Picky

You have to admire Piers Morgan: motto: "One day you're cock of the walk, the next a feather duster". He's chosen to highlight the improvement in his ratings on CNN for the month of July, with those for June.


For completeness, here's a comparison of viewing figures for his show in July 2011 (yellow), compared with July this year (red)...

Commanding

It's not just the BBC who has sought higher ground for Olympic coverage. One hopes the local councils are making a tidy sum out of other broadcasters.

And if sales are down at the tills in Westfield, the roof space looks like a nice little earner.

Transport for London

There's always one, isn't there ?

Summer school

There's a lot of radio naughtiness going on at the moment, some of it inspired by listeners to Chris Moyles, and aimed, apparently, at Radio 2 presenters. Jeremy Vine read a text from one Drew Peacock last week (he got caught the same way back in 2007). Claudia Winkleman had an email from Dan Gleeballs this morning - 1 hour 11 minutes and 40 seconds in...

One suspects Mike Oxlong and Hugh Jarse aren't far behind.

Imperious

Friends of the old BBC building at Woodlands will be interested to note that Imperial College has just won outline planning approval for their redevelopment of the site. Designed by Aukett Fitzroy Robinson and PLP architects, it's no shrinking violet - especially when you remember the red-brick comprehensive style the BBC adopted, at no more than three storeys high across the site.

Here's a visualisation of "Imperial West" from the Westway driving out of London.

Summer of ?

It's Radio 2, but not as we know it. Claudia Winkleman sits in for Ken Bruce, Patrick Kielty in for Steve Wright, Richard Bacon and Zoe Ball late night, with Zoe handing over to co-ladette Sara Cox, in for Janice Long after midnight.

Ken Bruce is 61, Steve Wright is 57, Janice Long is 57.

Claudia Winkleman is 40, Patrick Kielty is 41, Zoe Ball is 41, Richard Bacon is 36, Sara Cox is 37.

Radio 2 is targeted at listeners over 35. The average age of the audience it delivers is 51 - which Controller Bob Shennan will be at his next birthday.

Olympic values

It kept the Americans entertained. NBC, who have paid close to $4billion for eight series of summer and winter Olympics, were rewarded with their highest ever viewing figures for an opening ceremony. London pipped Atlanta by nearly a million...(The LA Olympics were on ABC)

EZ money

The Mail has uncovered the fee paid to headhunters Egon Zehnder for unearthing George Entwistle as BBC Director of Vision, succeeding Jana Bennett in April last year. (George was already Acting Director of Vision). £109,999.89 plus VAT. Then, of course, they relentlessly sniffed out George again, to be Director General, announced on 4th July.  £186,000 plus VAT (a figure adjusted upwards on 7th July when the Trust found another invoice).

And the Mail finds that in October 2010, EZ were paid £78,400 plus VAT for work on the recruitment of Ralph Rivera as Digital Media Director.

Now, for completeness, all we need is the fee the DCMS paid EZ to bring us Lord Patten as BBC Chairman.

• In a sign that there's no lull in sniping at the BBC despite the Opening Ceremony, The Telegraph reports that KPMG entertained BBC execs including Zarin Patel, Lucy Adams and Rachel Currie to dinner at Bocca Di Lupo, Soho, in January last year. KPMG had been reviewing work on closing the BBC's old pension scheme, and delivering a new, cheaper version (or two).  The Telegraph says the bill was over £80 per head.  With top main courses at £25, it seems wine may have been taken.

Gritty

Could the opening ceremony have been the easy bit ?  There's a groundswell of anger (especially amongst Londoners just mooching aimlessly around over the next two weeks, as requested by the Government) about empty seats on screen; and a stooshie about the quality of the core coverage of the men's road race.

The cycling coverage was more-than-lite on the graphics and clocks that make the Tour De France great telly. Commentator Chris Boardman tweeted "Folks, got to apologise for issues today, gutted. Tomorrow we aim to have stuff like information and a monitor we can see for commentary!". The BBC has been quick to point out that it wasn't their staff organising this one.

The tickets are down to LOCOG. There is a theory that people should pay £10 to enter the park, then get returns for £5, but it doesn't seem to be official. Could Coe go from hero to zero unless he acts ?

Sporting

Just before we drift off into Olympic overdrive, a few thoughts on the news that Radio Five Live AND Talksport can both cover FA Cup matches, in a new deal with the FA lasting until 2018.

In 2000, the first year of Talksport, boss Kelvin Mackenzie said he'd bid £27m for Premier League rights, and claimed the BBC secured the three-year deal by paying £45m. Kelvin's complaint from then on was that the BBC was over-paying. He concentrated on some London rights, and the European games of big clubs like Manchester United - plus guerilla tactics. Talksport's "unofficial" coverage of Euro 2000 came from The Jolly Hotel, Amsterdam. This continued in the World Cup 2002  -“It’s unauthorised. It’s unofficial. And it’s brilliant.”

In 2004, when the BBC re-secured its "usual" radio rights to FA Cup coverage, Talksport complained to Ofcom - fruitlessly. Meanwhile, Talksport acquired its first "legit" national commentary deal, to cover Euro 2004.  Then it was time to renegotiate on the Premiership; Kelvin claimed the BBC paid £36m for three years - "utterly disgraceful - a tax-payer-funded monopoly".

In 2006, Talksport won one of the 7 Premiership radio packages, and  now have exclusive commentary rights to 32 games a season.

In 2008, the BBC re-secured its "usual" rights to FA Cup coverage, and Talksport, run now by UTV, complained to the BBC Trust. The Trust duly yellow-carded BBC Sport - The Trust said management "must note that achieving value for money does not necessarily mean securing exclusive sports rights" and that the BBC had failed to conduct a competitive impact assessment when bidding for the rights which was a "breach of the executive's duty to endeavour to minimise the BBC's negative competitive impact on the wider market".

So it was hardly a shock that sharing was the order of the day this time. What would be useful to know is the price both parties paid.

It figures

22.4m average audience for the Olympics opener on BBC1 makes it the biggest in the UK since the current measurement system began ten years ago.

Surfing news

It's generally regarded as a triumph in new media circles to integrate yer apps. Over at the Telegraph there might be a re-think. Their detailed review of the Olympic opening ceremony offers a handy on-screen link to a Spotify playlist they've created of all the "choons" chosen by Danny Boyle and The Underworld. Note the artists at No 1. Get me Simon Heffer on the line...

Outside views

What the US papers thought... .

