Put 'em up

Here's an emerging strategy for the launch of The Nightly Show, at 10pm on ITV sometime in February. It's likely to follow the first episode of Broadchurch 3. The first episode of Broadchurch 2, back in 2015, was on a Monday, and attracted 7.6m in the overnight ratings. Retaining even half of those would represent a great start for Kevin Lygo's vainglorious attempt to knock down the Duke of Ten O'Clock, Huw Edwards.

John Wetton RIP

Born in Derby and brought up in Bournemouth, John Wetton, who's died after a struggle with cancer aged 67, started out on church music, and often played the bass parts to help his brother rehearse tunes for services. It started a love of the relationship between top line and bass melodies which lasted through a heady catalogue of bands....Mogul Thrash, Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Asia, Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash.

He was with Family for two albums, Fearless and Bandstand. Here's two very constrasting tracks from Bandstand.





The lyrics to Broken Nose are worth sharing, if Chapman's vocals are too much for you. Here's the best bit.

I like your kind of address
Dig your style of clothes
The day I stopped loving you
Was the day you broke my nose

When she goes to the theatre
It's always the latest show
While I'll wait in some poolroom
That's just across the road
One time she saw me waiting
And come across and spoke
She said 'adieu' and grabbed my cue
And shoved it down my throat

Understanding Auntie

This blog LOVES a good BBC organisational chart, and Freedom of Information has given us two today !

For our first, Charlotte Moore, Director of Content - who may care about the look of her BBC1 idents, but has unforgiveable tolerance of poorly stitched-together slides...(click to go large)

Meanwhile, over at Design & Engineering, prop Matthew Postgate, the graphics are groovier, but it's a silo-fest.

Sherlock would note that the FoI was submitted on the 6th January, and the chart is dated 18th January, Cause and effect ?

Who's leaving ?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a shrinking BBC ain't great for diversity. A response to a Freedom of Information enquiry shows that, as at 31 December, 12% of staff were classified as Black/Minority Ethnic, yet the proportion of BME staff who left the organisation over the year stood at 13%.

47% of staff were female at the end of the year, yet they accounted for 55% of leavers.

If the headcount figures are right - 18,397 at the end of December, 19,635 at the end of March - the BBC has cut numbers by 6% in nine months.

Differentials

Editors of The Today Programme have not, as yet, suffered from salary transparency. That should mean that none of them has been paid more than £150k - the BBC's self-imposed disclosure level for salaried senior staff.

I can't believe that the Lebedevs are meanies with their top people, paying them well to be careful with the money below. James Harding got Ian Katz from The Guardian for £150,600. Sarah must be on more, but we probably won't know for at least three months.

Is theirs a longer promise ? Is James assembling a team of trusties to run news when he vies to succeed Lord Hall as DG ?

Meanwhile, the unsuccessful internal candidates, the majority from the distaff side, are left to ruminate over the job specification, which requires "extensive experience of broadcast journalism" and "a sound appreciation of studio production techniques". Presumably Sarah cited the largely-unwatched London Live and three Question Time appearances. She'll be on a steep curve to increase "tune-in-time", once somebody works out what it means.

Sanded

The press-ification of BBC News continues today with the announcement that Sarah Sands, editor of the London Evening Standard, is to be the next editor of Today on Radio 4.

Sarah, 55, was born in Cambridge, to parents working in the Colonial Service, and was brought up largely in Tunbridge Wells; she boarded at Kent College, Pembury (contemporaries included Sophie Rhys-Jones, now Countess of Wessex) and went on to Goldsmiths, London, where her subjects were English and Drama - though there's no obvious record of degree achievement.

Sarah switched to indentures with the Sevenoaks Chronicle. At 23, she married actor Julian Sands, in her self-styled "Drew Barrymore period". They had a son, Henry, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1987.

Single-mum Sarah moved to the Evening Standard, where she joined the Londoners Diary team, and was trained by Peter McKay. "I went out for some drinks with some old Fleet Street lags at the end of my first day, fell down a big flight of stairs, and went to hospital with concussion."

Later: "I think back with incredulity to when my six-month-old baby was in hospital with pneumonia and I left him there, put on a suit and went to take a politician out to lunch. I was chatting away while my heart was breaking. But I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t had to."

In the early nineties, she married Kim Fletcher, a Telegraph hack who eventually rose to deputy editor of the Sunday edition. Spookily, in 1996, she took responsibility for the Saturday edition of The Telegraph, and became the first female editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 2005. Kim, who'd had a spell editing The Independent, had to head off for PR to avoid conflict of interest. Sadly, Sarah was sacked before she'd completed nine months in the post. She resurfaced a month later as a consultant editor on the Mail; in 2008 she became editor of the Reader's Digest UK, and joined the Standard as deputy editor in 2009, moving up to editor in 2012.

Sarah and Kim have had two children, Rafe and Matilda (Tilly).

Team Harding:
Keith Blackmore - The Times
Eleanor Scharer - The Times
Felicity White - The Times
Ian Katz - The Guardian
Kamal Ahmed - The Telegraph
Amol Rajan - The Independent
Chris Cook - Financial Times
Nicholas Watt - The Guardian
Helen Thomas - Wall Street Journal

More laffs

Paul Royall and his team of gag-writers at BBC News at Ten may have to work harder on Huw's opening monologue from mid-February. ITV's Nightly Show experiment, deplacing Tom Bradby, has got a new list of presenters - according to the Mirror, David Walliams will be followed by a mixture of John Bishop, Gordon Ramsay, Davina McCall and suggestive baking experts Mel & Sue.

Block

Sitting trying to scrape crumbs together for a new blog-post, but I can't stop watching this petition, growing by 200 every five or six seconds at time of writing (c8pm Sunday).  So much looking forward to the debate and the Government's response....

Saturday nights alright ?

