Plaster

The British media's answer to Henry Kissinger continues proximity talks to see what can be salvaged from the Top Gear car crash.

Yesterday Alan Yentob paraded for snappers with James May, on the Entwistle piazza at Broadcasting House. Today he mounted the steps of Davy's Wine Bar at White City for a balcony lunch with Richard Hammond.

Dramatic exit

Farewell, too, to the passionate Ben Stephenson, pumper of the pipeline of Original British Drama for the BBC. He's off to make a new life in Los Angeles, after a steady number of trips funded by Auntie. He'll be back, no doubt, for the launch of London Spy, a drama series written by his partner Tom Rob Smith, and maybe for The Farm, a Tom Rob Smith thriller optioned by BBC Films.

One last (?) Ben commission announced yesterday - a new work by Stephen Poliakoff, who, by my reckoning has contributed 15 single dramas or series to BBC since 1977. There have been seven BBC programmes on tv and radio dedicated to analysis of his brilliance.

Gnashing of teeth

Another saying farewell to BBC News in the Easter Exodus of Expertise is Anthony Massey. He's had a solid career in Newsgathering, on the home and foreign desks, and on the road, but I'm afraid he's unlikely to bust the DG limit on pay-offs of £150k.

Compare and contrast that with the financial fortunes of the man who bit Anthony's arm in 1988, Mark Thompson. Anthony sought disciplinary proceedings at the time, but was dissuaded. Mark went on to peak at a DG salary of £838k, the biggest public service deal in 2010, accruing a pension pot of £374k when he left Auntie in 2012. His BBC pension will be slightly dented by the infamous "broken service", when he went on work experience at Channel 4, but I'll wager it'll be bigger than Mr Massey's.  Thommo's total package at the New York Times this year was $4.5m.

Sweary

Ace piece of work from Sky News...

 

Business Card Bonanza

A little deckchair movement today, on the Good Ship BBC. BBC Technology is to be renamed BBC Engineering, a title last used in 1993, when it was renamed BBC Resources.

It will not be lead, however, by a Director of Engineering, but by the current Chief Technology Officer, Matthew Postgate.

Meanwhile, BBC Future Media (nee New Media & Technology 2000, changed name by deed pool to Future Media & Technology 2007) is to be renamed BBC Digital, and will still be led by Ralph Rivera, re-styled Director Digital. Where this leaves James Purnell, Director of Strategy and Digital, is not clear, though presumably it is to him, 'cos he made the announcement.

Goodbyeee

The doctor who unwittingly gave us one of the top names in TV comedy has died.

Dr Eric Sutton Blackadder, of Pittenweem, a village on the Fife coast, was in a nearby nursing home, and died on March 18, at the age of 87.

He was the BBC's Chief Medical Officer in 1982, when Richard Curtis, Rowan Atkinson and John Lloyd were first working on The Black Adder. He said he knew something was up at the time, as he was being teased in the senior management dining rooms. "The banter went on for months and I remember asking my secretary to see if she could find out if my name was being used in television."

In 1983, the Doctor and his wife Jean went to a preview screening of the first two episodes. "We were invited to the Greenwood Theatre and wined and dined with the cast. Then they sat us down in front of a large television screen and ran through the first two episodes and watched my reaction very closely."

Apparently neither Dr Blackadder or his wife were impressed.  He tried to persuade Alasdair Milne, then Director General, to re-name the show. "I spoke to the BBC solicitors, but was told that I had no copyright in my name".

The following year, he left the BBC to become group medical director of BUPA.

Scrutiny

The joy of an increased salary for new BBC World Service boss Fran Unsworth will be dulled by the news of an NAO team coming in to look at the books in 2015. We're almost up to the first year of operation under licence-fee funding, and tracking costs (and income) across BBC News and Worldwide doesn't look any simpler than it was under direct FCO subsidy.

She'll have to square an odd circle, where James Harding makes his News "efficiencies" by a redundancy programme that seems to have attracted a large number of hacks with skills and experience in foreign news this year (and more to come as Newsgathering interviews World Affairs correspondents for their own jobs) against promises made from Patten and Thompson that the BBC would invest more than Government was prepared to supply.

The NAO is also having a look at the management of projects in general. This may scoop up Project Aurora, Project Smart and the News computer deal. Happy days.

Hold that...

No place like Islington for the posh-pound-shop, Tiger. Often described as a cross between Woolworths and IKEA, the franchise started in Denmark, and was taken up in the UK by Danish-born Philip Bier, who came here for a photography course at the London College of Printing, and stayed.

Cover me

London Protection Services, now watching the back of the BBC Director General, is run by Julian Klinger and George Richardson, who do some of the minding themselves.

Julian is also trying to build an acting career, with a role as Dex in low-budget UK horror Dead Wood (2014), an uncredited appearance in the first episode of Broadchurch, and a bit of typecasting in an ad for Domino's Pizza.

George was spotted looking after Mark Ronson, during his January launch party for the Uptown Special Album in the shell of a Television Centre studio. Either he knows it's Nicole Scherzinger launching herself at his client, or he thought it safe to let her through...

Pop will eat itself

Perusing music programmes ahead on BBC TV this week, I didn't find much that's new. There's a drama-documentary on BBC4, Messiah at The Foundling Hospital; an Easter service from King's, and a bunch of old Eurovision performers. And The Voice.

BBC4 offers its usual cycle of archive packages - Sounds of The Sixties, Top of The Pops, Freddie Mercury, ELO, Dusty Springfield, on Thursday and Friday nights, plus late Sunday.

From Monday to Sunday, I counted 16 opportunities to see programmes about property, and 24 slots devoted to antiques.

Was it better in the old days of just two BBC tv channels ? In the equivalent week in 1985, I found Top of The Pops, The Whistle Test,  Rockschool (featuring reggae artists Black Uhuru, Sly and Robbie, and Dennis Bovell); the premiere of Lloyd Webber's Requiem, a Joan Armatrading concert, Bach's B minor Mass, an Arena on Pierre Boulez, a Cliff Richard special, Dexy's Midnight Runners on The Young Ones, some new American music on Entertainment USA, and the UK final of a Song for Europe.

Nothing about buying houses. And one antiques show - Arthur Negus Enjoys.

Showbiz

So The Voice proceeds to its final. The semi-final attracted 6.3m viewers according to the overnight ratings, down on last year's equivalent of 6.7m.

The bookmakers think that Clackmannanshire fireman Steve McCrorie will be the eventual winner, now that more Scots have got a taste for voting.  Watch out for soprano Lucy O'Byrne though, if the over 50s take hold of the phones, re-living fond memories of Moira Anderson, Katherine Jenkins and other heroines of Saturday night variety. Last night's show was peppered with tributes to various grandmothers. Coach Will I.Am has to find her three songs for the final, which may stretch beyond "opera", and some entertaining presentation. If Hughie Green could do it..

• I would be derelict in my duty if I  didn't report that the finale of Season 2 of The Musketeers was watched by an average of 2.78m in the overnights - a 12.7% share. Just under the Cameron/Miliband/Paxo/Burley figure - a programme which, for me, had more humour. 

Brave faces

It may just be me, but both www.topgearlive.com and www.topgearlive.co.uk seem to be be down. Other agencies are still selling tickets for Belfast, starting 22 May.

TopGear.com is soldiering on, with this update....

The DG's statement confirmed that the BBC will work to renew Top Gear TV for 2016, and of course we'll bring you any news on that front as soon as we have it. Hall also stated that the BBC will look into how it can put out the remaining programmes from the current series.

In the meantime, TopGear.com will continue to bring you the sharpest, funniest automotive coverage, the biggest exclusives and the oddest road trips. Right now, there's more astonishing stuff going on in the world of cars than ever before, and we reckon you deserve to know about it. 

That isn't to underestimate the incalculable contribution of JC to making Top Gear what it is. He's a big, big hole to fill, and the team you've trusted to make the world's greatest motoring show will be figuring out over the coming months exactly how to do that. 

And, while we're here, we'd also like to take this chance to give a shout out to our colleagues in Top Gear TV's brilliant production team, who are unquestionably the most talented in the business. So go for it. The comments are open and we're listening.

Data mining

Congratulations to the Ripon Gazette, who've caught up with the news that Kath Viner, editor-to-be of The Guardian, did work experience with them. At least they've found a photo of her at Ripon Grammar School, where she was head girl.

Here's another line of research...