With its hilariously quirky Olympic opening ceremony, a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly off-the-wall, Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is. Sarah Lyall, New York Times

They rolled out dancing nurses and smokestacks, poked fun at their weather and gave us Mr. Bean. Amid green and pleasant pastures, they read from the storybook that is Britain, not just Shakespeare but Peter Pan and Harry Potter. And if the Opening Ceremonies of the London Games sometimes seemed like the world’s biggest inside joke, the message from Britain resonated loud and clear: We may not always be your cup of tea, but you know — and so often love — our culture nonetheless. Antony Faiola, Washington Post

If there is a through-line to be untangled from its $42-million, cast-of-thousands, higgledy-piggledy progress through modern Britain, with industrial revolutionary Isambard Brunel (played by Kenneth Branagh, quoting Shakespeare) and World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee (as himself) at the other, it might be something like, “Sorry for the unintended consequences, but we did give you steam engines, great pop music and comedy and the roots of social networking. It was ugly there for a while, but we’re all right -- and everybody dance now.” Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

Frenzy

Is it possible that the opening ceremony might be a little camp ?  Tiger Feet, by Mud, written by Chinn and Chapman in 1974 may have royalty and Rogge throwing a few shapes, but I'm beginning to understand why Trevor Nelson is holding Huw Edwards' hand in the commentary box.

Meanwhile, in other news, the tram service to MediaCityUK is down; thank god all the BBC Sports team are elsewhere. George Entwistle and Mark Thompson have both been touched by Olympic glory - both spotted in the presence of that huge Olympian Sir Bruce Forsyth at White City yesterday. Bells have been rung, but BBC Breakfast seem to miss the historic 08.12 dong from Big Ben. More later....

Filled

Woo, the pace of executive life. We though someone with an ad background might be in line to run monster-indie All3Media. Just turned out not to be BBC Audio and Music boss Tim Davie.

The job has gone to one of his Cambridge contemporaries, Farah Ramzan Golant, CBE, who was at Emmanuel while Tim tore up the running tracks of Selwyn. She's been with agency AMV BBDO for 22 years.

Big show

As with the BBC News Olympic studios outside the park, the presentation side of things in the BBC studios inside the park is slightly more glamorous than backstage.

Meanwhile, reading between the lines of the BBC's Roger Mosey's blog about the tv coverage of Danny Boyle's Olympic opener, sound may be an issue. The trend is for modern stadia to have fearsomely loud public address systems - you can often hear tv commentators on lip mikes struggling against the stadium announcers at Wembley, Twickenham and The Emirates. The Underworld have been co-ordinating the music for Mr Boyle - one might suspect their ambition would be to pin spectators firmly back in their seats. In Roger's words "First, there's a particularly strong soundtrack in the stadium...."  and then later "We can also work out where the gaps are where comment is appropriate, and where the music should not be interrupted".  This suggests there might not be many places where Huw can make his bon mots heard.

Arise

Does the Telegraph know something we don't ? Their review of the latest edition of Imagine has either confused him with Suralan of The Apprentice (surely not ?) or prematurely knighted him for some other reason.

Meanwhile acerbic comedian Frankie Boyle asserts that Alan already behaves like royalty.

Bush makeover

Property Week reports there's life in Bush House yet - at least as office space. Japanese landlord Kato Kagaku plans a two-year refurbishment of the 300,000 sq ft clutch of 4 buildings, former home to the BBC World Service, at a cost estimated at around £50m. Then they'll be available to let via Jones Lang Lasalle.

Architects John Robertson are advising on the scheme.

Torchy

I'd forgotten one part of Dominic Coles' extensive portfolio of responsibilities at the BBC - until a recent Google search.

Here's the current sectors minded by this COO presque-sans-pareil.

Dominic is Chief Operating Officer of the News Group (BBC News, BBC English Regions, BBC World Service and BBC World News), the Nations (BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland) and the London 2012 Olympics. 
He leads finance and business across these areas, including financial strategy, planning, control and reporting activities, as well as being their head of business continuity. 
Dominic also advises on sports rights negotiations and strategy.
He is a special advisor to the Director-General on the BBC's overall Delivering Quality First strategy and implementation.


And lo, there he was en route.... Roger Mosey can't be far behind, can he ?

Look and feel

Of course, it's not just the main BBC news bulletins now coming from Lund Point, the tower block overlooking the Olympic Park; there's much more going on, in a shameless triumph of style over content. The 23-storey building, completed in 1968, is in the Carpenters Road Estate, owned by Newham Council, and was being cleared for demolition, now scheduled for after the Olympics

A sage insider says the BBC operation, on the top five floors, feels like a collision between Shameless and Drop the Dead Donkey. The makeshift air conditioning in the wood and glass studio is still overwhelming the breathy tones of Fiona Bruce.

But there are those with child-like enthusiasm. Here, Lucy Hockings of BBC World take you on a tour of some of the facilities - it is not to be watched by anyone from Newham elf-and-safety or building control.  Note the air conditioner behind her on the first shot; the helpful guys hanging around in the "tea room"; the clear disabled access, etc. If there was any sense that this was improving the journalism, rather than the view, it could be forgiven...

Nothing like a house party

Is Danny Cohen, Controller BBC1, in danger of ending up with more vacancies than George Entwistle ?  After the news that Sir Tom Jones and Jessie J have decided that a second go at The Voice is not what they want, The Sun reports that Noel Edmonds has opted out of fronting a new Saturday night format, to be produced by Endemol (who brought you the inclusive, caring Total Wipeout).

Noel is said to have filmed a pilot for the show, in which members of the public assume the role of celebrity bodyguards, and then are required to undertake "madcap" challenges.

The chilling element of the report comes from an "insider"; "The BBC and producers Endemol were really keen for Noel to do the show. But he filmed the pilot on the basis that he would only do a full series if he thought it was amazing, different and exciting — and he didn’t feel that."

Cripes, if it's not exciting enough for Noel....

Solar gain

The BBC's glass tv studio-a-top-a-block-of-flats overlooking the Olympic Park Stadium was brought into play for news bulletins yesterday.  On one of the hottest days of the year so far.  Largely facing the sun most of the day. Tweets and discussion boards suggest there's a difficult balance to be struck between noise and temperature.

"The newsreaders seem to be struggling to read the autocue. Sophie Raworth at lunchtime seemed to be scowling during the lunchtime news and George doesn't look comfortable now."

"The presenter says it's very hot in there too !!"

"I just like reading the autocue showing in the reflection"

"The 10-o-clock News sounded bloody dreadful tonight. You could hardly hear Fiona Bruce for what sounded like about 30 Chinook Helicopters circling overhead !"

Presumably, somebody had by then cranked up the less-than-broadcast-specification air conditioning. Let's see what tonight brings. One suspects a carpet might arrive.

Editorially, phone-hacking and Syria will have to take the lead. Have News made their Olympic move too soon ?