Somewhat of a downward glissando for Let It Shine on BBC1 this Saturday. An average of 4.58m viewers tuned in according to the overnight figures (23.6% share) - that's close to one and a half million down from the series opener. On ITV, The Voice remains pretty stable, with 5.58m viewers, a 27.3% share - a touch up from last week.

Grimy Dickens-meets-Tarantino drama Taboo is also heading down. 3.39m watched first go round last night, a 17.9% share. That compares with 4.79m for the first episode.

Sir Christopher Bland

Sir Christopher Bland, who was Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors from 1996 to 2001, has died aged 78. The news came in a tweet from his son, Archie, who is a journalist with The Guardian.

Sir Christopher (Sedbergh and Queen's College, Oxford) was appointed to the BBC by John Major. Predecessor Duke Hussey had served two terms; Labour peer Lord Cocks was in place as vice-chairman, so another Tory was needed. Bland had worked as Chairman at LWT, having previously served as deputy chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, despite not having a telly at time of appointment, aged just 34.  His Tory credentials included a spell as chairman of the Bow Group and as GLC member for Lewisham.
,
Perhaps his most significant move as Chairman was appointing John Birt's successor. He chose Greg Dyke, another former LWT colleague, and also a Labour party donor. The Board of Governors was split on the appointment; internal candidate Tony Hall, now Lord Hall, came off second.

New for old

BBC Studioworks have announced that they've made their technology choices to re-equip their three remaining studios at Television Centre, and they will be up and running by Autumn. This is how they think TC1 gallery will look...

...slightly less romantic than this behind-the-scenes shot from 1974, with Peter Purves in one part of the old gallery.

And here's a visual of the new "Stage Door".

To compare, here's the old version...

Hello Halla

STV have announced the appointment of Halla Mohieddeen as anchor of their forthcoming, BBC-beating pan-UK weekday 7pm bulletin, to be broadcast on STV.

Halla (Earlston High and Heriot-Watt) has been plying her trade abroad, with France 24, Radio France International, CCTV, Xinhua News Network Corporation and Beijing Radio 774.

This behind-the-scenes video, from 2013, shows Halla and her co-presenter with some time on their hands, as the studio crew rush to solve technical problems before a live cue.

 

Easy tiger

Jeremy Paxman has joined the ranks of hacks-on-high-life-holidays, signing up for two days accompanying guests paying close to £4,000 a head for luxury rail trip from Victoria Falls to South Africa. On the first night he hosts dinner at the Victoria Falls Hotel. According to tour operators Cazenove+Loyd, "this is a rare chance to hear Jeremy’s insightful thoughts on the work of explorers of the era and their context in the British Empire."

According to the Globe and Mail, Jeremy then stays nearby on the Zambezi, as the Pride of Africa train departs. "In return for sharing his expertise on Zimbabwe, Paxman gets a free vacation for himself and his partner, plus a per diem (though Cazenove+Loyd co-owner Christopher Wilmot-Sitwell won’t say exactly how healthy that payment is) and an opportunity to tag on a spot of tiger fishing, one of the man’s great passions."

Still tucking in....

As we bid a tearful farewell to BBC Travel, no sign of BBC Food lying down as yet...

Feeling the pinch this month? Here's some quick and healthy budget recipes to get you through 🍽 https://t.co/oLjVh3RguE pic.twitter.com/BZ4gnCpCfQ

— BBC (@BBC) January 27, 2017

And eagle-eared readers have noted that this new trailer, bigging up James Purnell's Radio and Education empire, definitely includes BBC Food.

Learn something new every day. Every Element of Wonder, available across the BBC. https://t.co/31GhpmkGtZ pic.twitter.com/APrknAYJ2W

— BBC (@BBC) January 22, 2017

Programme news

It looks very much like Kevin Lygo's biggest gamble so far as ITV Controller - The Nightly Show - will launch on February 6th. Tickets are on offer for as-live recordings at 5.35pm, at The Cochrane Theatre on February 6th through to 24th. Tom Bradby and the ITN News at Ten team will be on later tubes. Will Walliams get more than 2m in the overnights ?

Meanwhile, viewers in Scotland get a first look at "Timeline" tonight on BBC2. Glenn Campbell and Shereen Nanjiani present "thought-provoking stories and analysis from across Scotland, told through some of the country's most passionate and informed guests." Will it compensate for a Scottish Six ? Will it break the 40k viewer threshold ?

There's a tear in my beer

Who, I hear you ask, are Logan Brill, Canaan Smith, Seth Ennis and Charlie Worsham ?

Have a go. New Emmerdale characters ? Members of the Trump press team ? Potential winners of Let It Shine ?

No, they are popular country music artistes who will be gracing the Radio 2 stage at the C2C Festival, London, in the middle of March. And the £57m-a-year radio station that can't afford to stay live round-the-clock has once again found funding for a four day pop-up country radio offering running in parallel with the festival.

Really ?

Here's an Freedom of Information enquiry refusal by BBC News that doesn't feel right. They say they can't work out the diversity of new recruits to the division over the last year in less than 18 hours. Mmm.  How on earth can they report their figures back to the Corporate Centre, for the Annual Report etc ? How on earth do they update their own diversity figures ? (Maybe they don't...)

Please tell me how many of the 169 external recruits by BBC News (Freedom of Information Request - RFI20161970)
- are BAME / white majority / white other,
- declared a disability. 

In response to your request, due to the technical design of our systems a manual search with information gathered from another system would have to be conducted. Therefore, in order to respond in full to your request we estimate that to carry out this search would take BBC Staff more than two and a half days. Under section 12 of the Act, we are allowed to refuse to handle the request if it would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit has been set by the Regulations (SI 2004/3244) as being £450 (equivalent to two and a half days work, at an hourly rate of £25).

Elevenses

Deepjoy. The BBC has found a way to release some more recent details about staff on the infamous Grade 11, seen by many as a new third tier of management pay below SM1 and SM2. The inquiry was first made on October 2, and time and money has been wonderfully wasted on an internal review, which acknowledged that the information was late under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.

