the times | Monday May 23 2022 2GM 3
News
lost my other dog.” Her 14-year-old
collie, Megan, went missing at about
11.30pm. Both dogs returned early on
Sunday but Freeland described the ex-
perience as extremely distressing.
As Johnny English, the bumbling spy
played by Atkinson, 67, in the franchise
of the same name, would — perhaps —
be aware, the nearby village of Colerne
hosts the 21st Signal Regiment at
Azimghur Barracks. Residents wrote
on a Facebook page that they “honest-
ly thought the base was under attack”.
One called for the RSPCA to investi-
gate Lucknam Park because of the fire-
works’ potential impact on the horses.
“It sounded like we were under attack
from Russia,” they wrote. “You deserve
to be shut down.”
Another resident who lives near theThe government will assess whether
the BBC’s audience complaints process
is safeguarding impartiality as part of a
review of the corporation.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secre-
tary, will this week announce the terms
of reference for the “mid-term charter
review”, which will examine the BBC’s
“governance and regulatory arrange-
ments” over the next year.
A government source said the review
would assess whether the BBC is com-
pliant with “editorial standards,
including impartiality requirements”.
It will determine whether the BBC’s
complaints procedure is fit for purpose
and if Ofcom, the media regulator, is
effective at holding it to account.
Ministers will be particularly hawk-
ish about whether impartiality is being
protected. Dorries has been critical of
the BBC’s “snobbish” outlook and
claimed, without evidence, that it has
displayed left-wing bias on important
issues, including Brexit.
She recently said BBC presenters
popular courses. Welsh was the eighth
most popular course this year in the UK
and the fastest-growing UK course in
2020.
Elliot Deady, a student at Essex
University, said the app had allowed
him to talk with German-speaking
exchange students. “I never would have
started learning another language in a
classroom environment,” he said. “It’s
quite daunting not knowing anything
and not knowing how easily you’ll pick
it up.” He does not expect to become
fluent solely from using the app but
would consider in-person classes when
he has learnt some basics.
Some school teachers use Duolingo
in their classes. Kathey Wanliss, the
acting head of the modern languages
department at Shortwood Teachers’
College in Kingston, Jamaica, said apps
were “great with vocabulary building”.
However, she said that they could
“easily create an illusion of the level
of language acquisition”.Britons keep up love affair
with language-learning apps
Callum TennantFrom Mr Bean to Blackadder and
Johnny English, carefully laid plans
have a way of going awry for Rowan
Atkinson’s characters.
And, in a quiet Cotswolds valley on
Saturday night, the actor’s efforts to
mark his girlfriend’s 40th birthday
with a spectacular fireworks display
appear to have backfired in a similar
fashion.
Terrified pets fled into the night and
some of the more startled two-legged
residents thought the local military
base might be under attack. It “sound-
ed like a heavy bomber group dropping
their payload”, one complained.
The party for Louise Ford, an
actress, was held at Lucknam Park
hotel and spa, a Palladian mansion
near Chippenham where 30 horses are
stabled so guests may be offered
“equine therapy”. The management
had warned people about the event,
posting in Facebook groups about
the firework display.
It began at 10pm. Terri
Freeland, 66, who lives four
miles from the venue, said:
“On Bonfire night and New
Year’s Eve you expect fire-
works and loud music and
take care of your dogs.
“On a Saturday even-
ing in May when I’m
watching Top Gun on the
telly totally engrossed I
can most certainly say
you absolutely do not
expect it. I’m not even a
local resident. I live on
Box Hill and there is a
huge valley in front of us
where the hotel is. It completely
startled me and was horrible. I just
didn’t know what to do.”
The doors of her house were
open when the fireworks started.
Her 18-month-old collie Bobby
ran outside and disappeared. “I
was wandering around in my dress-
ing gown, pyjamas and wellie boots
but whilst I was looking for Bobby, I
hotel said: “We’re in Thickwood and
our little dog... is still absolutely
petrified.
“I don’t want to be a party pooper
but a bit of noise consideration
wouldn’t go amiss.”
A third resident said: “Our
dog was absolutely terrified — we
back right on to Lucknam Park. We
had warned our teenage son to make
sure the dog was indoors at 9.45pm
(thanks for the warning) and until
fireworks finished but he phoned us to
come home from a night out as
the dog was so scared — he’d never
seen her like that and didn’t know what
to do.”
The hotel and representatives of
Atkinson did not respond to a request
for comment.Dorries turns spotlight on BBC ‘bias’
could not hide their “utter gutted
disappointment” when the UK voted to
leave the European Union.
Speaking on the BBC’s Newscast
podcast, she added that the corporation
had “accepted that it has a problem” on
impartiality because Tim Davie, the
director-general, had published a ten-
point plan on safeguarding neutrality.
The BBC, unlike other broadcasters,
makes its own rulings on audience
complaints through an executive com-
plaints unit. If viewers are dissatisfied
with the BBC’s response, they can ele-
vate their concerns to Ofcom.
Critics have noted that Ofcom sides
with the BBC in the vast majority of
complaints. Of the 185 complaints
examined last year after the “BBC
First” process was exhausted, none was
formally investigated.
Ofcom did, however, rebuke the BBC
in March over a bungled correction
when Sarah Smith, the former Scotland
editor, wrongly claimed that Alex
Salmond had called for Nicola
Sturgeon’s resignation.
The review will also examine theBBC’s market dominance, including in
local news and radio. Radiocentre, the
industry body for commercial radio,
has gripes about the dominance of
stations, including Radio 1 and Radio 2.
It recently launched a judicial review
of Ofcom’s decision to allow the BBC to
set up Radio 1 Dance, a digital station,
without a formal public interest test.
Ofcom will feed into the govern-
ment’s charter review with its own rec-
ommendations, which are set to be
published next month. It said that it
would “consider how the BBC could im-
prove its transparency in decision-
making and complaints-handling, in-
cluding in relation to due impartiality”.
The BBC said: “There is a normal
mid-term review which is built into the
charter, which we will engage with con-
structively based on facts, evidence and
the positive benefits the BBC delivers.”
Dorries also has plans to review the
licence fee with a view to abolishing it in- She will appoint a chairman to
lead an investigation into alternative
funding models, with a terms of refer-
ence expected to be published by July.
Jake Kanter Media Correspondent
A lockdown-inspired love affair with
learning new languages appears to be
here to stay, according to Duolingo.
The world’s most downloaded lan-
guage app had a 31 per cent rise in daily
users between January and March
compared with last year. It is used by
almost 50 million people a month.
Luis von Ahn, the company’s co-
founder and chief executive, told Yahoo
Finance Live: “We had a really, really
good quarter. We basically outperform-
ed our own expectations.”
A survey by the British Council in
2020 found that 10 per cent of UK
adults tried to learn a language in the
first Covid lockdown. Three quarters of
them used apps rather than traditional
methods.
Duolingo’s 2021 report said the app
had been downloaded more than
20 million times in the UK, with Span-
ish, French and German being the mostLucknam Park hotel and spa in Wiltshire, where Rowan Atkinson threw a party for
his girlfriend, Louise Ward, on Saturday. Residents were warned about the displayFireworks that sounded
‘like a bomber group’
left a Cotswolds valley
shaken up, writes
Dominic Kennedy
ALAMYAtkinson’s cunning party plan backfires