Melvyn Bragg has said Britain is becoming a stupid country, in part because its university system is being destroyed.
The broadcaster and Labour peer criticised the state of British higher education in an interview with the magazine Radio Times.
“We have, per capita, the best university system in the world, but it’s being – carelessly and utterly stupidly – destroyed very slowly,” he said. “We used to be the clever country and now we’re clearly the stupid country. Except for certain highlights.”
Bragg, the host of The South Bank Show and the presenter of Radio 4’s discussion programme In Our Time, told the magazine he saw some hope in the UK’s current television output, especially in the work of the actors Hugh Grant and Benedict Cumberbatch.
“Patrick Melrose and A Very English Scandal were sensationally good,” he said. “Those were great productions with main actors on top form. You could talk about the Redgrave-Olivier years – well, now you can talk about the Grant-Cumberbatch years in equal terms.”
Bragg, 78, also revealed he had recently spent some time in hospital. “I had a hip replacement. And after that I got pneumonia, which is still hanging on. It’s a bit of a pain.”
The broadcaster, officially known as Lord Bragg of Wigton after the Cumbria town where he grew up, was recently appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour, an elite group of 65 individuals recognised for their contribution to the Commonwealth.
Bragg, whose South Bank Show was aired by ITV for decades, told the Daily Mail this month that he had yet to see the network’s latest hit, Love Island.
“The popularity of series like Love Island show that we’re becoming increasingly eccentric and increasingly incompetent – in equal measure,” he said. “I mean to watch it. I haven’t yet, but I will. I always like to watch things that are very popular. Maybe I’ll get addicted.”