Put on a happy face

All fun and banter for the BBC at the Edinbugh TV Festival yesterday. Nobody laid a finger on the three controllers in the spotlight - "you can't expect to make 20% cuts without some impact" was the collective line,  "nothing has been approved".  Richard Klein at 4, Zai Bennett at 3 and Janice Hadlow at 2 kept the young crowd happy with titbits about "new" commissions and showreels; Danny Cohen's team beat Channel 4 at Family Fortunes, though Danny may have some difficult tactical explaining to do offering "The Antiques Roadshow" as an arts programme.

The cuts, of course, will kick in as next year's commissioning round starts. Richard will still have some funds for drama and documentary, but the buzz-phrase remains "arts and archive", and the buzz-word in his blog is "curation" - a word from the world of museums.  Zai fessed up to a future with more repeats before the watershed.

Over the next few weeks the focus in the BBC will turn to a different and perhaps more powerful trio. Pat Younge, creative leader of DQF, Charlie Villar from finance and Lucy Adams from all the rest, have been charged with selling the proposition to the staff, along, yes, with inspirational videos. It could go either way...