The figures reveal the 52% of staff graded at 11 are paid more than the published salary 'roof'.  Most HR consultants would tell you that means the grading system, at least at this level, is bust. Worse, the employer is at risk from big discrimination issues, if analysis shows that, say, men were more likely to be above the roof of the grade than women. And at the very top of 11, the BBC acknowledges that some, "a few", exceed £150k p.a.- clearly running into the band above, which the BBC tells so regularly has been cut.

The BBC wants all of us who use their response to include this very poorly drafted paragraph:

“We have cut the senior pay bill by £30m from having fewer and fewer senior managers and grade 11s. Many are highly skilled specialists – from engineers to onscreen talent - and we face fierce competition to get the right people who can produce outstanding programmes and services and excellent value for money.”

Work B**ch

Former BBC HR Director Lucy Adams gets a soubriquet I hadn't spotted before, in her billing for the Housing Finance Conference in Liverpool in March, picked up from a popular music performer.
























Lucy has blogged about leadership and transformation ahead of the conference...

If trust in leaders has hit a new low, then techniques such as command and control and cascading the key messages simply cannot deliver. If the pace of change and surfeit of data means we cannot possibly predict the near-term future, then expecting leaders to have all the answers is absurd. If the flux of modern organisations means the incentives we used to offer as carrots to our people for loyalty – length of tenure, stability, promotions etc – are increasingly empty, then this means we have to find new ways of leading our people through uncertainty.

It's almost as if she knew her successor, Valerie Hughes D'Aeth, was claiming to have transformed the BBC the old way.

Guru For Hire

Regular readers will be beyond delighted to learn that Alan Yentob has signed with Kruger Cowne, the talent agency run by John Simpson's relations. Alan, "Broadcaster, Presenter, Arts and Media Guru" is available (presumably subject the BBC presenter conflict-of-interest guidelines) for "Advertising Campaigns,  Awards Hosting & Presenting, Conference Keynote Speaking, Event Hosting,  Public Appearances, and Public Speaking".  Price ? On request.

One event you can look forward to in February - a Kruger Cowne Breakfast, at which Alan is paired with Notting Hill neighbour, Nicky Haslam, 77-year-old interior designer.

The Big Questions

BBC Internal Communications (prop Valerie Hughes D'Aeth) are in full-on New Year, New Messages mood. Principal organ Ariel, an internal website, has been relaunched, and staff have been asked to be reporters, as part of an "Ariel Network".

The first interviewee is BBC DG Lord Hall - or 'Tony', to our fearless reporter. First question: "So come on Tony, what’s it like to be Director-General?"

With the DG still on the ropes, the second question piles in: "In your opinion, what unique qualities do you think you need to be Director-General?"

The meat comes at the end. Reporter: "Can you believe Ariel has been going since 1936? Today’s Ariel is all about giving people like myself a platform to tell and share stories. So what makes a publication like Ariel so important ?"

'Tony': I really love what you’re doing with the relaunch of Ariel and people like yourself joining the Ariel Network and becoming, in news gathering terms, correspondents. I love it and I think you are a vital part of what glues this place together. I really think this is an extraordinary organisation full of little pockets of people doing amazing things but you also need the glue which binds it all together. It’s part of the One BBC that we always speak about. You’re part of that. Equally I think celebration is important and it’s important that when group in the organisation does something amazing then a group in another part knows about it. And I hope the Network that you and others are part of will help do this."

Cui bono ?

Piers Morgan, seeking to promote himself and ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain, has escalated a "row" with Ewan MacGregor, an actor seeking to promote a new film, to quite extraordinary levels, with a column in the Mail Online.

Piers' full contract with GMB started in November 2015, with his first show - a Monday - attracting 610k viewers. This Monday he was watched by an average of 609k, and on Tuesday 561k. Let's see if this latest Twitter-storm nudges the figures upwards.

Exit with covering rhubarb

‘Theatre is having a golden moment and Libby [Purves] is the perfect person to bring that story to the Radio 4 audience with her knowledge and passion.’ Thus Radio 4 Controller Gwyneth Williams back at the start of December, on the news that Libby would lose Midweek (as would we all) in March 2017, but host a new, monthly theatre show on Saturday nights.

 "It is certainly important that Radio 4 should cover more fully the remarkable variety and adventurousness of British theatre at all levels around the country, and I am glad to be a part of its move towards this." said Libby at the time.

Now it seems, the move is over.

Gwyneth Williams, Controller Radio 4, says: “We are sorry to hear that Libby has decided not to take on the presenting duties for Radio 4’s new monthly theatre programme as planned. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Libby again for her years as the brilliant host of Midweek, which comes to an end in March 2017, and I look forward to hearing her back on Radio 4 this autumn to present her documentary on the creation of The Bridge Theatre in London.”

Addition

Love it or loathe it, the controversial "Final Problem" for the Gatiss/Moffat take on Sherlock added another 3 million viewers in the seven days after transmission. Overnight ratings on BBC1 gave it 5.9m; the seven day figure stands at 9.06m - and will probably nudge higher over a full month.

My toes have curled

I'm now really anxious about ITV's plans for The Nightly Show, which will bounce Tom Bradby's News at Ten to (at least) Ten Thirty for eight weeks soon-ish. There's still no sign of it in the schedules, though a start date of February 6th is rumoured. Here's the audience "come-on" from ITV - which fills me with despair.

Are you looking for your moment in the spotlight? 

The Nightly Show – a brand new topical entertainment show – is looking for fun, enthusiastic people to take part, and there are loads of ways that YOU can get involved. 

Do you want to surprise a friend or family member with a hilarious prank? Or, do you want to make their dreams come true? Do you want to interact with your favourite celebrity? Or take part in a game? Is there something in your life that could show off to become the next viral sensation? A hidden talent, an embarrassing family member, or even just a pet with a party trick?