Leader board

Let's just run round the houses on another element of the manoeuvring to create George Entwistle's BBC...(or is it Lord Patten's ?)

Tim Davie, Director of Audio & Music, was a rival candidate to follow Mark Thompson as Director General. He was never a favourite with the bookies; staff remember his marketing background, and though he's now a cheerful chappie running radio, he arrived just as Brand/Ross exploded and was also in post when moves were made - and failed - to close 6Music and The Asian Network. For a man with a background in selling, it's probably not great that he can't out-present George Entwistle in the Trust's eyes. Last month, he said the marketing strategy for DAB so far had been poor, and called on manufacturers to make more FM/DAB radios. Tim can't have believed he was a front-runner for DG, but was probably putting a marker down.

The Trust decided not to put Tim through to the final four, which was a little uncomfortable for our hero. Shortly after the Entwistle decision, it was mooted that Tim fancied a shot at running Vision, but more recent noises from Broadcasting House say Tim was getting restless and a move out of Auntie's bosom was on the cards. That suggests his TV ambitions had been gently rebuffed by George.

Sunday into Monday saw Mark Sweney's important article in the Guardian. Hours later, insiders were tipping Tara Conlan that Tim could become CEO of major indie All3Media, and the BBC was now keen to keep his talent as perhaps successor to John Smith at BBC Worldwide. There is no indication from Smith's camp that he's moving on.

The Guardian says Egon Zehnder could be headhunting for a CEO for All3Media, through Dom Loehnis, who helped the BBC find Lord Patten as Chairman, George Entwistle as Director of Vision, and George Entwistle (again) as DG.  Another connection is David Liddiment, co-founder of All3Media - and a BBC Trustee.

All good fun. Could George face vacancies at the top in both radio and tv ?  Or has he already worked out who he wants to do both ?

Rewarding job

If, as the Guardian suggests, forces of change are circling around John Smith, CEO of BBC Worldwide, he's had a good run. He joined the BBC in 1989, and was confirmed as boss of Worldwide in March 2005. He'll be 55 in August.

As a long serving member of the BBC "original benefits" Pension Scheme, he's accrued a serious pot. Here's the graph of its value up until 2009, when he formally left the main BBC Executive to run Worldwide at greater arm's length. (His pension pot is not reported now in the Worldwide accounts.)

Before you get anxious about the 2009/10 dip, note a small leap in total remuneration at the same time.

Search party

If you'd been inclined to bet on it, of the four judges to return from the Voice Series I for Series 2, who'd have called Will.I.Am and Danny ?  The Mirror says Jessie J and Sir Tom Jones have ruled themselves out.

Alan Yentob was said to have fixed Sir Tom for the first series, and Danny Cohen made a difficult and dangerous trip to Luton Airport to clinch Will.I.Am's services. Does this mean a disrupted summer for our talent leads, as they chase celebs round the holiday resorts of the world ? How hard can it be to track down Lulu and Robbie Williams ?

Infamy

I reckon most people who read this blog also keep up with the Media Guardian, so I won't go into a detailed commentary on their current article entitled "BBC boss George Entwistle considers Worldwide revamp". It contains more positioning by parties, ahead of dynastic change, than all the chapters of  "I, Claudius."  We are in for a hot sticky summer...

Marred

The last Andrew Marr show of the season was aired this morning  - and it was the last outing for his current set of opening titles. You know, where our Andrew leaves a house that isn't his, in a Nissan Figaro he doesn't own, picks up newspapers in Amwell Street, Islington, takes a bewildering route past Westminster, to the Television Centre Multi-story Car Park, then inexplicably emerges in offices he's never worked in, in the Media Centre, picking up post from a desk he's never worked at, to take a lift in no way connected with the studio back at Television Centre.

So clearly they have to be changed to give authenticity when the show returns, from studios in new Broadcasting House.

Two videos below. First, Andrew Marr's titles re-edited for Armando Ianucci's Time Trumpet. And below, the man Andy models himself on - Simon Dee.

Test with a skewer

Lord and Lady Patten, plus fruitcake, visiting the Test Match Special team at The Oval on Friday. (Just joshing, Danny...)

A quick mention...

I'm meeting more and more furrowed brows coming out of BBC production offices. It's an organisation which takes unnatural pleasure from putting itself on the sharp pointed horns of a dilemma - and this time it's over Twitter. How much responsibility should a producer take for a presenter's Tweets ? Can a producer be reasonably expected to monitor a presenter's Tweets round the clock ?

This is not, apparently, in response to Will.I.Am tweeting on camera through the tedious spaces of The Voice. It's to do with presenters who mention other, more commercial, aspects of their lives on the social media network, occasionally whilst (shock) still broadcasting with the other hand. This has led to a series of workshops for managers around Auntie pondering this problem under the banner "Safeguarding Values". If a consensus emerges, I will endeavour to be among the first to bring it to you.

Flesh

More flesh on the contract to sell Television Centre emerged yesterday - most of it revealed here back in February - to a partnership lead by developers Stanhope PLC.

No Mexicans have emerged in the deal yet, but I'm still confident they're hiding somewhere. The Alberta Investment Management Corporation - essentially a pension fund acting for "The Crown" - are now revealed as a major partner. It's a pity "The Crown" here isn't as enlightened.

Stanhope's architects will be Allford Hall Monaghan Morris of Old Street, Bristol and Oklahoma, who tell website visitors they are "thrilled". They are one of many firms who've had a go at making the Barbican more navigable; their turn came in 2006. Television Centre will be harder.  And whilst there are architectural highlights around the 14-acre site, much of the rest has the quality of a third-rate Yugoslav military hospital of the 1960s.

Plenty of people are out already taking credit for this deal - naturally trumpeted as another BBC triumph. Here are the lead negotiators - Dominic Coles for the BBC, who did it on his day off from signing up for the next four Olympics, and David Camp, CEO of Stanhope.   "Early last Saturday morning" suggests there was some tension along the way.

Whip round

As pleased-as-Punch Lord Patten prepares to wave his Olympic Gold Card at security guards and soldiers, before retreating to a summer sojourn in the Aveyron, spare a thought for those left toiling behind on a thorny problem: The Mark Thompson Festival of Leaving Events and How to Fund Them Without Falling Foul of the Expenses Policy for Senior Managers, para 31.

Leaving parties - The BBC will only contribute to leaving parties/drinks when someone leaves the BBC after a period of service of at least five years and then only with the prior approval of the appropriate Divisional Finance Director. The BBC's total contribution (including VAT and service) to such events should be modest and never exceed £200 where the length of service was between five and 10 years and for over 10 years service the maximum contribution is £500. Where a number of people are leaving in one department consideration should be given to holding a single event to minimise the total cost to the BBC. A tax liability arises on all staff attendees where leaving events are arranged on non-BBC premises; the BBC will not meet this tax liability nor pay for transport to or from the event.