My grandad, Vic Viner, 95, sole survivor of Navy's Dunkirk rescue op, will be the oldest person in Sunday's flotilla: http://t.co/Vbo0Zisd
— Katharine Viner (@KathViner) June 2, 2012

Gorn

BBC News (and associated) leavers this week I've spotted.  Alan Dedicoat, David McNeil, Simon Waldman, Mark Doyle, Ailsa Auchnie, Neil Churchman, Charles Scanlon, Bernadette Kehoe, Nigel Margerison.

Let's hope the delivery of news from the new financial year doesn't miss wise heads with years of national and international experience.

Hell's Teeth

The Spectator says Ed Miliband has hired US presentation coach Michael Sheehan, long time favourite of the Democrats. This may explain last night's "Hell, yes...".

Here's a link to a Fox News feature on Sheehan from 2011.

The Paxman/Burley C4/Sky collaboration with Cameron and Milband attracted an average audience of 2,922k across both channels, plus 255K for the simulcast on the BBC News Channel, and was watched by more 16 to 34-year-olds than any other offering in the same time slot.

Fragmentation

Bloodied but unbowed, BBC Creative Director and Mate of Jeremy Clarkson, Alan Yentob continues outreach work for C2, D, Es today. He's recording interviews for a Radio 4 programme to mark the centenary of the publication of T S Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, coming up in June. Always ahead of the game, Radio Four broadcasts the results on April 19th.

The poem is a perennial favourite of the attendant lord, who has measured out his life in lattes. The ever-helpful crib, Spark Notes, says "it is an examination of the tortured psyche of the prototypical modern man—overeducated, eloquent, neurotic, and emotionally stilted."

Here's John Lee Hooker's take.

All TALKing at once

Ofcom have awarded Sound Digital the new DAB multiplex. The consortium, amongst other things, promises to bring us TalkSPORT2, TalkBUSINESS and TalkRADIO, on top of TalkSPORT.

All this will be achieved without Kelvin MacKenzie, who says he was rebuffed by the TalkERS and went with the losing bid from Listen2Digital, offering SportsRadio with his old mucker Jason Bryant.

Interesting to note that the OFCOM committee deciding between the two rival bids was all-male and white, led by Deputy Chairman Tim Gardam, Principal of St Anne's Oxford. I suspect that sort of thing won't be the way for long, once new boss Sharon White gets her feet under the table. She started this week...

Gearing up

Lawks. Last night's Newsnight attracted 830k viewers on BBC2 in the overnight ratings - a 7% share of the available audience at 10.30pm.

Was it the Top Gear phenomenon ? 13 minutes were devoted to lead item. Or was it some of Piers Morgan's 4.4m Twitter followers waiting for his non-appearance ?

Underling news

A technical rollercoaster of a Newsnight last night - Piers Morgan, booked to appear live from at LA (announced at 1400 GMT) spent an hour in a remote studio without making it to air. His non-appearance meant we got a little more than we could stand of BBC Creative Director Alan Yentob on Clarkson, after an expensive Steve Hewlett set-up film.

Yentob's people had first said no to to duty editor Neil Breakwell - he was busy. He'd done R4 twice - The Media Show and PM, separated by less than an hour, and had opined on C4 News. He was in the brochure for an evening party to mark 25 Years of BBC Films, being held in the Radio Theatre, part of the same building as Newsnight.

Alan enjoys the company and hospitality of film producers, and had changed to the dark grey suit from the light grey (for Wolseley lunch), but with the same trainers. On Newsnight he was wearing either a prototype BBC Fitness band, or something that entitled him to unlimited local wines and beers at the do. Or it could be a new personal body identity card; Alan's had "Don't you know who I am ?" problems with the BBC standard issue over the years.

Do sanctions against those who face allegations of bullying actually work ? Do they drive a change in attitudes to production staff ? Mark Lawson, who left Radio 4's Front Row last March "for personal reasons", but co-incident with an investigation by HR, shared his thoughts on the Clarkson affair with Radio Times. You get a flavour in this quote...

"It may be revealing of the priorities of the BBC that, while an American TV star was disciplined for a serious broadcast falsehood, the British telly celebrity was pulled off air for allegedly losing his rag with an underling getting his supper."

Moving forward

Channel 4's right-on streak would probably shy away from instant re-employment of a puncher. ITV would like to step in, but might lose quite a bit of advertising from Peugeot and other manufacturers of reasonably-priced cars.

My money's on Channel 5 coming in with a global deal via new owners Viacom (who run MTV, and Comedy Central in the States, home of Jon Stewart's Daily Show until later this year). Clarkson, May and Hammond, plus Andy Wilman, are quite capable of further re-invention, and there are plenty of cheeky titles left - Second Gear, Stolen Gear, Low Gear, Wrong Gear, etc etc. On  that bombshell, as they say....

Jezzer minute

As Lord Hall borrowed from Lord Sugar, and fired Jeremy Clarkson "with regret", the late night schedule cries out for a Dara O'Briain special, with Jezzer's best bits and his take on Lord Hall's decision, plus audience voting. 

In odds and ends, did anyone notice that Lord Hall said Top Gear will be coming back "in 2016"  - a longer than normal hiatus between series ? Did anyone notice that the "tank" used to deliver the "Save Clarkson" petition to Broadcasting House was actually a Vickers Abbott Self-Propelled Gun ? 

Here's the start of my next photo-book, entitled "Where were you when Clarkson was sacked ?"

 

Of Discontent

There'll be one less reason to buy The Telegraph if, as I'm told, Henry Winter, Football Correspondent and Columnist, jumps ship for The Times....

Who will front it ?

Whatever the decision today, the lightning rod is Lord Hall, on his own. The Guardian's team long for yesteryear....

@owen_g @MatthewWells I believe at these times it is traditional to summon the deputy DG to handle the flak.
— Janine Gibson (@janinegibson) March 24, 2015

Neat Patten

You remember that time when we were all worried about Lord Patten's ticker ?  He seems to have rallied. He attended a dinner at the French Embassy last week, as guest of Sylvie Bermann. Highlights of the six-course menu - lettuce jelly with bergamot caviar, semi-smoked zander fillet with fennel pearls, braised ox cheek with apple soufflé, and Caribbean chocolate tart with liquorice.

In May, he's having another go at giving the commencement speech at Notre Dame, Indiana, which he pulled out of last year. Also in the 170th anniversary ceremony, picking up an honour, is New Orleans R&B singer Aaron Neville.

Could a doctor help ?

One element of a Clarkson solution could be time off to reflect on his behaviour, and to have the two hip-replacements he needs. He was first diagnosed with osteo-arthritis in November 2004, and told it would be better to wait for the operation, as, in those days, the artificial joints were only expected to last fifteen years.

In April, Clarkson turns 55, and the question of which lasts longer, the hips or the man, becomes a closer-run thing. Three months would be a sensible estimate for two operations and recuperation. Series 23, under a new executive producer, could have films set up to make in July/August.

Detail

While we're waiting for a Clarkson judgement, I'm told at least one aspect of the legend is disputed. Most tomes of record, printed and online, say that he was expelled from Repton, in his words for "drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself."

This is not how others recollect events. He got nine O-levels, and thus breezed into the sixth form. His behaviour was an issue - "charmless chump" is a phrase I've heard - but the school persevered, and whilst there may have been suspensions, the final sanction was never applied.  Perhaps expulsion is more glamorous on the CV than "A-levels not good enough for university".

If your A level results aren't joyous take comfort from the fact I got a C and two Us. And I have a Mercedes Benz.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) August 14, 2014

Performance enhancing

Who'd have thought it ?  At least a handful of managers at the BBC are "inconsistent" in their performance. But it's so few that Auntie won't say exactly how many, in case it helps us work out who they are.

The figures released about management appraisals also only show the ratings held by HR centrally; there's no obligation on individual departments to lodge their figures centrally - so Lord Hall can just about count the numbers of senior managers, but has no overall record of whether they're any good or not.

Geting wiggy with it

I suspect the BBC will be taking a few legal opinions this week. The decision that the Top Gear live show in Norway, on 27 and 28 March, can't go ahead, indicates the pressure is on, and solicitors on all sides will need to reach a way forward.

There's little precedent for taking disciplinary action against the second biggest shareholder of your own company, without effectively breaking up the company, and risking the Corporation's most valuable intellectual property.  Thankfully the impact will be minimal this financial year - the trick for Lord Hall and Tim Davie will be to work with Danny Cohen towards a compromise that limts the damage in the year ahead.

