Trends

The BBC's top management expenses for July, August and September went up by 8%. The spin, at least to the Guardian, was that the quarter saw increased spending on flights, because of the Los Angeles' screenings. (If the forthcoming strategic, sorry, creative review does, as has been suggested, cut the £100m spent on American programming, then the coming summer will be less busy.)

Fluctuations by quarter are one thing; I suspect the accountants, and BBC staff in general, would have liked to seen this line on a steady downward curve, like everything else.