Two out of three

The ad is out to find a replacement for Kevin Bakhurst - in at least two of his three roles in BBC News. The job, open externally as well as internally, is Controller of the BBC News Channel and Editor of the BBC1 One O'clock News; it makes no mention of Kevin's third title - Deputy Head of the BBC Newsroom.

Regular readers will know I relish searching full job specifications for gaffes, and even though it's from the worldwide home of multi-platform journalism there is one.  "Principle accountabilities".

Navigation aid

Anyone on the BBC staff under the age of 65 will not have come into working contact with Grace Wyndham Goldie, the formidable pioneer of television current affairs in the form of Tonight, Panorama and Monitor. This might help if you're trying to hone in on the meeting room that has been named after her in the redeveloped Broadcasting House.

Ganesh-ed

After a four year battle, the BBC has been outflanked a dogged FOI inquirer, and forced to reveal - ta-ra - more than 70 pages of its Marketing, Communications and Audience budget spend for 2006/7.

They were pursued by Ganesh Sittampalam. Ganesh was 9 years and four months old when he passed A-Level Maths and Further Maths, both at Grade A - at the time, the youngest person to do so. He went on to become the youngest British graduate of the 20th century, graduating from Oxford University at the age of 13 in July 1992. Now 33, he works for Credit Suisse.

Heaven knows if there's a story in this.  Here's page one.  The rest can be found at What Do They Know ? 

Just saying

I keep imagining one of those reporter packages overnight on the BBC News channel, introduced lugubriously by Zeinab Badawi. Some far away country, probably ending in A, where a benighted and impoverished population are getting up at 6am in villages and towns to see someone jog past with a lighted torch, followed by police cars and coaches. Eventually the running stops, and the coaches drive on to the next expectant crowd. Oh, how we'd chuckle to ourselves.

Host broadcaster

Here's a story from the London Evening Standard that deserves a UK audience. Cheeky newshounds Ross Lydall and Jeremy Selwyn made themselves at home inside the BBC's London Olympic studio, perched on three levels of old shipping containers. In Ross's words...

The Standard got in after a security guard from bungling contractor G4S checked our passes. After taking the lift to the third floor, we found the code to the locked door written on tape stuck to the frame. A BBC source said: “We obviously need to work on our security.”

Rings

Mark Thompson and Lord Patten were enormously pleased with themselves yesterday, securing UK broadcast rights to the Olympic Games of Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, Pyeongchang 2018 and the we-don't-know where games of 2020. But was there genuine competition ?  The games are "Crown Jewels", on the Government list, European Court-endorsed, of sporting events which must be broadcast on "free-to-air" channels. ITV, C4 and 5 will have shown no interest, but the Telegraph thinks Sky were testing the water with some idea of buying up the lot, then letting the BBC - or someone else - have most of it.

In Italy, Sky Italia bought the rights to Vancouver 2010 and the 2012 Games for some £90 million, on condition that it sub-licensed a minimum number of hours of coverage to the free-to-air television state broadcaster RAI. RAI will pay Sky £24.2 million for a total of 315 hours of coverage of the two events. (The BBC broadcast 160 hours of Vancouver; NBC are offering Americans 272 hours of London) Sky Italia, RAI, and Berlusconi's Mediaset are in a continuing legal battle over live football coverage.

More likely, the Sky approach here may have been based on their Australian experience, where Foxtel took advantage of a battle between free-to-air channels. They partnered with the Nine Network to win the 2010/2012 rights, biffing the Seven channel who had been Australia's Olympic broadcaster since 1992. Nine gets more than 300 hours of live coverage from London. Foxtel are promising eight channels of coverage, plus "every Gold Medal live", and have an app for subscribers. And, yes, Rupert Murdoch is trying to win a bigger stake in Foxtel and Fox Sports.

Nonetheless, before we endorse the BBC triumph, it would be sensible to KNOW there was a challenge. And anyway, the BBC's Charter only runs to 2016, doesn't it ?

Having a laugh

The BBC has generously decided to offer a magnificent £150k to an independent production company ready to produce three hours of speech-led radio across 39 English local radio stations on Monday to Friday evenings. The BBC will pay the presenter separately. It works out at £140.44p per hour - if all the Bank Holidays fall on a weekday.

It would allow you to employ a staff of 8 on the minimum wage, based on a 40-hour week and no holiday allowed. Or you could have three and a half grown ups on the BBC Median wage. Or you might want to hire a studio, or do some research or pay some contributors, or get them taxis. And maybe make a profit to keep your company going.

If I were in an indie, I'd make a stink about it. Radio 4 is paying £415,000 for a weekly 45 minute debate.

The only joy in this is that the show can't start until January; there isn't, apparently, the right technology to join everyone up.

Taxing

I've just caught up with Monday's grilling of BBC CFO Zarin Patel and her tax advisor David Smith, by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee.  It's a gruelling 45 minutes, starting at around 15.31.00 on the clock. It's all a bit technical for me, but I suspect the follow-up information requested from the BBC will make it worse. Ms Patel has to provide more detail on the 148 presenters paid through service companies, about the length of their relationship with Auntie. It's hard to think of any major news voices or faces who have parted company with the BBC in recent years; there's usually a stooshie when it happens (cf Miriam O'Reilly), and a safety net appears (cf Ed Stourton's departure from Today). And it's clear the MPs think that deals that have gone on for more than five years should fall foul of HMRC rules on payments to people via companies.

History play

From the Evening Standard, 5th July. BBC Shakespeare trumps Jubilee to put George on top

Was it the Bard wot won it for George Entwistle? BBC Trust chief Lord Patten has revealed that Saturday night’s acclaimed BBC2 dramatisation of Shakespeare’s Richard II played a more than helpful role in securing the director-general position for George Entwistle... 


Patten said the drama effectively wiped the slate clean for Entwistle, who had been held responsible for the BBC’s disastrous Jubilee river pageant coverage. “As reviewers have said, it was probably the best televised Shakespeare there’s ever been,” said the Trust chair. “There is much more (in George’s favour) on the good side of the ledger than any criticisms.” And so George was crowned the king.


I think if Lord Patten were to dig deeper, he would find a dramatic twist Shakespeare would have been proud of. The concept of The Hollow Crown series was regularly resisted by BBC Vision, and only went ahead at the insistence of Mark Thompson, who had to "find" special funding before it was made.

Wheels within...

I've been pointed to this sentence from the BBC Executive Board Remuneration Report 2011/2.