Meanwhile Danny, clearly not Clarkson's biggest fan, spent the weekend distracting himself on Twitter in conversation with Robbie Savage, and watching Liverpool's Steven Gerrard stamp on another footballer, without a hint from anyone that he should be sacked.

Smooth bore

The penultimate episode of this series of The Musketeers averaged 2.67 million viewers (12.8%) at 9pm on BBC1 last night.

The discerning preferred Gogglebox on C4, with 3.35 million (16.1%) tuning in, or Stargazing, on BBC2 with 1.67 million (8%).

Copywriter needed

One bit of the latest BBC Trust minutes that has not been blanked out is right, if expressed in a rather patronising fashion.

Members agreed that as part of the Charter review process there would be a need to find a simpler articulation of the public purposes, so that licence fee payers could fully understand the high-level aims and objective of the BBC. 

As we've said here often, the "purpose" that allows the activities of BBC Worldwide, and presumably underpins the BBC World Service Group, is naffly written, and insufficient to drive either the commercial operation or a soft-power news service in 27-odd languages.  

"Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK: The BBC will build a global understanding of international issues and broaden UK audiences' experience of different cultures."

Plurality

I'm not sure how the contract works, but there's something that clearly ordains Mel Brooks can only be interviewed by Alan Yentob on British outlets.

Appeal

There's always something. Bob Shennan - in his birthday week - gets reminded that the BBC Trust is on his case. In their 2010 review of Radio 2, they wrote "We’d like the station to do more to appeal to audiences who are currently less likely to listen, including ethnic minorities". They were told that there were plans in place.

This week they noted "Radio 2’s reach among BAME audiences over 35 is significantly lower than it is amongst white audiences. As Radio 2 has a remit to serve a broad audience over the age of 35, it should address this disparity."

In current schedules, Diane Louise Jordan and Moira Stuart bracket early morning and late night Sunday - Moira's occasional show seems to have become much more of a regular feature this month. Trevor Nelson has a soul show at 11pm Wednesday night. Nitin Sawhney has an occasional series on World Music on Monday nights. Moira, I think, is the network's only regular BAME newsreader.

The latest Trust report also ruminates on Radio 2's vast audience: "Evidence suggests that Radio 2’s growth in listening may be having an effect on listening to other BBC services, including BBC Local Radio and Radio Wales, given they appeal to a similar demographic. We think it is important that the BBC considers how its portfolio of stations serves listeners, and how changes in listening to different stations may affect the BBC’s delivery of its public purposes."

John Myers, Shennan's go-to radio consultant, is usually well-informed on BBC matters: "I hear a small committee has been formed to ponder on what the future of BBC local radio might look like if they did something slightly different."

Disappearing news

Ah, the evolving news values of the BBC. In last night's 6 o'clock bulletin on BBC1, two and a half minutes was devoted to a rugby union preview. Today, spookily, we have seven hours of rugby union on BBC1.

This was not, apparently, still news at 10pm, where the bulletin seemed a little harder-edged. Nothing to do with an analysis by Mark Lawson in the Guardian, which suggested a trend of "populism" in the late evening bulletin, compared with a more analytical and internationalist agenda on ITV.

Grey matter

Rona Fairhead's call to the DCMS to find some brainier new Trustees has landed quite a set.

Mark "Two Brains" Damazer, who worked as Assistant Director to Tony Hall when he was running News at the turn of the century, will be on the chuffer from Oxford, where he is currently Master of St Peter's College. He replaces Diane Coyle as Vice-Chair.

Sir Roger Carr, Chairman of BAe and a member of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Group, is also a visiting fellow at the Said Business School, Oxford. He went to Nottingham High School, and got a BA in Business Studies from Nottingham Polytechnic - now Nottingham Trent University.

Mark Florman, was expelled from Harrow School, but recovered to pick up a B.Sc at the LSE. Thence to banking in Chicago, and back to London for the heady days of County Natwest, and onto giant Nordic merchant banking. He's co-founder of private equity firm 8 Miles, with its current chairman Sir Bob Geldof, backing African ventures.

More on all of them after further research....

Top man

When Ian Katz was appointed Editor of Newsnight back in May 2013, a BBC spokesman said "I don't think we'll be publishing the details of his salary, to be honest. We release the top BBC salaries on our website, but that's as far as we go."

Now Ian's revealed as on a top BBC salary - disclosed at £150,600. This leaves him some headroom to improve, should he land the Guardian editorship; it also makes you wonder what they're paying BBC editors with a decent-sized audience.

In other disclosures, Alan Davey, now ensconced at Radio 3 working to slap down any Classic FM tendencies, has landed at £170k, above Radio 5Live's Jonathan Wall, but behind all the other network controllers.

Joe Godwin, new Director of the BBC Academy (and Peter Salmon's Crown Prince of Birmingham) is on £189,800 -  a tad down on Anne Morrison's £217k.

Fiona Campbell, new head of Current Affairs, News, has been placed on £150k.   Jim Gray is now re-styled as her deputy, on £155k. Ceri Thomas, formerly Jim's boss, now runs one bit of Current Affairs, Panorama, on a package of £166,448.

Dear Anne

Ah, bulk purchasing power. The Edinburgh TV Festival is never really a surprise, and the BBC is always likely to send people. I'm not calling for them to be put up in a hostel, but you'd think they might negotiate a deal for, say, a dozen rooms in one hotel at a discount.

In the latest published expenses, Creative Director Alan Yentob was at The George for two nights, at a total of £498 (and he booked direct, which is not 'best practice").

Comedy supremo Shane Allen stayed three nights at Ten Hill Place, Edinburgh, for £546 (He also claimed entertainment expenses of £1230 over the quarter).  Myfanwy Moore, of Comedy Production was also there - three nights for £600. She had to endure one night in the Mercure for £270. Kim Shillinglaw, Controller BBC2, was in the Mercure for two nights at a total of £462.50.

Radio 1's Ben Cooper stayed at The Bonham, Edinburgh, an "art-filled boutique hotel featuring chic rooms, a high-end restaurant and free WiFi." for £211.50. Lisa Opie, Controller Business, Knowledge and Daytime TV, had two nights in the Nira Caledonia ("Our boutique hotel in Edinburgh Scotland, blends Bohemian chic with contemporary comfort") for £341.67.

BBC4's Cassian Harrison stayed at the Malmaison, Edinburgh, for £179.17, as did Damian Kavanagh, Controller What's Left Of BBC3 - three nights for £567.51 (a better room than Cassian's ?). Natalie Humphreys, from TV Factual, stayed at the Double Tree by Hilton - two nights for £398.33. Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC1 was also there  - two nights for £415.

Drama boss Ben Stephenson travelled to Edinburgh, but there's no sign of a hotel booking. Perhaps he slept on someone's floor.

Elsewhere, some bits and bobs that caught my eye...

• Philip Bernie, Head of TV Sport, is a man of transport certainties.  On 15 occasions he cites the taxi as "the best way" or "the quickest way" to reach his destination. Many other BBC staff time their journeys with a view to using public transport.  Phil claims for a meal at "Illegal Jacks" in Edinburgh, and a group dinner at the Railway Inn, Meols (part of The Hungry Horse chain).

• Roux Joubert, General Manager, Platforms, took eight people to dinner at Zero Degrees, Reading "Hip beer emporium on 3 airy floors, plus European eats" for £200.

• Leighton Davies walked the talk as Director, Financial Centre of Excellence, with a £10.09 claim for meal with overnight at a Wetherspoon's in Ealing. 'Dr' Mark Harrison, Controller Production, BBC North, followed the new party line with two meals purchased at Waitrose, Westfield and three at M&S Westfield.

Dark glasses

First pictures are coming in of BBC DG Tony Hall seeking cosmic guidance, as he ponders the public service broadcasting future of Jeremy Clarkson.

Actually, he needs to look in The Mirror. Their hacks have been leading the way on the story, and they have a video of Clarkson apparently acknowledging the game's up.  So even if Lord Hall, whose instinct is for pragmatic compromise, wanted to override the likes of Danny Cohen on a suitable sanction for lamping a producer, he needn't now.

