Chinoiserie

Peter Horrocks, Director BBC Global News in evidence to Pollard

"It is like an episode of The Thick Of It … because there is an open plan office space where I work and Helen Boaden works, and then there is a glass screen and outside is [where] the director general works. There are a small number of meeting rooms, we are going in and out, playing different roles. Chinese walls where there are no walls."

I am reminded that Alan Yentob took the lead role in a 1967 Leeds University production of The Chinese Wall, by Max Frisch, which won a Sunday Times/NUS award. "Harold Hobson didn't think I was much good, but I didn't care. We played for a week in the West End, at the Garrick, and my face was on a big poster outside."

I'll also have a small bet with you that Lord (Tony) Hall doesn't adopt George Entwistle's open plan approach to BBC life - or glass boxes (both a legacy of Mark Thompson).  I smell polished wood, solid doors - and perhaps space left behind for Mr Yentob, with or without posters.