During 2011/12 there has also been the temporary allocation of a car and driver for the use of the Chief Operating Officer and other members of the Executive Board and BBC Direction Group for the remaining life of the car lease arrangement.


My source is puzzled as to why the Chief Operating Officer of the BBC, Caroline Thomson, gets an individual mention. It could have easily read thus, with the same meaning.....couldn't it ?



During 2011/12 there has also been the temporary allocation of a car and driver for the use of  members of the Executive Board and BBC Direction Group for the remaining life of the car lease arrangement.


The car and driver was handed over from the BBC Trust in May 2011, when Lord Patten said he didn't want the chauffeur service required by previous incumbent, Sir Michael Lyons.


In BBC-reported figures since May 2011, Caroline Thomson has taken taxi rides to the value of £2795.99.

Net call

Beezer share and hours figures for BBC1 for the week July 2nd to 8th: 26% share with an average 7.22 hours. Drama ? Reality shows ? No, the final week of Wimbledon. No wonder Mr Cohen kept moving it to BBC1.  Last year's comparable figures were 24.8% and 6.31 hours.

Murray-Federer even boosted things for ESPN in America: a rating of 2.9 - equivalent to 4m viewers. That's up from 2.1 for Djokovic-Nadal on NBC last year, but short of the the 4.2 for Nadal beating American Andy Roddick in 2009.

Drama by numbers

Have a word

The biggest section of the BBC Annual Report - The BBC's Executive Review and Assessment, 72 pages - is quite the stodgiest I can remember. With the use of modern computing power, I can now reveal, outside variants of "deliver" appearing in page titles, and outside uses that are capitalised (e.g. Delivering Quality First), this chart of hit rate for the D-word.

Selection box

Here's a personal selection of highlights from the BBC Annual Report 2011/12.

• Spending on Marketing, Communication and Audiences up to £72m, from the previous year's £70.5m. 

• Spending on Orchestras and Singers up to £29m, from the previous year's £24m. 

• Profits from disposals of buildings: £4.8m (I think they only sold Oxford Road in Manchester). 

• 450 posts closed in BBC World Service over the year. 

• One staff member not on the Executive earned between £370k and £399,999 - presumably Peter Salmon. 

• Technology costs up from £86m to £128m  - next time you ask how much new Broadcasting House has cost, don't forget to ask about the bells and whistles. 

• Here's an odd one - BBC Alba is claimed to reach 11.9% of the population (up from 4.3%) and thus it's calculated to cost 10.8p per viewer hour, down from 21.8p. I think a steward's inquiry may be called for.....

Roughing it

Here's an image for MPs to ponder. A scion of BBC talent, forced to mix with the hoi polloi at the Paul Simon gig. No VIP paddock for our hero - and the bike ready for the long pull back to Notting Hill.

Towering

Peel and their architects Chapman Taylor seem to have tweaked their plans for Phases 4 and 5 of MediacityUK, Salford Quays. Residential blocks, shown in green, seem to have taken increased significance over offices (yellow) with three new towers shown, compared with the January application. The proposal is for 1036 flats.

Small change

I look forward to erudite discussions with musical colleagues who don't have my tin ear, but I have to say that the key element of the "new" Radio 2 jingle package, the news jingle, sounds like a very minor piece of evolution for the money. Still, mustn't scare the elderly.  Created by Wise Buddah, with the performers of the BBC Concert Orchestra.



Here's the first version I can find of that sting, from the late 1990s.

Magic number

The BBC News website today looks generally healthy, after alarums of last week. But what's happened to Number 3 in the most shared index ? Suppressed ? Too rude ?  Or just flaky again ?

Hat tip to @andrewbonney.

Looney

Wondering why Piers Morgan's CNN show is not taking America by storm ?  Here's an small insight - ABC's Jimmy Kimmel takes the mickey out of a recent guest, Robert Blake - and I think you can see our Piers doesn't look too comfortable either.

Churn

You'll get a lot of facts and figures from the BBC this week - it's annual report time. We've already had some strategic leaking on talent pay (largely hoping to put MPs on the back foot when they try to pin down CFO Zarin Patel and her tax man David Smith on Monday afternoon about paying people as companies).

Here's some stuff about employment trends that you won't get in the accounts, but hats off to the indomitable "Spencer Count" and his FOI requests. The blue line below shows new recruits into full time jobs; the red line shows the number of staff made redundant, and the green line shows the number of people hired on short-term contracts. Note the two peaks in the red line, as the BBC managers try to hit their various head count reduction targets demanded under efficiency "plans" - and yes, similar highs in the appearance of short-term contract employees.

What next for Bush ?

Kato Kagaku International Ltd owns the lease on Bush House. The company started manufacturing malt syrup in 1945, then corn syrup in 1959. Cornflour and animal feed came later. They have a range of food products branded "Ichi Fuji", and their company motto is "In Pursuit of a Wonderful World". In the 1980s, they moved into property as a hedge against international currency movements.

First into the fold was Tower 49 in New York, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Its blue/glass cladding and shape hides the fact that it has a tricky footprint at the base, with a nearby Swedish church to wrap round. Kato paid some $301m in 1987.

Then came the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, bought in 1988 for an estimated $260m.  Last year some $90 million was spent on renovations. It's a hotel monster, with 2,019 rooms and suites making it the "biggest in the Midwest".

The head lease on Bush House was acquired in 1989. The building was conceived as a trade centre in 1919,  funded by a collection of US investors. Completed in 1925, it was dubbed the most expensive building in the world at the time, with the external Portland stone and internal marble bringing the construction cost to some £2m. The motto above the entrance - "Dedicated to the friendship of English-speaking peoples" - was nothing to do with broadcasting, but a pious expression of hope for Ango-US relations.

The BBC moved in during 1940, after a parachute mine had damaged the third and fourth floor of Broadcasting House along Portland Place. The European Service moved into the South East wing, and the rest of the Overseas Service (as it then was) followed in 1958.

Kato has been kind to Bush, negotiating a series of lease extensions as Broadcasting House building works ran late. But the BBC has been contracting inside Bush over the last four years, surrendering space in the North West wing in 2008, and the block is now serviced offices. Melbourne House was left by BBC in 2010. The annual rent on the space left this year - Centre Block, North East Wing and South West Wing - was £8m.

There are already other tenants: HMRC departments have been in Bush for a while. The LSE may be eyeing up parts of it, but somebody will need to spend quite a bit before Bush can be attractive and full again.

It's taken a while....

