There are some who don’t have much respect for the BBC (like my Dad). There are also those who feel the £131.50 that it costs every TV owning home is too much money.

I don’t share either of those views – when you compare the Beeb at £131.50 a year to Sky at £40-some-odd a month, I’d say the Beeb is well worth it. To be honest, for me, I’d pay the money for the Today programme alone and when you add to that the plethora of other fantastic programmes the Beeb brings to us then the money seems a paltry sum.

Just take a show like ‘Coast’. DM and I watched that avidly and soaked up its stunning photography and information it contained. We’ve been entertained by Jonathan Ross, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Balderdash and Piffle, some of the wonderful evening programming on Radio 2…..well, to be honest, I love the Beeb all together. I am a devotee.

What I’m working up to here is that we’ve been watching a BBC 4 show called ‘Soul Deep’ on Friday nights. You see, I don’t see how this kind of show would have been made without an institution like the Beeb. Who would imagine that it would have enough commercial appeal to warrant a programme-maker investing in it? I’d place money that no-one outside the Beeb would have brought this wonderful show to life.

Last night’s show was based around James Brown/funk and skipped through the work of the Temptations, Parliament, Marvin Gaye and a whole lot more. I’m learning things about some of my long-term idols that I had no idea about. I’ve seen precious footage (both performing and recording) of the artists whose work shaped much of my love of music. I’ve heard songs I’ve never heard before and been exposed to artists I’ve not encountered before.

Last week’s show spent some time on an artist called James Carr – despite having an extensive collection of soul music, I’d never even heard of James Carr, even though I knew the track they used on the show (The Dark End Of The Street) and know Freedom Train – perhaps because I have bought mainly Stax and Atlantic artists and he was on Kent I think, having looked him up on Amazon. So, I’ve learned stuff from seeing the show that will enrich my life in the future because I intend to buy what I can by this man!

I wholeheartedly throw my support behind the website campaign for a DVD of the series. I’d buy it.

David told me last night that his first soul album that he owned was ‘What’s going on’ by Marvin Gaye. He bought it because he felt the need to educate himself about soul music and asked a friend who was a soul lover what he should buy as the ‘definitive’ soul album…..all I can say is that could so easily have gone horribly wrong – I mean if he’d asked a different friend, he may have ended up with a Simply Red album!!!!! (Simply Dead as they’re known in our house – I have to force myself not to hold owning ‘Stars’ against several of my friends.) Thank goodness he asked a person with obvious taste. I shudder to think – it could have been all sorts of lesser mortals but thankfully it was Marvin. Phew.

I’ve been looking at the BBC website for info on the show and find that we’re seeing a repeat (it was first broadcast last year) so it slipped my radar first time around. Now there’s another thing, the BBC website is quite possibly the finest reference site in existence!

The shot? Well, in case you’d not already worked it out, it’s one of my now legendary cack shots. My only excuse is it's late, I've had a long day and worked hard....I simply ran out of time for a pic, despite having my planned story in my head all day. I needed something BBC for what I wanted to say and the only thing I could find was a row of BBC (Delia) cook books (see, I totally REST MY CASE) on the sparkling work surface in the kitchen – sparkling because when I came in from mowing the lawn this afternoon, I found DM in the kitchen polishing!

So, keep on keeping on to the Beeb – you’re worth every last penny of my £131.50.

Last year, I was getting into a bunfight with a 'guest'....