So the matter moves from BBC Agreed Procedures to a commercial settlement and rows over intellectual copyright. It's surely the end of the English version of Top Gear, which anchors a growing number of BBC Worldwide channels around the world (Tim Davie invested in a giant inflatable Stig to launch BBC Brit in Poland last month). Clarkson still owns 30% of the shares in Bedder 6, the Top Gear production vehicle bought back by the BBC in 2008.

Squeezed

The Trust review of BBC network music stations, led by insurance man Nick Prettejohn and bass-player Bill Matthews, is irritating.

There are 18 references to the commercial radio pressure group, RadioCentre, and it seems to me that most of the changes recommended are in response either to BBC budget cuts, or what commercial competitors want to happen.

So, to save money, Radio 1 will have fewer live sessions - down from 250 to 160 - and host fewer live festivals - down from 25 to 10. Radio 1 and 1Xtra will in future run more of the same documentaries. Radio 2 gets to drop a requirement to provide "regular" comedy programming. Radio 3's required quota of new dramas falls to 20 from 25 (and from 35 in 2012). The Asian Network is allowed to drop weekday news bulletins at 8pm and 9pm.

There's no evidence of any public debate about the level or number of social action campaigns on Radio 1, yet the Trust says "Radio 1 should find more ways to deliver a range of public purposes in daytime output". This seems to be entirely driven by the RadioCentre, who argue "Radio 1 is failing to deliver enough public value in daytime, and that Radio 1 should offer more news, plus documentaries, social action campaigns, advice programmes and other current affairs output in daytime. "

The RadioCentre and ClassicFM also score with an impossible new demand on Radio 3: "Radio 3 should seek to increase choice for radio listeners by minimising any programmes and features that are similar to Classic FM’s."  Is that just now, in the future, forever ? Would you like to run a radio station looking over your shoulder ? What nonsense.

Of course, there are many RadioCentre demands that have been biffed.  Just not enough.

Restricted

I've tried holding the PDF up to the light, but that doesn't work. What was mystery item Number 8, discussed at the BBC Trust meeting on 22 January ?

Dame Janet Smith, apologising for delays to her report on Savile 'culture' - now, spookily, due for publication after the General Election ?  The Executive's preliminary succession plan for Top Gear presenters ?  A run-round various BBC bids to interview Rona Fairhead ?  Rude words about Bill Cash ?   Snubbing the Palace on Re-inventing the Royals ?   Discussing a pay rise to stop the dramatic Ben Stephenson going to America ?

And who did the BBC Executive bring along to talk about it ?

Make some noise

'Pinko' BBC News will be a quieter place this General Election. First they lost Paul 'Gobby' Lambert, the producer whose fame came from shouting provocative questions at politicians from a distance, to a new role as Director of Communications for UKIP.

Now news that Sarah White, a producer in Newsgathering and TV News with a reputation for full-on communication skills, is joining the UKIP ship for the campaign. Colleagues say that Sarah, in open-plan newsrooms, never seemed to trust the amplification properties of the microphones inside mobile and fixed line phones.

Moscow mule

Fiona Bruce may soon have an alternative venue to the Langham Hotel for her pre-10 O'Clock News cocktail. New premises are under construction at 114 Great Portland Street (soon to be groovier than King's Road in the last century) which will operate as a coffee shop and cocktail bar under the title Love Die Late.

Formerly home to a travel company, the ground and lower ground floor will open 0700 for coffee, and plans to close around 2300, or midnight at weekends. The route to an alcohol licence has been tricky; you can only get a cocktail on the ground floor if you're seated at a table.

The owners have withdrawn an application to play "recorded music", which would have required sound limiters and more, in favour of "background music". They apparently want to show films in the basement.

Tailored

Pleased to see that BBC Creative Director Alan Yentob cheered himself up from the Corporation's current woes with a trip to the pictures on Monday night. It was the UK premiere of a documentary about the House of Dior, at the Curzon Cinema, Mayfair.

Alan and Bianca Jagger were perhaps the oldest of the fashionistas who pressed on to the after-party, at LouLou's (formerly known as Tiddy Dols, an emblem of Shepherd Market's loucher time), at least as photographed by Getty Images.

Escalation

It's never a good thing if you have to bring a crisis management team in to manage the crisis management team.

The handling of L'Affaire Clarkson has gone from bad to worse since the first phone call. Here's a possible version...

"Danny, it's Jeremy Clarkson here. I got into a row with the AP driving this week's show, which was running into trouble. There was a bit of shoving and slapping, and anyway he's gone off to hospital, so it's going to be impossible to keep a lid on it. What do you think we should do ?"

"I'll call you back". 

"Jeremy ? I'm calling on behalf of Danny. We've had some conversations here, and I'm afraid we've got no alternative but to suspend you, and pull this week's show. There'll have to be formal letters and all that, but we'll try to sort it out as soon as we can. What's the AP's name ?"

"Thanks a bunch".

Now a weekend briefing to the Mail on Sunday (they described it as "official") threatens to prolong the row. If the Mail reporting is right, it was either by or on behalf of a senior BBC TV executive - and was the first public appearance of the idea that "Clarkson should go into rehab". This, I suspect, Mr Clarkson's lawyers will find more productive in leverage than all the clumsy attempts to draw parallels with Jimmy Savile's position. They've demanded a retraction, and attempted to push the blame for the briefing onto Director of Strategy and Digital James Purnell. The Mail reports this response from a BBC spokesman "To suggest that James Purnell is involved is categorically untrue and ridiculous."

This quote may, of course, be partial, but is open to the interpretation that somebody is involved in something.  The BBC TV press team had a lovely night out last night at the Royal Television Society Awards; the days ahead may be more difficult.

Private Eye this week reminds us of the work of boutique PR firm Inc. This is the working base of former No 10 and Olympics spinner Godric Smith, who the Eye says is still on contract to the BBC.

Meanwhile, in process corner, Ken MacQuarrie may have already started gathering evidence, but Lord Hall has made it clear that a final decision will be made by the DG alone; no internal appeal is therefore possible. Two other courts are open to Clarkson - the civil courts, for defamation, or the court of public opinion.

Publishing House

I'm sure there are old tv hands who will say 'twas ever thus, but the BBC seems to be increasingly reliant on others. The woeful Matt Lucas vehicle, Pompidou, attracted just 675k viewers on Sunday; the end credits are plastered with Netflix logos. ITV Studios have bought The Voice production company, Talpa. One presumes BBC talent supremo Danny Cohen, Twitter chum and dining companion of Will I. Am and his manager, will be re-commissioning.

A big Happy Birthday to http://t.co/CcwI1iLikx! Have a great day @iamwill x
— Danny Cohen (@DannyCohen) March 15, 2015

Fun, thought-provoking evening discussing technology with @iamwill @noreenahertz @PoloMolina1 and Thais. Thanks for dinner Will x
— Danny Cohen (@DannyCohen) March 12, 2015

And now BBC2 has struck a deal to broadcast a cut-down of BT's Clare Balding sport chat show on Friday nights. "The show will continue to be produced by Boomerang part of the Twofour Group in association with Clearly Clare Productions."

Contact sheet

The BBC tops the league table of meetings, coffee and catch-ups in the latest list of media contacts released by the Cabinet Office. The stats cover April to June last year.

Craig Oliver had two BBC lunches, and meetings with Sue English (BBC Westminster) John Boothman (BBC Scotland) and Nick Robinson. Michael Salter had a lunch with Newsnight.

In Nick Clegg's team, James McGrory and Stephen Lotinga both scored lunches with the BBC.

• McGrory and Julian Astle, both Arsenal fans, picked up Cup Final tickets from the FA, and made donations to the Teenage Cancer Trust in return. It was Arsenal v Hull - Nick Clegg also went, with his Arsenal-supporting sons. 

Intimate

Ian Katz lines up against Katharine Viner - that's how most people are characterising the Race for Rusbridger's Chair at the Guardian, with final interviews expected this week.

Ian may be questioned on his transformation of Newsnight. He may not, perhaps, mention an overnight audience figure of 240k last Thursday. It's been a difficult night for the programme since the arrival of Question Time in BBC1 in 1980. But 240k is a poor showing. Laua Kuenssberg offered an "exclusive" on the Muslim Brotherhood getting antsy about the forthcoming Jenkins Report; an interview with Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe; and a tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett.

QT had Anna Soubry MP, a relaxed Charles Kennedy MP, Lucy Powell MP, Natalie Bennett and Ian Hislop.

