising" the TV Licence cometh, especially when Bill Podmore was in the chair. The incumbent regulars have had their fair share of them over the past few decades.
Former Rovers' landlady Annie Walker was caught without one back in February 1976 by Brian Howe from the TV Licensing Detection Agency because her previous Licence had expired on St Andrew's Day in 1975 - and her only crime it seemed, was to watch Granada Reports while Howe was visiting her. It was also the very first episode to be produced by Bill Podmore after an eight-year stint in the Director's chair.
Earlier on in that decade, Stan and Hilda Ogden were caught without one back, and as luck would have it, they went from having a TV set with no Licence to having a Licence with no TV set. Cue broken set in the corner. I am not too certain, but their "TV possession storyline" from around 1971 could be linked to that.
Fast-forward to April 1984, and Jack and Vera Duckworth (as well as son Terry and his "here today, gone tomorrow" female friend of the time) had got a knock on the door and answered it to a pinstripe-suited Mr Tucker from the TV Licensing organisation, and his silent uncredited assistant, asking to see the "evidence" both in mahogany in the corner of the room, and also on paper.
"Have you got both a TV and a Licence as they are supposed to go together like a pair of shoes?" they might have well said to them. They had the set, but not the legal permission to use it. They did go to court a few weeks later, and coughed up a renewed Licence at their local Post Office. Surely, if you can remember to purchase a book of first class stamps, then surely you can remember to pay for 365 days' of television viewing in advance?
Around that same time as the Duckworths' storyline, an incumbent colour TV Licence was roughly the same amount back then as a monochrome Licence would be these days, ironically enough (and I am surprised that black and white ones still exist despite practically everyone using colour sets, and the fact that everyone would have had paid the same price, be it, black and white or colour).
Moving forwards towards January and February 1996, Tricia Armstrong, the stereotyped single mother who was played by Tracy Brabin (Jo Cox's successor as a Member of Parliament and is now West Yorkshire's Mayor), lived at Deirdre Barlow's old house at number one. Tricia was sent to a Wentworth-alike prison in Manchester for not paying her Licence for around a week. "If I could afford to pay the fine, then I could afford to pay for the Licence", Armstrong defensively said in response to the police knocking on her door with a warrant. I bet that the Street has had more storylines based on this in its 62-year history.
(Continued...)
We take owning television sets, (or anything that is equipped to receive TV signals) for granted so much these days that to some people, living without a working TV set is like having limbs amputated - so why don't enough people think of the TV Licence as something a bit more precious than what it is generally associated with?
Most of pay Council Tax in order to receive local services in our communities, and it is due to our regular contributions that most of the services are made possible. We pay money for tickets to see shows at the theatre, the cinema and even DVDs from shops and online, and so what is wrong with paying for TV porgrammes that we see within reason?
And no, ITV, Channel 4 and the commercial television companies don't do programmes for nothing: every time you see a commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes a Tesco in the advert breaks of Coronation Street, a trip to Tesco reminds you when looking at the shelves that advertising goes towards the cost of the products that the supermarket sells, if you put a Tesco or a Kellogg's brand of Corn Flakes into your trolley. A shopping channel like QVC makes its money from the products its sells just like a shop does. It is a Television Licence rather than a BBC licence: in other words, you need one to watch Channel 4 but one doesn't need one to listen to BBC Radio 4.
And if you don't have a TV set, DVD, video, computer, mobile phone or anything else that has TV signals on it, if you can prove it, one can opt out of paying the £159.00 or so a year, but no matter what, they will still be paying VAT for products towards advertising them on television and elsewhere. I personally prefer to pay "directly" rather than via some third party organisations for most items to be honest - online shopping can sometimes drag you from pillar to post in that way.
The Television Licence (not to mention TV Licensing themselves) has always seemed to have lucrative cultural currency in Great Britain, especially from the 1970s onwards, just like what one can be allowed to see on it as a result - the Bristol and later Darlington-based organisation is famous for the "now and again" appearance of "the Bogeyman is coming to get you" television commercials, reminding Mr and Mrs Public that the cost of a new Licence is cheaper than a big fine, and the "Charley Live" PIFs from around 1977-ish, containing white vans with aerials and gadgets on top, and probably a house brick-sized remote control resting in the glove compartment, insisting that the people they were about to visit were at home watching Columbo. They must be psychic if that was the case...
In popular culture, even fictional characters have been caught with their trousers down with their television sets: looking at Coronation Street's 62 year (and nearly 11,000 episode) history for example, they have had a good go at "satirising" the TV Licence cometh, especially when Bill Podmore was in the chair. The incumbent regulars have had their fair share of them over the past few decades.
Former Rovers' landlady Annie Walker was caught without one back in February 1976 by Brian Howe from the TV Licensing Detection Agency because her previous Licence had expired on St Andrew's Day in 1975 - and her only crime it seemed, was to watch Granada Reports while Howe was visiting her. It was also the very first episode to be produced by Bill Podmore after an eight-year stint in the Director's chair.
Earlier on in that decade, Stan and Hilda Ogden were caught without one back, and as luck would have it, they went from having a TV set with no Licence to having a Licence with no TV set. Cue broken set in the corner. I am not too certain, but their "TV possession storyline" from around 1971 could be linked to that.
Fast-forward to April 1984, and Jack and Vera Duckworth (as well as son Terry and his "here today, gone tomorrow" female friend of the time) had got a knock on the door and answered it to a pinstripe-suited Mr Tucker from the TV Licensing organisation, and his silent uncredited assistant, asking to see the "evidence" both in mahogany in the corner of the room, and also on paper.
"Have you got both a TV and a Licence as they are supposed to go together like a pair of shoes?" they might have well said to them. They had the set, but not the legal permission to use it. They did go to court a few weeks later, and coughed up a renewed Licence at their local Post Office. Surely, if you can remember to purchase a book of first class stamps, then surely you can remember to pay for 365 days' of television viewing in advance?
Around that same time as the Duckworths' storyline, an incumbent colour TV Licence was roughly the same amount back then as a monochrome Licence would be these days, ironically enough (and I am surprised that black and white ones still exist despite practically everyone using colour sets, and the fact that everyone would have had paid the same price, be it, black and white or colour).
Moving forwards towards January and February 1996, Tricia Armstrong, the stereotyped single mother who was played by Tracy Brabin (Jo Cox's successor as a Member of Parliament and is now West Yorkshire's Mayor), lived at Deirdre Barlow's old house at number one. Tricia was sent to a Wentworth-alike prison in Manchester for not paying her Licence for around a week. "If I could afford to pay the fine, then I could afford to pay for the Licence", Armstrong defensively said in response to the police knocking on her door with a warrant. I bet that the Street has had more storylines based on this in its 62-year history.
(Continued...)
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