If you want to get involved in The Nightly Show in any way, we want to hear from you!

Boxed in

Beeboid cyclists who can't find a safe place for their bikes at Broadcasting House might like to consider a classy new self-storage option. Armitage Vaults is a mega-basement developed under revamped art deco flats up Great Portland Street - directly opposite the Portland Hospital Consulting Suites. The entrance is discreet - round the back, in Bolsover Street.

The operators say the units are suitable for "art, luggage, bikes, wine, skis, golf clubs, home furnishings and paperwork." 6 sq ft, suitable for golf clubs or skis, costs £15 a week; 15 sq ft, which would take 65 boxes of wine is £30 a week. The sizes go right up to 'single garage' - 100 sq ft, at a mere £140 a week.

"Both" "and"

I'm having a bad week keeping up with BBC technology, and it's only Monday.

After a struggle with "human centricity", I've now found a series of recruitment ads taking the BBC towards "Saas" products. SaaS stands for "Software as a Service" (gawd knows how you say it in meetings), presumably allowing individuals working on BBC desktops, laptops and tablets to download approved apps. This comes at the same time as the BBC is investing millions in new "enterprise software solutions" - thus my "both" "and".

Then I lost it at this bit in the job requirement. Completely.

"This role involves the development and maintenance of the vision and architecture for expressing the BBC Digital Ecosystem as a partner focused SaaS product in support of BBC as a Platform initiatives and internal operational efficiency. Also responsible for ongoing cross-product supplier technical evaluation and integrated technical supplier solutions."

Where now ?

Recipes and magazine content (so far) sail on, but in February, the BBC Travel website will be closing down, in response to widespread clamour from very few people. A blog post assures us that serious traffic disruption will appear in local and regional BBC news pages online, but that's little use to those of us making cross country journeys.

The BBC says it will save £15m by closing the service, which seems a lot for something so clearly highly automated. A petition to keep it going stood at 1,846 at time of writing, after launching just three days ago.

How it happened

The briefing note given to MPs about the process of selecting Sir David Clementi as BBC chairman demonstrates real concerns about diversity. Initially, there were only 19 applicants - two were women, and one identified themselves as BAME.

Here's the full note. (Out of interest, the media test - presumably a mock grilling - was conducted by Tracy Lee, one year researcher at Thames Talkback, on fashion show "She's Gotta Have It", six months a researcher on a quiz show at the BBC, and seven months a researcher at Sky Television, before a move to Civil Service PR).

The BBC Chair competition was launched on 26 October 2016 via BBC press release and advertised on the Cabinet Office Centre for Public Appointments website, the DCMS Connect website and by search consultants Odgers Berndtson. The closing date was 16 November 2016. 

The selection panel was made up of Sir Peter Spencer (Public Appointments Assessor), Sue Owen (DCMS Permanent Secretary), and two independent members, Lord Janvrin and Dame Colette Bowe.  
The panel met to sift candidates on 22 November 2016. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has confirmed that 19 applications were received by the deadline. Two applicants declared they were female, one declared they were BAME. The panel was concerned by the lack of diversity and asked the search consultants to find more potential candidates in order to improve both the strength and diversity of the field. We share the panel’s concern on lack of diversity. Subsequently, DCMS also contacted a number of other people who were considered to have potential for the post. 

The search consultants proposed a grading for each candidate and presented their CVs and letter of application. The panel considered each candidate against the role and person specifications, agreed an initial shortlist of five candidates and undertook to assess late applications out of committee. Subsequently one late applicant was shortlisted and another person previously sifted out was reconsidered by the panel at the request of No 10 and added to the list. 

Each of the shortlisted candidates was interviewed by the search consultants to probe specific aspects of their CV and to give a fuller picture of their experience, skills sets and potential areas of weakness. 

Prior to final interview all seven short-listed candidates were given the opportunity to have a conversation with Lord Hall, Director General of the BBC and to receive a policy brief from Departmental officials. Each candidate was also given a media test, conducted by DCMS’s Head of News and Communications. Panel interviews were held on 12 and 14 December 2016. 

Following interview, three candidates were deemed ‘appointable’. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport met all three candidates on Tuesday 20 December 2016 in the presence of a nominated representative of the Public Appointments Assessor. Thereafter the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport made a recommendation to the Prime Minister that Sir David Clementi be confirmed as the preferred candidate for the role of BBC Chair.

Crystal balls

On Tuesday investment group Crystal Amber moved its shareholding in Johnston Press up - and now has just over 20% of voting rights in the company.

This, according to some papers, puts CEO Ashley Highfield, former BBC technology boss, in CA's firing line once again. Johnston Press's chairman Ian Russell stood down in December, citing family health problems. Interim chair is Camilla Rhodes, a former News International executive.  She ran the groups magazines division, which made losses of around £10m pa from 2005 to 2008, when it was closed down by James Murdoch. She married to Clive Milner, who was News International's Chief Operating Officer until 2010.

JP's shares are up this year, from 13.7p at the start of January, to 18.17p on Friday's close.

It's all about me....isn't it ?

You can almost feel the waves of empathy flowing out of the BBC's Design & Engineering Group. They're hunting for a Lead Architect - Frameworks, Automation and Human Centricity Architect.

The successful candidate will "develop consistent architectures supporting human centric and next generation audience interaction across our product and services portfolio". This is a first-spotting of "human centricity" in a BBC job ad - it doesn't featured in the longer job description attached. I'm guessing it's a posh way of recognising that staff and licence-fee-payers use social media - or have I got that wrong ?

Figuring it out

In the third Saturday night battle of the New Year, The Voice on ITV came out just on top, if you include +1 viewing, with an average of 5.38m in the overnight figures - a 25.6% share. Let It Shine on BBC1 was more or less unchanged from the previous week, at 5.27m (25.9%)

Taboo, a grim, teetering battle between good actors and beyond-parody script, attracted 3.47m (17.6%), down two million viewers since the first episode.

