WHAT is BBC Scotland for? What should its priorities be when money is getting tighter? Is it making the right kind of programmes for a Scottish audience, and is it making them in the right way?

Those are the kind of questions that were on the agenda a few weeks ago when I was asked to a meeting of BBC Scotland’s Audience Council, which advises the corporation on how it is performing for audiences. I gave my views; the council gave theirs, and a number of themes emerged. They are the issues BBC Scotland should be tackling in the years to come.

The first concerns drama. The BBC in London is currently working on a number of dramas for 2016, including one set in the world of newspapers written by Mike Bartlett, who created Doctor Foster (which should be interesting). But a lot of the upcoming drama from London reflects similar problems with BBC Scotland’s drama output - problems we discussed at the Audience Council meeting.

One of the problems is there is too much crime drama. Crime is the dominant theme in the new commissions, and in Scotland it practically excludes everything else. One question that emerged in the council meeting was: where is the drama that reflects lives of ordinary Scots rather than criminals? The message to the commissioners is: fewer dead bodies please.

How drama is commissioned was another of the subjects that came up at the meeting. John Cleese once told me how Monty Python got made – someone at the BBC liked the idea and told Cleese to go away and make it. But speak to writers and producers now (and some of the independent programme makers who spoke to the council) and the consensus is that commissioning is now much more complicated and slower than it used to be. It is layer upon layer of indecision and delay, and that is hardly likely to be the best spark to creativity.

There were some other concerns about BBC Scotland – and indeed broadcasting and journalism generally – that came up at the council meeting, and among them was the importance of arts coverage. The subject of Newsnight Review, which was made in Scotland, was discussed and while it was never the best example of exciting arts coverage, the fact it has been axed illustrates the wider point – books, cinema and music have been pushed to the edges of the BBC.

The suspicion is this has happened because of a greater emphasis on news (on TV and online), but almost everyone at the meeting, including me, was agreed specialist coverage of the arts is important, but under threat, at the BBC and the wider media.

We also agreed on another thing. I was at the BBC a few days after the death of Ian Bell, and his name came up as an example of why people look to The Herald and other media brands once the headlines have sunk in. It may be that in the days of tighter resources at the BBC, it is more in-depth, detailed coverage that is squeezed out, but that is not the way forward. Writing and broadcasting about Scottish life is not just about reporting what is happening, but also telling us why it happened in the first place.