Deal or no deal

Ah, the entertaining gavottes produced by our civil courts. The BBC, South Yorkshire Police and Sir Cliff Richard's barristers spend close to a week in front of Mr Justice Mann, apparently as far apart on the rights and wrongs of a privacy debate as you can be, and lo, we end on Friday with the news that both sides want a month off to pursue a possible settlement out of court.

Preliminary exchanges have seen Sir Cliff's team trying to pin down the BBC's source for discovering the singer was under investigation by South Yorkshire Police; and the BBC's chosen silk, Gavin Millar questioning the costs already run up on Sir Cliff's side - £894,852 and rising. The BBC would have to cover that should they lose...and it puts the price of a helicopter hovering over a Sunningdale flat into perspective.

Mr Justice Mann told all parties yesterday “I am not minded to make any particular remarks about the level of costs.”  I wonder who blinked first.