It's our ball and yes you can play with it

Britain has three soft powers which enable us to maintain influence around the world: The BBC, the Royal Family, and the Premier League.

So said Lord Karan Bilimoria recently – founder of Cobra Beer , President of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) , and a chap who I have a lot of time for since seeing him talk at the The RSA (The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce) in May.

I've been thinking about this statement a lot recently, with the death of the Queen and the deftly choreographed state funeral which was broadcast by the BBC to billions of people around the world.

With David Beckham showing a very British dedication to fair queuing in the run-up to the event – unlike SOME WE COULD MENTION – you even have a bit of football in the mix.

What I hope came across to this global audience during the funeral - the most-watched TV event in history - was how to do things?properly.

Even The Telegraph called the BBC’s coverage flawless – there’s a first. And the Daily Mail said it was spectacular. Pass the smelling salts!

213 cameras, showing beautiful shots from way, way up high in Westminster Abbey; capturing the mood along the route to Windsor Castle. Even honing in on a little eight-legged friend who scurried across the top of the casket.

Did you see any cables or camera operators or notice any jarring moments as the director cut between multiple locations? Nope. The pre-production on this has been going on for...years.

Huw Edwards , anchoring hours of coverage actually fell silent for long periods of time, trusting the audience to be grownups who could understand the solemnity of events without needing it spoonfed to them.

The creative industries in this country are worth ￡71bn according to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport , and it’s not just for financial reasons they need protecting – it’s for our sky-high levels of quality too.

To have this state funeral as a benchmark to work to is something to be treasured. It’s not simply about budget, it’s about an ingrained devotion to creating something?good?which you’ll see across our nation's creative output, from TV and radio to film, theatre, print and digital.

It’s why – excuse my language – I often say internally that we’re not here to throw shit at the internet. It's why we delete dozens of requests each week to put low-grade content on our blog.

It’s why we run work experience programmes with schools and graduates, to pass on our own learning and encourage excellence in others just starting out.

And it’s why we like to upskill the people we work with – not hug the knowledge tightly to ourselves and say, ‘It’s my ball, you can’t play with it.'

It's all because we're part of something brilliant and bigger, and it's up to us to pass on this brilliance so we can all create?good?work that's the envy of the world. OK - I'm going to stop there before I start blasting out the National Anthem and weeping into my Union Jack hankie...

This was first published as my monthly Letter from the Editor. For more Founder musings and our regular mailshot Create Grow Learn, sign up right here.