• As far as I can tell, the key period of Trump's inauguration on Friday afternoon was watched by 1 million fewer viewers in the UK than Obama's ceremony in 2009. I look forward to denunciation.

Catty

The awkward inauguration of Donald "Three Balls" Trump was occasionally slightly awkward for the BBC commentary team. Those on Twitter not previously exposed to the talents of Katty Kay, British-born anchor for BBC World News America had a very British Marmite reaction.

 "High-pitched constant yakking", "Katty Kay hasn't let anyone finish a sentence", "This BBC coverage is just an excuse for Katty Kay to reel off her Facebook friends list" sort of summarise the anti-brigade.

"Intelligent and superb", "simply extraordinary", and "worked her arse off today with the live coverage. Brilliant" cover the pro side.

Festina lente

Interesting that incoming BBC chairman Sir David Clementi told MPs at his appointment hearing that he thought BBC online delivery was important, and that he used the News and Weather apps.

After the announcement that the BBC was getting out of the online recipe business in May last year, there are still 11, 377 "delicious recipes to discover".  And the BBC News magazine pages are going as strong as ever, reinforced by content shared with the emerging Facebook monster, BBC Stories.

Still, George Osborne doesn't matter now....

What did we learn about sweary people this week?https://t.co/zWIIWl9Jd9

— BBC Stories (@bbcstories) January 20, 2017

Ex-cited

Still no sign of BBC managers expenses from Quarter 2 2016/17. The BBC Trust managed to publish their six-monthly figures in December.

Good heavens, is there a big news event we've known about for some time happening this afternoon ?

Fending them off

Still the "exclusives" come.

On Monday, Ken Bruce, not a man who normally embraces hyperbole, brings us a Radio 2 Eurovision 2017 Exclusive. He will play the six shortlisted tracks for the UK entry into the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, having battled his way into Western House under armed guard, and with earplugs to block the siren voices and kompromat offers from Heart, Kiss, Magic, Netflix, Breitbart, Lidl and Fortnum & Mason.  

These, folks, are the six discs EVERYBODY wants, and only Ken's got 'em.

SEO triumph

We now have an idea of how high the bar has been set for an "exclusive" by the BBC's first Media Editor, Amol Rajan - a three-minute plug on the Ten O'Clock BBC1 Bulletin for a new website, Westmonster, funded by Aaron Banks, and edited by Michael Heaver.

EXCLUSIVE: @Arron_banks + @Michael_Heaver launch anti-Establishment website 'Westmonster'. Full story @BBCNews at 10 https://t.co/z2FZwDpBLq

— amol rajan (@amolrajan) January 18, 2017

The site is hosted on GoDaddy.com, where the "Ultimate" wesbite hosting package is currently on special offer at £6.49 a month. Who knows how many thousands Aaron is paying for Michael's editorial efforts - or, indeed to first guest contributor, Nigel Farage ?

Mr Heaver has bought backlinks to an old website called Westmonster, launched in 2007, edited by Sadie Smith, which closed in 2008.

He's a former chair of the UKIP youth wing, Young Independence, served on Nigel Farage's press team until December, and likes Brylcreem, Chelsea FC, dance, trance and meditation. He went to Coleridge Community College, Cambridge, which he's described as ‘one of the country’s worst state schools’ at the time; was made Head Boy, picked up two GCSEs, and went on to do A Levels at the selective Hills Road Sixth Form College. With two As and a B, he went on to the University of East Anglia, wait for it, to study  European Politics.

His career has been promoted by the BBC before; he was selected as a "Young Panellist" at the age of 18 for "Question Time".

Intent of interview not captured

Unnamed complainant 1 BBC News 0.

That's the emphatic scoreline from the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee today, despite a last-ditch hearing on Thursday 12 January involving the BBC's Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg. It was all about this section of the BBC Six O'Clock News back in November 2015.

POLITICAL EDITOR Earlier today I asked the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn if he were the resident here at Number 10 whether or not he would be happy for British officers to pull the trigger in the event of a Paris style attack. 

JEREMY CORBYN I’m not happy with a shoot-to-kill policy in general. I think that is quite dangerous and I think can often be counter-productive. I think you have to have security that prevents people firing off weapons where you can. There are various degrees of doing things, as we know. But the idea you end up with a war on the streets is not a good thing.

The Trust's final verdict came after a leak of a draft decision earlier this month. It still reads: Finding: Upheld as breaches of accuracy and therefore as a breach of impartiality.

The Trust decided the problem was that Laura's question as phrased in the broadcast version was not the same as the question actually put in the full interview which read "But if you were Prime Minister, would you be happy to order people - police or military - to shoot to kill on Britain’s streets?".

News wouldn't lie down, saying they'd published the whole transcript online and that News at Six report had “captured both the intent of the interview and the political obfuscations that emerged”. The Trustees said they accepted this was the BBC’s genuinely held view but did not agree. "The Committee believed that the formulation in the report did not reflect a conflation of two questions and two answers but rather presented Mr Corbyn’s answer to a specific question about "shoot to kill" as an answer to a different question which he had not in fact been asked."

The News side added all sorts of info to back their case that Laura had it right; that the head of political newsgathering had sat in on the interview, and "recalled that Labour’s Director of Communications, Seamus Milne, who was also there, realised Mr Corbyn’s answers would cause him political trouble".

The Trustees were having none of it, and, in a mirror of Laura's persistent question, repeat their view of inaccuracy several times in the 11 page finding. Try this....

"Trustees noted that Mr Corbyn was not, as the programme item suggested, asked whether he would support “British officers” (which, Trustees judged, the audience would probably understand to mean "police officers") “pulling the trigger”, in the event of a “Paris-style” attack (which, Trustees judged, the audience would probably understand to mean terrorists in the act of killing or threatening to kill civilians)."

