[The BBC] was being semi-seriously bracketed with 'Parliament, Monarchy, Church and the Holy Ghost

The BBC was not merely a national institution but a powerful and definitive expression of national will and character. ... With guaranteed funding from a mandatory licence fee, and privileged access to a captive market, it enjoyed resources and opportunities unmatched anywhere else in the world, and within a few years it was being semi-seriously bracketed with 'Parliament, Monarchy, Church and the Holy Ghost.' By the end of the Second World War, it had become 'an additional established church, a source of authority over the language, an arbiter of national taste, a national musical impresario and a re-invigorator of national drama and song.

D. Sandbrook, Never had it so good (2005), 379