The way we were

Tony Hall announced he was leaving the BBC for the Royal Opera House in January, 2001. He was then Director of News, having been passed over for DG by the Governors who preferred Greg Dyke.

Just a reminder of the landscape he left (with those still somewhere in the BBC in bold). Jenny Abramsky was Director of Radio and Music. Mark Thompson was Director of Television. Alan Yentob was Director of Drama, Entertainment and Children. John Smith was Director of Finance, Property and Business Affairs.  Peter Salmon was Director of Sport. Mark Byford was Director of World Service. Ashley Highfield was Director of New Media. Glenwyn Benson was joint Director of Factual and Learning.  Caroline Thomson was Director of Public Policy.

In News, Richard Sambrook was Tony's Number 2, and succeeded him. Mark Damazer was styled Assistant Director, and moved up behind Richard.  Roger Mosey was the Head of TV News. Peter Horrocks was Head of Current Affairs. Jay Hunt was editor of the Six O'Clock News. Sian Kevill was editor of Newsnight. Rod Liddle was the editor of Today.

In Radio, Helen Boaden was Controller of Radio 4.

Elsewhere, Danny Cohen was Factual Commissioning Editor for the launch of E4.  

In audience figures, BBC Radio's share of listening rose to 53% during 2001; an estimated 153m around the world listened to BBC World Service output; the Ten O'Clock News slightly reversed a declining trend, after the move from 9pm (Greg's idea). A new comedy series, My Family, had just started.