Jeremy Corbyn x Darude - Sandstorm pic.twitter.com/GXvuDO4ha9

— #BROKEN Wil Jones (@AchinglyChic) January 18, 2017

1530 update: BBC News has said it "notes" the Trust's decision. This from Head cheeky boy James Harding....

“While we respect the Trust and the people who work there, we disagree with this finding.

“Laura is an outstanding journalist and political editor with the utmost integrity and professionalism. BBC News reported on the leader of the opposition in the same way it would any other politician.” 

“It is striking that the trust itself said there was ‘no evidence of bias’. Indeed, it also said the news report was ‘compiled in good faith’.

 “The process is now concluded and BBC News formally notes the Trust’s finding.”

Tricky

So Sir Dave and Lord Tone can officially talk today.

The way Sir David Clementi bigged up News in front of the MPs of the Culture Select Committee yesterday will have left James Harding's ears burning, and guaranteed the Director of News a seat on the new, unitary BBC Board. With Anne Bulford making three, there's a real problem with the fourth BBC management seat - Charlotte Moore, Director of (tv) Content and Sport or James Purnell, Director of Radio and Education ?

I think, given Sir Dave's stated continuing interest in sport, and the fact that the only radio show he mentioned was Today, Charlotte's top of his list. James hasn't tweeted since Christmas Eve - is this a resolution, or just keeping his head down ?

Sir David also talked to MPs about the need for at least one non-executive with serious editorial/journalistic background. By Friday, he will know whether or not existing Trustees Richard Ayre (once deputy to Tony Hall at News) and Mark Damazer (once Assistant to Tony Hall at News) fancy a spell on the new Board. Or maybe Roger Mosey (Master of Selwyn College Cambridge, and once Head of TV News under Tony Hall) can synchronise Arsenal home games with board meetings ?

Not tapped up

It was Clementi who thought that Clementi would make a good chair of the BBC.

Sir David Clementi told the Culture Select Committee that he decided to apply for the job created by his report only two weeks before the November closing date; it was his idea; he called the Permanent Secretary at the DCMS, Sue Owen "and she neither encouraged or discouraged me".

In a rather hunched, arms-folded-close-to-stomach performance, lanky, affable David also turned out to be rather literal, taking opening questions without much obvious humour. He told the MPs he would be looking for a minimum of one non-exec with a strong editorial/journalistic background. He endorsed Director of News James Harding's continued commitment to "reality checks", saying accuracy was at least equally as important as impartiality; the BBC ought to be a place of record, where people "can go to distinguish the difference between fact and fiction."

Sir David revealed he spends Friday night with Graham Norton on BBC1.

Catch up

Last night's BBC News in screengrabs.

Comb over

If you notice a slight buzzing sound in BBC tv programmes from late 2017, it's down to the developers who have set up a bee colony on the roof of Studio TC1.

Double your money

Mildly entertained that the BBC is looking to appoint an extra person to man mark Ofcom. The new Head of Regulation and Economics will "work with the Director, Policy, to build an efficient and effective relationship between the BBC and Ofcom in relation to the regulation of the activities of the BBC, as set out in the new Charter and Framework Agreement".

The quality of the relationship is already at risk. Ofcom thinks it needs 77 people to handle the BBC account - setting service licences, handling complaints etc. The BBC Trust, which employed some 63 people last year, says only 35 of them were "regulatory", and they only cost £3.8m a year. The Daily Telegraph says Ofcom wants £9m pa to do the job. It matters 'cos it all comes out of the licence fee.

Final ?

A standard-issue Countryfile (not hugely expensive apart from Adam's jaunt to New Zealand) topped the Sunday night overnight ratings, with 6.74m viewers (32.2% share) for BBC1.

I think the boredom of sitting through Still Open All Hours (writer Roy Clarke hits his 87th birthday later this month) plus the need to wait for the 9pm watershed dented Sherlock, with a drop this week to 5.93m (27.2%). The general furore over the The Final Problem's essential quality will help drive the catch-up figure nicely.

Con ?

At time of writing, I have only seen heard or seen one "Davos" byline on the BBC - that of freelance business hackette Katie Hope, writing online. It's probably one identifiable benefit of a Trump inauguration - though time may tell. Director of News James Harding and at least five other Beeboids have been on the delegate/presenter list for the last two years.

Is it possible James will  turn up in Trumpton during the week ? Is the magic of Davos gone forever ? This, from Newsnight's Policy Editor, suggests it may be

Financial hacks: (a) know Davos is a massive con; (b) have a desire to get interviews there; (c) so suppress fact (a) because of motive (b)

— Chris Cook (@xtophercook) January 15, 2017

1630 Monday update: Have found another BBC online writer with a Davos byline - but he's not happy..

Death by press release. #Davos2017

— Joe Miller (@JoeMillerJr) January 16, 2017

Parade grounds

The administrative staff of headhunters Odgers and Berndtson will be standing by for a rush, or otherwise, from around Tuesday lunchtime.

Applicants to join Sir David Clementi as non-executives on the pioneering BBC (unitary) Board have until Friday to hand in their cvs. The more anxious will be taking the opportunity to judge 'affable' David as he appears in front of the Culture Select Committee at 1030 on Tuesday for his chairman's 'confirmation' interview.

Any suggestions that applications made before the appearance get an extra shortlisting point or two would be dreadful, wouldn't they ?

Outkasts

These videos could be the saviour of BBC3.

They're a friend first, boss second. Probably entertainer third.

It's Mourinho vs Klopp. pic.twitter.com/bORdl6JO44

— BBC Three (@bbcthree) January 15, 2017

Not quite as shiny

2017's new Saturday big guns were all off the top in the second week - but The Voice moved to top spot.

                      Last week              This week
The Voice      5.95m (26.9%)      5.48m (26.0%)
Let It Shine   6.25m (29.9%)      5.31m (26.7%)
Taboo            4.79m (22.9%)      4.05m (20.4%)

Prize fight

I'm feeling nervous, and I've got nothing to do with it.

