How's it going ?

A score or so of BBC executives and non-executives gathered in the wide-open spaces of The Mailbox in Birmingam for their four-hour November board meeting.

The minutes are, as now traditional, useless. They clearly discussed savage job cuts, the hasty exit from a number of sports deals, and heard a late plea from Radio against the flight to indies.

There was also a one-year-on review of the performance of BBC America, now in the sensitive hands of schedulers from joint-owners AMC Networks. Maybe they even flipped through the recent listings - still mixing Dr Who, Top Gear and Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares with Star Trek: Next Generation and old films like Psycho and Hook.  Viewing figures are down by 2% over the year.

Meanwhile, with all the secretariat on hand, it's odd to see the BBC's esteemed and valued Director, Scotland and Investigator General, Ken MacQuarrie noted as "Kenny".