Numbers up

The value of Top Gear to the BBC2 ratings is highlighted by monthly data just in from BARB. Four editions of the show top the network's ratings, returning 6.0, 6.1, 6.2 and 6.2 million viewers in the consolidated figures. Wolf Hall follows, peaking at 4.2m.

Top Gear also tops Dave's monthly ratings, with 503k viewers. Last night's scheduling of a Top Gear special to take advantage of the BBC2 cancellation picked up 370k.  1.3m stuck with BBC2 to watch a repeat of a Red Arrows documentary.

Higher

The BBC has "updated" statistics on employment tribunals, after a challenge from a Freedom of Information inquirer, saying its original computer search terms were too narrow.

122 claims have been brought against the BBC since April 2005 (not 90 as first stated). 59 were settled before a hearing (not 49), at a total cost of £1,061,341.77 (not £840,341), nudging the average deal to almost £18k.

18 claims were withdrawn, but 43 proceeded to tribunal. The BBC 'won' 39, but four were upheld. The BBC won't reveal the total cost of these four hearings - but £83,598.17 was paid out to claimants, and at least £55,253.38 was spent on outside lawyers. In one of the upheld cases, the tribunal ordered that the claimant "be re-engaged and therefore this was done. No other successful claimants have been re-engaged or re-employed." There are two cases pending.

Poor

Is it possible that the culture of BBC Television, under the very-principled Danny Cohen, minded by strict-but-fair Lord Hall, hasn't really changed for the better that much ?  If the Mail has indeed been "briefed" by a "senior tv executive" on the Affaire Clarkson, then one hopes he or she will find it a career-limiting activity pretty quickly.  Others have been pursued harder for much less.

Mates rates

I'm sure Chris Evans and Channel 4 are paying Bob Shennan a facility fee for use of Radio 2 studios to make promotional films.

Morning Sunday girls and boys. http://t.co/yjGnOAJuHd
— Chris Evans (@achrisevans) March 15, 2015

Payout time ?

BBC pay nerds like me are looking forward a cascade of material next week, busting a log-jam of stalled Freedom of Information enquiries. The BBC has effectively apologised for the delay to two, lodged in October last year, saying the inquirer is within their rights to complain to the Information Commissioner's Officer.

"S.Craig" wants to know more about Special Personal Salaries in News, and is also interested in evidence about the BBC's statement that senior manager's pay is set at "a discount of 50-80% against total direct remuneration in the commercial sector".

"Spencer Count" (say it out loud) is pursuing information about the numbers of staff now at "Band 11" (dubbed Senior Manager Level 3 by the unions). "Signor Benati", who uncannily shares his name with a fictional art forger in Smiley's People, is burrowing away on the same lines, but in most recent correspondence has been promised a response within a week !

Chiselled

May never happen.  Sculptors struggle with glasses.

Legalled

High-powered "friends" are being assembled for the BBC Clarkson Cold Collation hearing, according to the Mirror, still plugging away on the story on a Friday night, when the rest of us are watching Comic Relief. Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon is being advised by Paul Daniels (not that one) of Slater & Gordon. The Chambers Independent Legal Guide 2015 ranks Paul as a “Leader in the Field” of Employment Law, describing him as a "fighter who is very good on high-profile cases."

 Jeremy Clarkson is sticking with Mark Devereux of Olswang. "Mark is one of the best connected people in the UK media industry and was the only lawyer listed in the Media Guardian top 100 in 2009 and 2010." Mark returns from holiday on Monday, originally expecting to help with Clarkson's contract re-negotiation, but now has to familiarise himself with the arcane workings of the BBC Agreed Procedures.

With lawyers like that, Ken MacQuarrie, the BBC's "procurator fiscal" will have Sarah Jones BBC Group General Counsel standing by in an ante-room. A team of note-takers will also be required.

• The Mirror is the first to suggest that Clarkson's punch landed, with blood spilt and the recipient taking the 36 mile journey late at night to the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton. In the Mirror's version, Clarkson arrived at the Simonstone Hall Hotel in Hawes by helicopter, from Top Gear's HQ in Dunsfold, Surrey - he'd been expected to arrive at 8pm, but the paper says he kept the aircraft waiting for two hours, while drinking in a pub.  

Processors

Go-to-BBC inquisitor Ken Macquarrie takes the budget plane down to London again, to try to make sense of a dust-up over the relative restorative merits of a cold collation over a hot meal.

We are still not clear who, if anybody, complained. At Ken's side will be Orla Tierney, who took her Bar exams but ended up in HR. She's recently been an "interim" manager for a range of companies, through her own company, Mind The Gap - it's not clear what her contractual relationship is with the BBC as Head of Reward and Employment Policies. She may bring some Cotswold empathy to the proceedings, from her Great Rissington base.

The duo will have their work cut out to keep the all important interview venue a secret. The risk in all this palaver is that Clarkson just walks away. If it isn't Oisin Tymon who's complained, there will be many who won't blame him.

Have a word, Tim

BBC America's schedules over the next week feature 21 different episodes of Top Gear, and still indicate Series 22, Episode 8 coming up on Monday night - the programme currently not being made.

On BBC2 on Sunday, it's been replaced by the repeat of a documentary on The Red Arrows.

• We were right - Lord Hall is the Gold Commander on the Clarkson Clase, telling nosey publicity-seeking MPs on the European Select Committee "I have been involved in that, I am involved in that. We have an inquiry taking place on that."

Spellbound

Isn't the information highway wunnerful ?  We learn that the Top Gear team were staying at the Simonstone Hall Country House Hotel near Hawes last week.  If they were dining in the main restaurant, it might have been spelling errors on the menu that got Clarkson's dander up. They offer "Rocket and Garlic Volute", "Dauphaonise Potato" and "Roasted Ratatouie".

Meanwhile, if you can't wait till Top Gear is back on your screens, here's amateur footage of helicopter filming nearby.

Last train

All very disruptive. One assumes Lord Hall himself is Gold Commander for the Clarkson Case.

Danny Cohen, Director of Television, wanted firmer action against Jezzer for previous transgressions, and thus has a position. Tim Davie, of BBC Worldwide, has a large financial interest. Worldwide re-acquired the Top Gear production company, Bedder 6, buying out Clarkson's shareholding in 2012; the company address is now the BBC Media Centre, W12. So both Clarkson and one of the shows producers, Oisin Tymon, are presumably his employees. Working out what to do will thus involve Kirstin Furber, Director of People at Worldwide.

This one looks like it's gone past what's described as "the informal procedure". Under BBC policies, the formal procedure is for the relevant manager to conduct a fact-finding investigation, "where there is uncertainty about whether a breach of discipline has occurred".  Was there an actual punch ? Did it land ? Was is provoked ? Is hunger an excuse for the threat of physical violence ? Did Newcastle have anything to do with Jezzer's mood ? Did Oisin complain, or was it someone else ?

Step 2 is The Meeting, summoned by a letter outlining the allegations. The employee will be given time to brief "an accredited representative" or a BBC colleague. After the meeting, the manager reviews the evidence, before writing to the employee with a decision notice. That decision will be discussed with a full-time official of any union representing the employee.

Step 3, is The Appeal, which, if made, has to be heard by a manager at least one level above the manager of the first hearing.

As insiders will tell you, all this can take months, if not years.

The crisis management specialists will be looking for something cuter. I'd promote Oisin (it means "little deer", and was the name legendary warrior Fionn Mac Cool and the goddess Sive gave to their son), get a photo opp set up with Jezzer handing him keys to one of his own cars by way of apology, then end with a rising drone shot of Jezzer cycling off to an anger management course, to be completed before the next Top Gear Live arena show, in Belfast at the end of May. Bring the last three episodes of this run of Top Gear back in the autumn.

• 1230 Update: Clarkson's next scheduled outing under the Top Gear brand is 27th March at the Somarka Arena, Stavanger, Norway.

• All this on Alan Yentob's 68th birthday. The sweet sherry will have to stay in his cupboard til this one's sorted. 

Soft power

..and relative purchasing power. King's College (or King's, as its Aussie principal would prefer it styled, with his aim of solo university status) is taking long leases on the former home of the BBC's World Service, at Bush House. Universities, as we stand, have more financial stability over the next 50 years than Auntie...