Panorama is letting John Sweeney loose on Donald Trump on Monday.

Their most recent encounter, for Newsnight back in March last year, was billed "Donald Trump's links to the Mob" - go to 4.55 for the interview bit: "Again, John maybe you're thick...".




The Trump Organisation published most of the unaired interview on YouTube -"based on John Sweeney's lousy reputation, we are airing large parts of the interview that were not shown - enjoy!" Go to 15.04 for the Trump walk-out, and audible sighs of frustration from one of John's production team.

More data

And some more figures for Good Morning Britain, from Friday. 661k average, 18.2% share. Which compares with 1.71m for BBC Breakfast - whopping 42.9% share.

Also from Friday, ITV's version of News At Ten 2.04m (11.3% share) - two million or so switched elsewhere after the Tina & Bobby (Moore) drama. The BBC News at Ten: 4.56m (25.2% share).

On stage

Congratulations to BBC tv HR Director Jabbar Sardar (£180k pa). He tops 2016 (hitting Number 19 in the list of Most Influential HR Practitioners produced by HR Magazine, a drop of 12 places on his ranking under his previous employer) by finding time to host the 2017 HRD summit at the Birmingham Convention Centre over two days at the end of this month. One presumes the host was chosen by the Advisory Board, which features Jabbar as a member.

(As we've noted, one key speaker is Valerie Hughes D'Aeth, BBC HR Director, and Number 2 in the 2016 list of Most Influential HR Practitioners produced by HR Magazine)

Where will Jabbar end up in financial year 2017/18 ?  That's when BBC Studios, which will take the majority of BBC tv production staff, starts as a commercial operation - and when Charlotte Moore, as Director of Content, will have a much smaller operation, largely commissioners and sport ?

Artists in Studios ?

The BBC's New Year launch for "The Arts" avoided the word Yentob, and was fronted by Director of Arts Jonty Claypole (salary still undisclosed). It featured a painting talent show, a seed planted firmly in a furrow created by Sky Arts' competitions for Portrait and Landscape Artist of The Year.

(As a sidebar on distinctiveness, we note also the launch of 'Gogglebox for News', Common Sense on BBC2, from Gogglebox makers Studio Lambert. Common Sense will move to the States with NBC, as Gogglebox has already done with Bravo, re-branded as 'The People's Couch'.)

The 2018 list of upcoming arts shows on BBC will look very different. It's rumoured that nearly all senior figures in arts documentaries based in London and Bristol have opted for exit deals rather than join BBC Studios.

Show your workings

A weekend interview in The Sun with Susanna Reid used a new audience currency for ITV's Good Morning Britain. It said the show was now reaching "over three million daily".

Mmm. Overnight figures from Tuesday give GMB an average of 579k viewers, with BBC Breakfast on 1.61m.

Bits

Once again, the combined BBC1 regional and national news programmes at 6.30pm provided the biggest overnight figures for the channel, at 6.31m (34% share).

Hospital, the very timely new documentary series on BBC2, reached 2.07m (9.7%). A smart Director of Content might have swapped it for the less important Here Come The Sheriffs on BBC1 - an hour-long reversion of a daytime series.

Meanwhile in the United States, Taboo launched on FX (part of FOX) to a total audience of 1.84m, putting it at number 15 in the cable-rankings for the day.

Back on the block

Former BBC Director of TV Danny Cohen's gets to pick potential BBC drama output again - thanks to a new, bigger and better deal with BBC Worldwide.

The funding will come jointly from BBC Worldwide, and Access Entertainment, the berth provided for Danny by industrialist Len Blavatnik. The third party is Lookout TV - already 49% owned by BBC Worldwide. The trio - to be known as Benchmark - say they will back writers and producers before deciding the best channels for output.

The selection committee will be chaired by Danny, with Helen Jackson, chief content officer of BBC Worldwide, and Simon Vaughan and Faith Penhale (formerly BBC head of drama in Wales and one-time Queen of Cabs), joint CEOs of Lookout Point.

Dithering

If there is to be more licence fee money for dedicated news output in Scotland, it feels like it won't come til the new financial year.

Yesterday BBC Scotland announced the successor to the struggling Scotland 2016, which apparently was winning just 30-35,000 viewers a night at the end. It's to be a weekly show called Timeline, running at 7.30pm on BBC2 in Scotland from the end of January. It will be presented by Glenn Campbell and Shereen Najiani. Shereen, 55, (MA Philosophy, Glasgow) currently hosts a Saturday morning chat show on Radio Scotland, but will be more familiar as anchor of STV's Scotland Today til she took voluntary redundancy in 2006.




The Guardian talks about "ongoing delays" in plans for a "Scottish Six" because BBC executives have "not been able to agreee the case".

Marginalia

Some conundrums from BBC DG Lord Hall's New Year speech to staff. He said the Mailbox at Birmingham is now full (700 working there - the big boost is those elements of HR which, under previous regimes, were contracted out). But next year, we are told, there'll be room for a BBC Three production base in the city - in the Mailbox, or elsewhere ?

He said BBC Children's apps have now been downloaded 11 million times. Sounds impressive, but when you realise the top 30 apps in the world only start measuring at over 1 billion, there's a way to go. He says Radio 1 is the biggest radio station in the world on YouTube. Mmm. Radio 1 has 3.5m subscribers. Teenage fashion tipster Zoella has 11m. Radio 1 uploaded an acoustic video from Ed Sheeran five days ago - and it has acquired an impressive 4.4m views. However, that's as a proportion of 25 billion views of YouTube around the world over the same period.

There was an exhortation: 'I want the BBC during this Charter to be defined by boldness, originality, and risk taking. I want us to have the courage of our convictions, to dare to do the things that others won’t. To hear, again and again, “only the BBC would do that” '

Yesterday, BBC1 announced a new Saturday night chat-show/entertainment format from Mrs Brown. Only Old Mother Riley would do that.

On tour

Blimey, I hope Helen Boaden gets a non-exec somewhere soon.