Now the tears have dried, it's probably worth reminding people that the BBC have been trying to get out of Bush House since the 1970s. There was a study which considered roofing over the car park and refurbishing, but the problem for all broadcasters is always how on earth you keep on air when builders need to stop major services and gut huge areas; a move to new premises is almost inevitable. In the eighties, there was a range of feasibility studies, and sites as far north from Bush's beloved Waterloo station as King's Cross were considered. This all stopped when John Birt arrived at Auntie in 1987; his quest for a bi-media news palace took precedence. There had also been a slow realisation at Bush from the arrival of Thatcher that the Foreign Office was increasing unlikely to cough up for a capital project of the scale the Bush builders had contemplated.

Birt really didn't notice Bush's existence at first, and it took him until 1998 to get round to control, ousting Sam Younger and installing Mark Byford in the 3rd floor of Centre Block to do his bidding. At that time, the World Service boasted 2,500 employees. From that moment, the English newsroom and news programmes were transferred to the management control of "BBC News".

So, fourteen years later, with Birt and Byford gone, BBC News, national and international, is coming together on one site, at the redeveloped Broadcasting House. Somebody else can tell me how many of those 2,500 posts remain.

Coarse

It was fairly soon after its appearance that the London 2012 Olympic logo was adapted in various, less flattering ways. But is it possible someone, somewhere at NBC didn't click on the right one when searching - or is this screen-grab a fake ?

Limited

Whilst yesterday was time for nostalgic farewells to Bush House, today brings news of "the future". The BBC is planning to bring together BBC World News and bbc.com/news to form a new company - BBC Global News Ltd. 

And from April 2014, the World Service is to be funded from the licence-fee. Will it form part of this new commercial venture in some way at that stage? If not why not?

The BBC says the two commercial international news services will share one management structure "which may result in job losses where overlap occurs. It is hoped that a single organisation will promote simple and effective decision making".

The element of this jigsaw that is still missing is a re-stated set of goals for a licence-fee funded World Service, that UK Licence-fee payers, international audiences and World Service staff can understand and respond to...

Oval ball

Westminster's Chief Magistrate is no part-timer. Judge Riddle - Howard Charles Frazer Riddle, 65 - was previously a solicitor with Edward Fail Bradshaw and Waterson, then a stipendiary magistrate, and a district judge before his current appointment. He lists his recreations as rugby football, walking, tennis, cycling. He's vice-president of the Tonbridge Juddians RFC  - there are around 80 VPs, and you pay for the privilege. The Juddians 1St  XV came second this year in the National League 3 London and South East. And probably minded their language along the way.

The show goes on....

Whilst many local sports fans will bemoan the lack of football chat in the evenings on BBC Local Radio in the coming season, non-league fans will get a national show as a result of Delivering Quality First. Radio London has played host to The Non League Show on Monday evenings for five years, and this season the slot has to go to make way for the 7pm-10pm national gabfest imposed on English local radio to save money. Now, sensibly, Radio Five Live has picked it up.

The new timing is not ideal - 0530 on a Sunday morning, starting on August 19 (it'll be recorded on the Saturday night) - but most listen to it as a podcast already.

Caroline Barker is the creator and presenter of the show, and runs an interesting multimedia company, Jibba Jabba.

Tenant broadcasters

The Times believes that the BBC has finally decided on developers Stanhope as its preferred bidder for the 14-acre Television Centre site in W12 - Auntie's last big freehold. And it estimates the price as £200m. That's a good deal more than the £30m I miserably estimated, but south of the £300m some spinners were suggesting along the year-long process.

Stanhope, who first came to prominence as under Stuart Lipton as co-developers of Broadgate, around Liverpool Street Station, in the late 1980s, have fingers in some strong current projects - Chiswick Park, Central St Giles, and BSkyB's new hq in Osterley. And they've just won preferred status for a sensitive site in Salisbury.  Ironically one of their contenders for Television Centre was Chelsfield, under the-now-Sir Stuart Lipton.

Stanhope's partners include Mitsui Fudosan, one of Japan's largest property companies. I have yet to track down the Mexican element of the deal, but feel sure it's in there somewhere.

Is TV Centre worth £200m? At £14.2m an acre, it's less than smaller sites nearby are asking - one development plot next to Westfield wants the equivalent of £32.5m per acre. The BBC will argue it's not really about the cash price - it's about avoiding the costs of maintenance on a site that's way past its best. And the developer has their hands tied by odd parcels of the site that are listed, making their work trickier. Nonetheless, if they can get, say 400 two-bed flats in, at £500,000 each, then the rest is profit. With some 1.5m square foot of development space, they could in theory go for 10,000 two bed flats, if Hammersmith let them.

Euro value

The BBC's entry fee for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest was £310,000. I'd previously speculated that the FOI request seeking to chisel this nugget out would fail, with the BBC using the argument that information is held "for the purposes of art, etc". They've pleaded that case, but decided to cough anyway. Because, as they say, they got some seven hours of broadcasting out of it, not to mention an audience that peaked at 9.6m. Though I presume the entry fee doesn't cover Hump's contract, and the commentary team's expenses.

With this dynamite financial information, maybe next year someone will outbid the BBC to represent the UK. Please.

Two heads better than...

BBC hacks hold their breath; "Are you letting enough nutters on the air ?" is a possible paraphrase for the next searing Trust investigation, on "breadth of voice".  Here are the ineffably pompous minutes from their May meeting. Would you like to be asked how your understanding of the concept of breadth of voice has evolved ?

75.1 The Trust’s Head of Editorial Standards presented proposals for the Trust’s next impartiality review which would consider how the BBC achieves “breadth of voice” in its reporting. 


75.2 Members noted that, in 2007, the Trust had published a report on safeguarding impartiality which contained guiding principles to inform the BBC’s approach to ensuring impartiality in the face of rapid technological and social change. They agreed that it was now appropriate to assess implementation of the report’s recommendations and how far the BBC’s understanding of the concept of breadth of voice had evolved.


75.3 Members agreed that the review should examine how the BBC achieves breadth of voice in its reporting of a number of current issues, to be determined. They agreed that a single author should be appointed to conduct the review.

This "single author" will clearly will have a brain the size of a minor planet, and demonstrate the Trust's broad approach to breadth of voice. Shouldn't there be a plurality of brains involved, or have I got it wrong again ?

Chapter

The last BBC World Service news bulletin from Bush House is on its way, at midday today. It's probably not a surprise that it's a little unusual - it features a valedictory piece from DG Thommo, and has been moved to studio S39, so that a three camera tv rig (plus sat truck) can capture the last moment.

The great thing about the BBC, even more than the buildings, is the people. The newsreader will be Iain Purdon, who joined the BBC in 1973 (about the same time as me) in Scotland. He's been at Bush since 1995.  He's also bass guitarist in a 50s and 60s rock and roll band.  The studio manager on the faders will be Bogdan Frymorgen, who's demonstrated his multimedia dexterity with a whole series of photo-albums recording the last days at Bush. They feature in this lovely audio slideshow.  It's Bogdan's last day with Auntie, after 25 years.