As we approach the end of the financial year, there is a sorry succession of leaving parties for experienced senior World Service journalists. Its dedicated newsdesk is being closed down to form part of an homogenised team. You can't buy their experience in shaping a convincing daily agenda that earns respect around the globe. A couple of days ago, the survival of a baby in an icy river after a road accident in Utah was the second lead on the tv service of BBC World. Interesting, heart-warming, but never a global second lead...  

Work harder

The BBC (and maybe even Rona) will be cheered by a National Audit Office report on how the organisation is making the cuts required under the charmlessly-named-programme Delivering Quality First.

The process is apparently well-managed under Anne Bulford. The total cumulative sustainable savings 2013-14 are put at £351m.  You do, however, have to draw breath when reminded that the target is £700m by 2016-17; that, in the BBC's estimate, 85% of their planned future cuts to reach this final target come from "productivity", and 39% of those carry "some risk to delivery".

Waving

Brow slightly furrowed today, picking up on BBC strategist James Purnell's personality interview with the London Evening Standard.

He gets himself in a tangle over his relative scale of friendship with current politicians; reveals he's got a house in the East End, a fiancee and a baby on the way; claims to be a private person, yet is prepared to share that he dreams in French - and puts one BBC-related message across:- "We're being treated as a government department for all sorts of purposes".

Two photographs accompany the article - one against the restored wood panelling of old Broadcasting House, the other the more strident red-painted mdf that marks out the restored elements.

I'm sure it advances in some way the cause of Charter Renewal. Perhaps it also reminds future employers of the talents of this "prickly" and "brilliant" man.

Making money

Ah, the economics of property development. Property Week reports that the new owners of the Television Centre site are on the verge of a deal to sell a long-leasehold (not the freehold) on one small element of the 14-acre plot for £60m.  Aviva have apparently bid over the asking price for the area formerly known as Stage 6, which this year becomes the new home for BBC Worldwide, on a 25 year lease at £2.65m p.a. rising with inflation.

The portion of the plot under offer is shaded grey.

The BBC got £200m for the whole site, but will retain an interest in three tv studios through its loss-making commercial subsidiary BBC Studios and Post Production.

Women's Day Part Two

So the stand-off between Ol Ma Hodge and Rona Fairhead remains unresolved, after a torrid session on HSBC at the Public Accounts Committee. All the MPs knew Swiss banks were bad things from way back (presumably from James Bond films); none of the witnesses from the HSBC had spotted anything naughty going on, and anyway, they had policies telling staff not to be naughty.

After several pokes with a sharp stick, and snidey comments masquerading as questions, Mrs Hodge concluded that either Rona wasn't telling the truth, or was, and was therefore incredibly naive and totally incompetent in her non-executive role at the bank, and therefore should resign as BBC Chair before she was fired.

Rona's stance was that she'd seen no evidence of tax evasion by clients of HSBC Swiss bank before the first rumblings from the whistleblower, and that, since then, she'd been driving the change to put things right across the company - "unyielding" in her challenge.

Mrs Hodge said "I'm sorry, you have lost my trust".

Up and down

A Freedom of Information response brings details of celebrations at Radio Newcastle, after hitting record listening figures at the end of 2013.

Weekly reach stood at an all-time high for the station - 369,000. Every member of the 55-strong team received a £50 John Lewis voucher. And there was a night out with some drinks paid for - a total of £288.55 - around £13 a head for the twenty-two who joined in.

This December, weekly reach was down to 307,000.

Escape to the country

I have readers who will expect me to write something about Poldark.

Sunday escapism, and perfectly fine. The BBC will continue to dominate the day's ratings for some weeks, even though next week it picks up from The Voice rather than Call The Midwife.

Oddities: a number of Edwardian windows, Elisabeth's lipstick, and a scar on our hero that has healed so well it can be indicated by a felt-tip pen. I have a feeling Ross will be in a few more savage fist and foot fights, and continue to emerge with no need for dental work.

Presumably The Onedin Line is just awaiting a green light.

Shee-haw !

Congratulations to BBC Director of Music Bob Shennan, this year's recipient of the Wesley Rose International Media Achievement Award, from the Country Music Association. Here's the citation:

"Since Shennan took over as Controller of BBC Radio 2 in 2009, he has driven exposure opportunities and was instrumental in bringing Country Music into the mainstream arena. Now Director of Music, Shennan chairs the newly formed CMA U.K. Advisory Group and serves on the CMA Board of Directors."

Bob's award was announced on YouTube by Lady Antebellum, over here for the Country 2 Country Festival, carried live on BBC Radio 2's Country pop-up station. Clearly on first name terms (only) with Bob.

Stick with a winner

The BBC has selected a song written by David Mindel and Adrian Bax White to represent the UK in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

In 1974 Mindel co-wrote "Someday" with Gary Benson, one of six songs performed by Olivia Newton-John on the Jimmy Savile Clunk Click show, to select that year's Song for Europe. It came sixth.

Clunk Click was produced by Roger Ordish. In 1975, Jim'll Fix It started, with a theme tune co-written by Ordish and David Mindel.

In 1975, Mindel and Benson wrote "Don't Throw It All Away", one of six songs performed by the Shadows on "It's Lulu", to select that year's Song for Europe. This time, Mindel's effort came fourth. It was later recorded as an album track by Barry Manilow, The Delfonics, and reggae-style, by Barrington Levy.

Also in 1975, Mindel co-wrote Hair of the Dog with Mud's drummer Dave Mount. It appeared on the album Use Your Imagination, which rose to 33 in the British charts.

In 1982, David got two songs in the Song for Europe show - Everyday of My Life, co-written with Patrick Burston, performed by Good Looks (featuring a brother and sister of Clodagh Rogers) - and Every Step of The Way, performed by the Touring Company. The panel of regional juries placed them joint second, to Bardo's "One Step Further".

In 1983, our David wrote Never Gonna Give You Up, recorded by Musical Youth, who, joyously, put another version of Jim'll Fix It on the B-side.

Mindel claims to have written music for over 4,000 tv and radio commercials over the years, from products ranging from Carnation Milk, through Crown Paint, Maxwell House to the News of The World. Other tv themes including Challenge Anneka, District Nurse, the National Lottery and Coogan's Run. He spends most of his time in France.

This may be where he met his collaborator on this year's song, Adrian Bax White. Adrian, a multi-instrumentalist, claims to have worked with Rolf Harris, East 17 and the Black Dyke Mills Brass Band, and joined The Tony Evans Band when resident at the Monte Carlo Sporting Club.

Doing my head in

Last night's episode of The Voice was so exciting that the Twitterverse concentrated largely on why the tv director kept cropping Will I.Am's polka-dot baseball cap.

In 2008, Will was apparently appalled at the trash and plastic bottles left behind after a Black Eyed Peas concert in South America, and went to Coca-Cola with an idea for re-use that became Ekocycle. The concept is that brands come up with new products and versions of existing products that use at least 25% recycled polyethylene terephthalate, labelled rPET for short. Thus they win global creds from the manufacturer who has flooded the world with sugary fizzy drinks and plastic.

The New Era Cap company, of Buffalo New York, was started in 1920, and is the maker of the official on-field cap worn by every Major League Baseball team, and their minor league affiliates. They have two products which have EKOCYCLE backing, claiming 42% rPET.

It's hard to tell which logo was being shielded, as there are many variations - indeed, New Era offer personalised caps. Only those in the audience and post-production will know. Will I.Am's clearly too important to the BBC to be told to take the hat off, or get another one.

Leader

Good to see former BBC DDG Mark Byford and the Candle of Journalism out and about this week.

Mark was guest editor for Winchester News Online's regular Wednesday live bulletin, produced by the university's journalism students.

The edition featured Labour's plan to cut student fees, Winchester's first Pride march, a call for faster trains from London to Winchester, concerns about affordable housing in Winchester, and the Winchester baker who's made the world's most expensive pasty.

As well as mainstream political stories, the programme revealed that Ray Hall, leader of local fringe party Beer, Baccy and Crumpet, has been told by the Electoral Commission that crumpet could be "demeaning to women" and must be changed if he is to appear on ballot papers in the General Election. Ray thinks "crumpets" might be the solution. There were no claims of "exclusive" - the story also made BBC News and the national press.

Playback payback ?

Day 5 of Various Claimants v MGN - and BBC Creative Director Alan Yentob finally took the stand, in the hunt for appropriate damages for having his phone messages hacked by Mirror journalists.

