The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has submitted an official complaint to the BBC regarding Queen guitarist Brian May’s bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) documentary.
The TV documentary ‘Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers and Me’ aired on BBC Two on Friday, August 23.
AHDB said it raised concerns with the documentary before it was broadcast and spoke to the commissioning editors to raise issues regarding a “lack of balance” focused on four points.
These were:
- The claim that badgers play no part in the spread of bovine TB;
- The approach shown is new;
- That government policy, including culling, is not working;
- That Brian May is the only person trying to work collaboratively in this area.
“We also made sure the programme-makers were aware that the farm that worked with Brian May, as part of a project to remove bTB from its herd, had unfortunately suffered three significant TB breakdowns after filming ended in 2019,” AHDB said.
‘Factual issues’
On watching the final version of the documentary, AHDB said a number of factual issues remained.
These included:
- Claims that the badger cull is ineffective and not working;
- An implication that badgers do not play a role in the spread of bTB;
- A claim that bTB has not declined in Devon over the past five years;
- A claim that the herd at Gatcombe Farm was “rid” of bTB.
For all of these points, AHDB said there is “contradictory, robust evidence”, which has now been shared with the BBC for its consideration.
AHDB said it will update levy payers on the outcome of this complaint once it receives its response from the BBC.