• We know Thommo recorded his piece at the end of June. There were a couple of takes, and, er, a little cleaning up to do. But he did help with the camera side of things - directing cutaways. "This is something I know about..."

Well 'ard

Reflecting on yesterday's events at Radio 1, it's new controller Ben Cooper who comes out as the tough guy.  Try these phrases from his blog post about Chris Moyles leaving the breakfast slot.

He has done the show for over eight and a half years - he couldn't do it for ever - and I would rather he went out at the top of his game.

I have said all along that when the moment came for the show to end, it would be a conversation between myself and Chris. It was. 

Interesting too, that the conversation (who started it ?) ended with no particular conclusion on where Chris Moyles might spend the remainder of his contract with Radio 1, which runs to New Year 2014. This is what Ben told The Guardian.

I've got an idea of a new role for him on the station. Maybe we'll surprise people again in a short time...it's time for Chris to reinvent himself and to open up a new chapter.

And then there's this amusing post from Nick Wallis, whose wife works alongside Nick Grimshaw at Yalding House, Radio 1's production offices. It makes it clear that the new breakfast host only knew about his promotion on Tuesday of this week.

This morning Grimmy told Mrs Wallis the story of how he was offered the Radio 1 breakfast show. It was yesterday, and Big Boss Ben had called him in for a 9.30am meeting. Grimmy thought he was in trouble, and to compound it, he was running late. He rushed in to Ben's office all of a flutter, sat down, apologised, and the first sentence he managed was: "Sorry. I'm not a morning person..."

Trusties

Two new chums for Lord Patten as BBC Trustees.

Born in Derry/Londonderry and educated at the University of Ulster, Mrs/Dr Aideen McGinley, OBE, has been appointed as the member for Northern Ireland. She's recently been chief executive of Ilex, the Urban Regeneration Company for Derry, on secondment for her role as permanent secretary of the Department of Employment and Learning - but has today announced she's leaving that role later this year; it hasn't been without ups and downs. Before that she's had 25 years' experience in local government in Northern Ireland, and pro bono roles too numerous to mention.  I wonder if this is the first time a civil servant on secondment has been a BBC Governor/Trustee...

Sonita Alleyne, also OBE, was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, and brought up in Leytonstone, east London.  She's a philosophy graduate from Fitzwilliam, Cambridge University. She sang jazz at Cambridge - and joined Jazz Fm in 1989; in 1991 she was made redundant, but formed Somethin' Else, based first in offices over a Camden kebab shop. She freelanced at BBC GLR and elsewhere, but Somethin' Else slowly grew into a major independent supplier of programmes to BBC radio and others. She stepped down as CEO in 2009.  She was a non-executive director at the DCMS from 2000 to 2005.  Earlier this year, she joined Archant Newspapers as a non-exec. She lists fly-fishing as one of her hobbies.

Breakfast geography

Radio 1 Breakfast hosts, mapped by birthplace. NB Nick Grimshaw was born at St Mary's Hospital Manchester, but the family home is in Oldham. Can't get a better fix on the late Kevin Greening than "Kent".

Nick ?

Oldham's own Nick Grimshaw, 27, will be known to millions from September, as he takes over the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. It could all have been so different. He wanted to study law at Leeds University, but failed to come up with the right A-Level grades. Through clearing, he got offered Communications and Business Studies at Liverpool University, and was soon working at Icon, the student radio station, where he became Head of Music. He interviewed The Coral, The Zutons and even Girls Aloud. It's reported that he left with a 1st, though I can't find more than one source on that.

Thence a period working as a record plugger for Red Alert Promotions of Manchester; an encounter with Channel 4 at Glastonbury; he gets an agent, and arrives as a "newcomer" on Andy Parfitt's multimedia yoof experiment "Switch", where he Sumo-wrestles with Pixie Geldof, Lily Allen and Alexa Chung. He claims not to have had a girlfriend since leaving university.

His current Monday to Thursday evening show doesn't really leaves a Moyles-size hole in the network. I'm guessing the saviour of Radio 1 (from Leeds)is looking for a weekend mid-morning gig from September - a route followed by more than one weekday breakfast host over the years. It might even put him up against Wogan again. 


Sara Cox (Bolton) or Vernon Kay (Bolton)will be anxious if Ben Cooper calls...

Separated

Presumably George Entwistle knew this was coming. Two major players are leaving their posts. Radio 1 and 1Xtra boss Ben Cooper, in his follow-up email to Chris Moyles' announcement, wrote "quite simply he has been the most successful breakfast show host in Radio 1’s history". Chris is contracted to the BBC until New Year 2014.

Meanwhile, Kevin Bakhurst, Controller of the BBC News Channel and Deputy Head of the BBC Newsroom is leaving in September, to become Managing Director of News and Current Affairs for RTE. News boss Helen Boaden said it was "a huge loss" to the corporation.

Pear shaped

Well I got that wrong. In-house foreign editor Ben De Pear has won the contest to follow Jim Gray as editor of Channel 4 News. Ben joined C4 from Sky in 2005.  He started at Sky as a runner in 1995.

Like all those in foreign news, he has a waspish tendency. As BBC oppo Jon Williams posted photos of the partial occupation of the new BBC multimedia behemoth newsroom yesterday, Ben tweeted back "Where is everyone. On a #BBC tea break as ever ?!" and followed up with "You can feel the buzz, the fizzing atmosphere from here".

Ghostbuster

What next for Dom Loehnis, headhunter of Egon Zehnder International, who deftly rooted out insider George Entwistle for the role of BBC DG ? The fee, of £157,000 plus VAT won't pay much more than a week's rent on their Mayfair headquarters. But it was worthwhile to the BBC and Lord Patten for the delivery of Ed Richards as a candidate, and at least two other outsiders so far unnamed - one who fell at the prelims, and the fourth mystery finalist.  Was it Dom or Lord Patten himself who lead to these stories...

Hugh Muir: Guardian Diary 29th June: Who is in the field bar the obvious internal candidates who have not, the Diary gathers, overwhelmed the chair of the BBC Trust Lord Patten?

Meanwhile Dom continues to use Twitter as a lurker rather than a participant. His account remains either hacked or full of lower-ranking Zehnder opportunities.

Home for hacks

A big day for the BBC's new multimedia newsroom, anchoring Phase 2 of the re-developed Broadcasting House - working journalists are in, though not all of them. Here's a couple of shots - the big scale, and a more intimate picture of the first night shift workers. At least one has managed to turn the computers on...