He offered a list of regular callers whose messages he suspected were listened to - Alastair Campbell, Greg Dyke, Harry Enfield, Ricky Gervais, Salman Rushdie, Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Jonathan Ross, Steve Coogan, Caroline Ahern, Sting and Trudie (Mrs Sting) Styler - and said that list was "not remotely complete".

There were some testy exchanges with the Mirror's QC, Matthew Nicklin (Tasker Milward School and Newcastle University). Mr Nicklin asked for Mr Yentob's evidence that Mirror hacks had been trying to stand up an affair (wrongly) between himself and family friend Ruth Rogers. According to the Independent, Alan pointed to an invoice headed "Yentob/Rogers".

No mention was made in court of Episode 3, Series 1 of the BBC 'documentary' W1A, in which the voiceover reveals "Sting has phoned up Alan Yentob personally and called him an actual prick", but there are another five days in court.

Our Kath

What do we know of Katharine Viner, the internal candidate voted through to interview stage as potential Guardian editor, in hustings run with the National Union of Journalists ?

She went to Ripon Grammar School, where, at 16, she bemoaned missing out on a chance to appear in a video for The Smiths' single, Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before. This featured Smiths fans wearing horn-rimmed glasses cycling round the streets of Salford behind their hero. Musical taste clearly didn't prevent her progress - she moved up to Head Girl, and represented the school in debating competitions, before going up to Pembroke College, Oxford, to read English.

Just before graduating, she won a competition to edit the Women's Pages of The Guardian, and decided journalism would be her career. She worked at Cosmopolitan, and then The Sunday Times (interviewing Andre Agassi and filing on the New Orleans' Mardi Gras) before rejoining The Guardian full-time in 1997, at the age of 26.

In her own time, she'd become fascinated by the Middle East, and spent most of her holidays in places like Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the West Bank; her brother joshed she'd become a "trauma tourist".

Hackery and the Middle East came together with the story of Rachel Corrie, the US activist killed by a bulldozer when trying to act as a human shield in the Gaza Strip. The Guardian published some of her emails back home, shortly after her death in 2003; Alan Rickman read them, took the idea of a play to the Royal Court, and Katharine became Alan's co-writer for "My Name Is Rachel Corrie", shaping other letters and emails supplied by the Corrie family. Katharine is still on the council of the Royal Court.

Katharine has worked for the Guardian in Australia and New York.  Her Twitter comments suggest an admiration for Idris Elba, a love of some sports as a spectator, and a fondness for the Yorkshire Dales. She still likes The Smiths.

How To Sell Theatre Tickets

The Today programme "nug" (plug masquerading as news) for Mel Brooks' one night stand in London seems to have worked.

The cheapest seats (starting at £74.75) have all gone. There are a few left at £181.25, £262.25 and £502.25. All including booking fee.

Pray silence

Court 15 of the Rolls Building off Fetter Lane resumes this morning, on the fifth day of the civil case Various Claimants v MGN Ltd, in front of Mr Justice Mann (aka Sir George Antony Mann - The Perse School and St Peter's Oxford). The trial is down for ten days in total.

Seats may be difficult to secure, after continuing case-making by David Sherborne, QC, on behalf of eight people seeking damages for having their phones hacked. Mr Sherborne says, in Mr Yentob's case, the journalists were after an incorrect story - that Ruth Rogers, now styled Lady Rogers, wife of architect Lord Rogers of Riverside, and co-owner of the Riverside Cafe in West London, was Alan's mistress. This was "false and deeply intrusive", "nonsense", and would have had "an appalling and catastrophic effect" on their respective families.

Mr Sherborne said Mr Yentob's message inbox was an "Aladdin's Cave". Alan is expected in the witness stand today. Mr Sherborne may ensure his shirt's properly tucked in.

That's Life

Prolific North has a wee scoop - YourTV Manchester and YourTV Blackpool & Preston are being rebranded as That’s Manchester and That’s Lancashire. The YourTV group, chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, had failed to raise sufficient funding on its own, and hadn't actually hired any staff by their Ofcom on-air deadlines last month - now some ads are running.

YourTV will apparently retain a small shareholding in the new channels and remains the official licence-holder, but control of the channels now lies with That’s TV, which already has licences for Oxford, the Solent, Basingstoke, Reading, Surrey and Salisbury. That's TV is run by Six TV, in turn owned by That's Media, under CEO Daniel Cass, and with Esther Rantzen among the shareholders.

That's Consolidation, before we've even really started.

Nashville cats

They're easing into chiselled boots, rhinestone-fringed jackets and spotted 'kerchiefs at the BBC's (Country &) Western House, as their pop-up DAB yee-haw station gets on air at  noon today.

It runs alongside the Country to Country Festival at the O2. Taking part, though not headlining, are British Home Counties duo The Shires, and they're pretty excited too.

"The Shires are on course to become the first British country band to hit the UK Official Albums Chart Top 20, it has been confirmed today. They released their debut album ‘Brave’ on Monday and it has immediately shot to Number 9 in today’s Official UK Albums Update. 

Director of BBC Music and Country Music Association board member, Bob Shennan, comments: “From the very first play, The Shires have proved to be a class act. They also prove that a British artist can create authentic country music – and the fact that BBC Music has supported them via BBC Introducing and now Radio 2 is testament to their obvious talent and songwriting ability. We hope they can take Nashville by storm !”

The Shires are signed to Decca, part of the Universal Music Group. 6 of the 8 headline acts at the festival are on labels owned or distributed by UMG, which also has three Nashville-based artists on current Radio 2 playlists.

Punt

Here's a sort of spread bet. The BBC will start its next Charter with a new Chair and its first Chief Executive Officer (Danny Cohen, if wiser heads can get him off Twitter).

The business brain of Rona Fairhead has had five months to assess Auntie's governance structures, and yesterday rolled a hand grenade around the corridors of 180 Great Portland Street, where resides the BBC Trust, the unhappy 2006 creation of Michael Grade and Tessa Jowell. Unimpressed by the unwieldy assembly of Statements of Programme Promises, Service Licence Remits, Frameworks, Public Value Tests, Major Risk Analysis, etc, curated by Kroll and minded by Zeff, she says leave most of the BBC to a unitary board - and regulate it somewhere else.

That somewhere else is undefined. The Trust was born out of a fear of Ofcom, and what Ed Richards might do to Auntie. There's no current reason to fear the next Ofcom boss, Sharon White, and it would be easier to amend Ofcom's board structure to cope with the wider remit than start another quango. The current way - the BBC doing pretty much what it wants in the media landscape, constrained only by income and fear of Fleet Street, and Ofcom regulating what's left - has to change.

Easier doesn't mean better. And the big risk in all this is moving the principle control of the BBC to a model used by business, where the driver everyone knows and understands is the bottom line. We have whiffs of this already, in the move to BBC Studios. The new online portal will be called BBC Store, not BBC Library.  The old BBC, with its civil service/university management structure, is unloved by those who like making money. They hate its pay grades, training costs, employment codes, career commitments and the rest. And, in the end, they can't see the point of five orchestras, Radio 3, new writing, difficult opinion pieces, daytime shows that educate.  Someone has to define what will drive a unitary board to keep the BBC special.

The Trust will be remembered for saving 6Music and not spotting DMI. It might save BBC3. Would a unitary board do that ?

Shake that money maker

Lines from ITV's press release about its 2014 Annual Report.

ITV Studios revenue up 9% to £933 million (2013: £857 million)
ITV Studios EBITA up 22% to £162 million (2013: £133 million)
ITV Studios is now a global player of scale with 3 further international acquisitions in 2014
ITV Studios again expected to deliver around £100 million revenue growth on a constant currency basis in 2015 with a return to good organic growth

Can't think what's really driving the move to BBC Studios....

Call for Phil and Kirstie

I can find little "new" news in the review of BBC talent pay, conducted for the BBC Trust by their favoured boutique media consultancy, Oliver & Ohlbaum. It may be in the full report - there are 14 occurrences of a scissors symbol, which I take to mean information redacted.

The figures on current deals are from the 2013/14 Annual Report. O&O say some of the reduction in direct talent pay is because the BBC is making fewer programmes for itself; and some is due to churn and driving harder bargains. It was allowed to track the process of 15 deals made, and found that only two were settled for less than the BBC negotiator had in his/her suitcase.  In terms of very top talent, it said some of the "business cases" behind the contract were lacking in detail. The harder deals are being made with people on less than £100k - the sadly-named "Non-top talent".