Meanwhile there's only 17 days to go in the online auction of chattels left behind at Bush House (apparently there's so much stuff there will be a second auction to follow). And its not all technical equipment and furniture. Just a £10 reserve on these important pictures....

Lot 1030: Colour photograph of Bob Geldof & Simon Mayo, framed, 64x51cm
Lot 1033: Colour photograph of Charlton Heston & Barbara Myers, mounted & framed, 55x42cm
Lot 1036: Colour photograph of Henry Kissinger, John Tidmarsh, mounted & framed, 65x49cm

Subtle

Whether Samira Ahmed's departure from Channel 4 News last year was over "scruffy hair" or not, she's changed a few things for hosting Sunday Morning Live on the BBC. I point to earrings, lipstick, probably hair product and maybe even one of Susannah Reid's old dresses.

Back to nothing

It happened sometime on Sunday. Not yet the title of one of Lennie Niehaus's myriad compositions, but an end to his dominance of the BBC Music database. M'learned music researcher, who first spotted that Lennie's works had apparently been selected by 122 castways on Desert Island Discs on June 21, now alerts me to the fact that Bing Crosby is now back in his right place as performer of White Christmas, Moonlight Becomes You, Out of Nowhere, etc.

I have readers who will know whether Lennie's takeover was a random computer glitch or the work of a an alto sax/Clint-Eastwood/Stan Kenton fanatic. And whether the problem just went away (which would be spooky) or was actively mended.

Meanwhile, this blog will campaign for a genuine Niehaus to appear in the Desert Island record library. How about this breakneck arrangement by Lennie for Stan Kenton, featuring Jean Turner ?

Catching up

With all that DG excitement, I missed the annual report of MG Alba, in the first year of BBC Alba's transmission on Freeview in the evenings across Scotland (at the expense of BBC network radio). It offers these viewing figures.

• The average 15+ minute weekly reach for BBC ALBA for the year was 436,000, compared with 180,000 the previous year
• The anytime average weekly reach was 515,000, compared with 220,000 the previous year 

This apparently allows the report to assert the channel has "half a million viewers a week".  And it claims to reach 4 out of 5 Gaelic speakers every week - I can find no reference to how many that represents. At the back, the financial statements note Alba's principal income - an £11.8m grant from the Treasury.

On its launch in September 2008, Alba claimed 610,000 viewers. By November and December, that had fallen back to 400,000. A weekly average of 220,000 was reported to the BBC Trust in 2009, and figures of 200,000 early in 2010. In October 2011, the BBC said Alba was reaching 530,000 adults a week.  In the 2001 census, there were 58,650 Gaelic speakers in Scotland.

How it might look...

A visualisation of the future? No architect was involved, as you can probably tell...

Havana's gone out

More signs of the times in Islington: just a few doors from the Rattlesnake Live Bar and Kitchen, a long- established restaurant, Cuba Libre (a political statement as well as a drink) has been replaced by Desperados. Staying classy, N1.

Yes, but is it art ?

I find it mildly amusing that the BBC can't work out how much it costs to enter the Eurovision Song Contest. Or will they have the gall to come up with one of those FOI replies which says "the information you have requested is excluded from the Act because it is held for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature.’" ?

Unsuitable

I noticed this rather churlish letter from the elaborately-coiffed Michael Cole, late of the BBC and Harrods, to the Guardian on Thursday.

The last time I saw a suit as creased as that worn by George Entwistle for his introduction as director general of the BBC (Report, 5 July), it was an Armani rag being worn by John Birt. I hope this sartorial faux pas does not portend a new onslaught of Stalinism at the White Lubyanka that is BBC HQ. At least there was a sober tie, an absence of designer stubble and a reassuringly northern name, so perhaps we shall see some Yorkshire common sense at the helm of an organisation where broken dreams have washed up in the wake of the diamond jubilee flotilla. 


Michael Cole BBC TV reporter 1968-88. 


Poor George had been kept out of sight by Trust heavies from just after first light on the 4th of July. His concealment was complete until the news of his elevation was emailed to staff by Lord Patten around 10.40am. Even if he'd brought a fresh whistle with him, getting to somewhere to change would have given the game away to lower-ranking operatives. And the heavies were Trusting no-one.  

Under your hat

Sometimes you only have the barest bones of a story, and find it difficult to make the skeleton stand up. But in the interests of showing my workings, transparency, first but not always right, etc, here's some news awaiting verbs. Or not.

BBC Television Centre.
Deal.
Mexican theme park.

Heated debate

Say what you like about Thommo's BBC, there's some fearless, plain-speaking staff on his books - and they clearly don't mince their words in the Acquisitions area of CBeebies, MediaCityUK. Programme executive Sarah Legg has written to the Ariel website, calling on Marcus Agius to stand down immediately as Senior Non Executive director from the BBC Executive, thus...

How can he possibly be allowed to stay on the board, which is devised to bring objectivity, experience and expertise - gained over successful careers - to the BBC, and assist the executive directors in deciding how best to run the BBC? The sheer depth of the scandal clearly shows Marcus Agius was not fit to run Barclays bank, let alone comment on the affairs of the BBC, and he should not be allowed to jeopardise the BBC's reputation by remaining on the board.


Sarah, who describes herself, one hopes in fun, as Europe's premier Black Lace impersonator, elicits this reply from Thommo.


Marcus Agius has been and remains a highly valued colleague during his role as Senior Non-Executive Director of the BBC's Executive Board, and his wealth of experience has been of great benefit to the BBC.

Outside if wet

A director's nightmare, with George Entwistle on the gallery phone shouting "More boats !", all condensed into 3 minutes 18 seconds.

Last orders

The most famous fish tank in broadcasting will twinkle only in drunken memory after tonight. The aquarium has been a feature of the BBC Club bar in the basement of Bush House for as long as most people can remember. When the Club was twice the size, it sat grandly across the middle of the room; then, in the Birt era, gym took precedence over gin, and the other side of the tank was blocked off to conceal sweat and exercise bikes.

The Club was meant to close its doors for the last time last Friday, with a party organised by studio managers, stalwarts of drink and human glue for the World Service. But so many current and former staff have been asking for a last chance to pay a nostalgic visit that there was a week-long extension. And the place is chock-full of memories, from its old wooden floorboards (and the previous sticky carpet) to its low-slung ceiling. This happy spot has played host to one of the world's most diverse, entertaining and gossipy clientele - the staff of the BBC World Service. I hope someone collates a small tome of bar-room tales; a guaranteed good read.

• One bar closes, another....  It's all very different at MediaCityUK. This pop-up bar is due to open today, providing it's not already floated away.