There's brief mention of deals in news and radio, where some competitors cried foul - News said it used Towers-Watson benchmarking (so that's all good then ?) ands radio said its DJs were more knowledgeable and had to use more words than their commercial competitors (they'll like that). Fans of simpler management structures will be delighted to know that the Pan-BBC Talent Steering Group has had its remit refreshed.

O&O say Auntie doesn't always assess all the benefits of a BBC contract to talent. Perhaps this is a reference to the amount of lager that Danny Dyer consumes on the EastEnders set.

• Will there be sufficient nuggets in the report to maintain the interest of delegates to the Oxford Media Convention this afternoon, for Rona Fairhead's session ?  Or will the real sparks come when Rona faces Ol Ma Hodge at the Public Accounts Committee next Monday, in her role as a non-executive director of HSBC ?

Wigging out

Barrister-to-the-stars David Sherborne opened a civil case against Mirror Group Newspapers over phone-hacking yesterday, and made claims that Alan Yentob's mobile had been called 330 times from Mirror landlines between 2002 and 2005.  This was the period when Alan started presenting Imagine, alongside his management duties in television.

Mr Sherborne, who has previously acted for Diana, Princess of Wales, The Spice Girls, Max Mosley, Ashley Cole, Tony Blair, Peter Andre and Mick Jagger, also provided the court with documents claiming Mr Yentob was "intensely hacked" from mid-1999, when Al was Director of Television. That year, he was one of several internal candidates seeking to succeed John Birt as Director General - others included Tony Hall, Patricia Hodgson, Andrew Neil, Will Hutton and Mark Byford. (Where are they now, I wonder ? The job went to Greg Dyke.)

Mr Sherborne's opener referred to witness statements from former Mirror business hack James Hipwell, who said showbiz journalists would sing the Goons' Ying Tong Song, when dialling through to Mr Yentob's message box.  Mr Hipwell has previously claimed that there was "no doubt" Mirror editor Piers Morgan knew hacking was going on.

Previous settlements agreed by MGN to drop phone-hacking cases have run from £15k to £30k. I wonder what Mr Sherborne's target is for Al.

Bits and bobs

If you find your BBC radio listening on DAB "degraded" from Thursday to Sunday, the BBC has been explaining its Radio 2 Country pop-up station to US radio guru Larry Gifford. 

 “We take bandwidth from lots of other radio stations in and around the BBC; other digital stations. And take some of that bit rate and compile that to allow us enough bandwidth to be able to broadcast that station..... So, things like Radio 4 which broadcasts on long wave on digital radio — that goes away for few days. We’ll degrade a couple of the other stations a little bit to allow us to broadcast. And that gives us enough over four days to power our radio station. So it appears on digital radio, you will be able to hear it on the iPlayer radio app and also on the UK Radio Player app.”

Comments are welcome. Yee-haw, as I believe they say around Western House...

Follow the money

Eight months after Pat Younge went public with details of his proposal that BBC (TV) Production should be hived off to work as a commercial subsidiary of BBC Worldwide, the BBC has gone public on the idea, with even less detail than Pat offered.

The paper on BBC Studios that goes to the Trust is what we need to form a judgement. I hope they make it available as soon as possible. The bizarre time tunnel in prospect is that the production/commissioning split that Pat was part of has to be re-created before the "arm's length" operation can be put in place. George Entwistle spent some of his 54 days as Director General trying to eliminate the double management numbers that the split had created. Back to the future...

Meanwhile, those interested in transparency and how the licence fee may be used in the future, should note "benefit" number 2 of Pat's proposal, that the move will "enable BBC Production to offer market rate pay and conditions for production talent and remove the ridiculous comparison to the Prime Minister’s salary and other canards."  Will Pat apply to be Chief Executive BBC Studios - and will the salary be higher or lower than the £255k he was getting when last with Auntie ?

Quiz time

I whinged gently about this year's Oxford Media Convention for an underwhelming line-up. However, the keynote tomorrow afternoon from the BBC Chair Rona Fairhead will now be more interesting than it first looked.

Witchfinder-general Margaret Hodge asked the wrong people about Rona's role at HSBC in last week's Public Accounts Committee session on the BBC. It's a much broader question. Non-executive directors are hired to provide scrutiny to a company's operations and plans, not just to nod things through til ushered to the directors' dining room. They have to approve strategic decisions, annual reports, deals and salaries. And they have to ask questions beyond the reports they are given to read.

Sadly, there's no long and proud record of non-execs "walking" when bad things are done within a company on their watch - though at least a couple of Tesco NEDs have properly announced they are moving on. The question for Rona is, I think, if she hasn't been asking the right questions at HSBC, can she really provide the scrutiny required to keep the BBC straight ? The question for HSBC shareholders is whether their current bunch of NEDs have really worked hard enough to protect their investments ?

Singing news

Lucy O'Byrne, the 'theatre usherette' who sings opera, won through the Voice battle on Saturday, to stay on Will I Am's team. Will selected "Memory" from Cats, after Lucy sang "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana", from Catalini's La Wally in the blind auditions.

Lucy's "journey" is interesting. She took part in The Voice of Ireland in 2011, where she sang Smile, by Charlie Chaplin, and was picked by coach Kian Egan, ex Westlife. She got knocked out in the battle rounds, singing Westlife's When You Tell Me That You Love Me. She has a "boutique" agent, an acting showreel, a pop song waiting on Youtube, and was trained at the Leinster School of Music And Drama.  Thank God Will can turn her round from opera...

Twiddle

The Guardian reports that BBC DG Lord Hall has decided to elevate Fran Unsworth, fresh into her new role as Director of the World Service Group, to the Executive Board (or possibly not - 1145am update below).

This follows some lobbying over recent years, with MPs and others arguing that World Service ought to have its own seat "at the top table". Since the axing of the post of DDG/Director of Journalism (Mark Byford) it has been represented solely by the Director of News.  Mark Byford handed the Candle of Journalism to Helen Boaden in June 2011, and she in turn passed it flickering onwards to current candle-holder James Harding in August 2013.

The move helps the board's gender balance - which moves to 5/4, or 9/5 if you include the non-executive directors.

Fran, with BBC Worldwide Director Tim Davie, has the biggest target yet set by the BBC - to get to 500 million viewers/listeners/users around the globe. She might reasonably expect a salary enhancement ahead of that - currently on £190k, compared with James Purnell's £295k.

One imagines former Director World Service Group Peter Horrocks, now with the Open University, can only sit and applaud this belated structural change.

• 1145am update: Fran's joining not the Executive Board, but the Management Team, where lurk the likes of Alan Yentob and the Controllers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Over Intrusive

The BBC2 paranormal drama series Intruders, co-comissioned with BBC America, won't get a second series. In the UK, it was moved from its 9pm weekday slot after falling to below 500,000 viewers by episode 4, and the public records do not show how it performed in weekend outings running towards midnight.

The executive producer was Jane Tranter, who moved from her BBC UK drama role to LA for BBC Worldwide. Another of her babies, Da Vinci's Demons, is doing better, and about to launch a third series. In the States it goes out on the Starz [sic] channel. In the UK, it airs on Fox.   Fox attracts around 0.4% of UK viewing a week, so one presumes that includes all of the Welsh BAFTA jury, who awarded Da Vinci's male lead Tom Riley their best actor award. But then, it is Made In Wales.

• BBC DG Lord Hall is today expected to warn that a diminished Corporation will lead to  
"a UK dominated by global gatekeepers and American taste-makers". Presumably the US taste-makers who co-funded not just Intruders, but Orphan Black, The Musketeers, Ripper Street, The Tudors - and, yes, Wolf Hall.

Uncomfortable

I'm trying to write this before the overnight ratings come out - after all, Controller of BBC TV Danny Cohen, says they're not the best way to evaluate success.

The first "battle round" of this year's series of The Voice lasted nearly two hours, and featured 23 minutes of new performances. The idea that there are some 48 undiscovered musical acts of real quality in the UK was tested and found wanting. There was some terrible singing, and no honest criticism. And the caring side of our judges is found wanting by the format - singers they sought desperately to woo in the blind auditions are sent home on second performance, as Tom Jones, Will I.Am, Rita Ora and Ricky Wilson have to sit in silence looking miserable. The director spotted this unpleasantness as the show progressed, and eventually, shot the back of the judges' chairs, as the hapless wannabes got the stone-faced look.

It doesn't seem like harmless fun to me.