The former Director of Radio is using her wind-down time at Auntie to put herself on show. Today. she's in Norway, helping with the first switch-off of FM transmitters. Next Monday she's at the Radio Academy North East Branch, interviewed in front of an audience at the University of Sunderland. On the 24th January she shares after-dinner insights with the personnel-focused Devonshire House Network at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge (tickets £85)

In May, presumably after she's gone from the payroll, she will be a Joan Shorenstein Fellow at a Spring School organised by the Kennedy Centre at Harvard, but will be back on 22 May for a Media Society interview with Jane Garvey at the Groucho in London.

Not long now

The latest minutes of the BBC Trust, from November, find our licence-fee guardians in wind-down mode. They bade farewell, after a year, to Tristan Pedelty, Head of Policy and Charter.

They decided not to set new targets, after a briefing on senior management pay, leaving that to the incoming (Clementi ?) Board.

And they decided you can no longer appeal to Trustees if the BBC won't entertain your complaint - the decision about whether it's got legs or not is delegated, from this month, to paid officials, the Director of the Trust and the Trust's Head of Editorial Standards.

Uniquely curated

No live night-time DJ's on a publicly-funded station costing £57m a year, from next year - that's Radio 2's big savings idea, explained by new boss Lewis Carnie to Radio Today thus: “Radio 2 has had to make extremely tough decisions to reduce programming costs in order to make savings in line with the rest of the BBC. As a relatively small percentage of our audience listens to Radio 2 through the night, changes need to be made to ensure that our programming spend reaches the most listeners."

Imagine if, say, Director of News, James Harding, turned off a few programmes because there weren't that many listeners ?

Lewis Carnie will know that the station has a problem reaching BAME listeners. 12% of the UK's workforce do regular nightshifts - around 3.1m, many of them in the NHS. The TUC believes that there's a much high proportion of BAMEs in night employment than regular hours, though hasn't given figures. It's all about choices - this year Radio 2 provided pop-up stations producing jazz, country and 50s music, without providing audience figures or costs; there were major investments in concerts in Hyde Park, folk awards at the Albert Hall, trips to Austin, Nashville...

For three hours a night every night in 2017, Radio 2 listeners will be soothed by playlists. Jeff Smith, Head of Music says they will be "uniquely curated", so that will be just lovely.

“Radio 2’s audience is increasingly aware of the benefits of streaming music but to date the offering for them has been limited or designed for younger audiences. It’s important that we offer Radio 2 listeners a way into curated, genre and mood orientated playlists but with a distinctive Radio 2 spin. So we are introducing Radio 2 Playlists. These are playlists which are uniquely curated by our leading music presenters and music team and that our audience can enjoy on the radio or on demand as Radio 2 Playlists in the BBC Music app on their mobile devices.”

Play me the one marked 'grumpy'.

Easing yourself in

If Robert Peston is right, (dare Theresa May gainsay him ?) Sir David Clementi, 67, will be the first chairman of the BBC (unitary) Board - a job created by Sir David Clementi's five-month review of governance options at the request of fellow-Wykehamist, John Whittingdale.

Embed from Getty Images

Not averse to dressing up when the job requires (above in 2006 at a company awards ceremony for a Prudential/China joint insurance venture in Wuhan), Dave ain't going to be a laugh a minute.

From Winchester he went to Lincoln College Oxford, for PPE, athletics and football. He got his blue at 400m and 400m hurdles, winning British University titles twice. He joined Arthur Andersen to train as an accountant, and acquired an MBA at Harvard, as well as a love of baseball, indulged later on Concorde trips during his 22 years with Kleinwort Benson. At Kleinwort he advised the Government on two big privatisations - BT and electricity.  He was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of England in 1997, and worked on preparations for the single currency.

Over the years, he's been director of 24 companies - most of them biggies. Thus he can afford a passion for biggish yachts at Cowes (with racy names like Hot Watch of Hamble), and has built a nice little gaff down a private cul-de-sac in Wimbledon (five beds, four baths, indoor swimming pool, Portland Stone Quoins, liberal use of English and American Oak, and a weather vane on the dining room extension, "to reflect Sir David's interest in sailing"). Lady Sally likes a fund-raising hand of bridge; Sir David has given back to Winchester, where he was Warden for six years, and Senior Patron (a patron commits to £5k a year for five years); and Lincoln College, where he is an Honorary Fellow.

Other snippets about Sir Dave here. 

Bouncing back

The woman dubbed "the driving force behind the National Living Wages and the originator of the Northern Powerhouse concept" has secured new employment, managing the reputation of online meals delivery service Deliveroo.

Thea Rogers OBE left Government alongside her boss George Osborne in June last year.  Her cv includes BBC Newsnight producer and minder of BBC Political Editor-emeritus Nick Robinson. New of her new job came via Robert Peston.

The fab Thea Rogers, ex chief of staff for @George_Osborne & ex BBC, becomes Deliveroo's comms & policy head. There's a gag there somewhere

— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 8, 2017

Gordon Hour replaces Golden Hour

Disruption in the Radio Devon dressing-room, where manager Mark Grinnell announced that Simon Bates had parted company with the station on Sunday afternoon.

Simon, who turned 70 in December, was missing from the breakfast airwaves on Friday morning, and the station's Plymouth Argyle specialist, Gordon Sparks, stepped in.  Gordon's back on air this morning, after the rigours of a boy's weekend away in Liverpool.

Who did what to whom ? Hard to figure out from Twitter....

Sad news @SimonBatesUK leaving @BBCDevon. Talented broadcaster, hard working & dedicated+great coffee! My personal thanks for all he’s done

— Mark Grinnell (@TwitGrinnell) January 8, 2017

@carelesscarer @BBCDevon @SimonBates aaah, but if we've got it right..you'll get Gordon Sparks and he will be twice as good as me

— Simon Bates (@SimonBatesUK) January 8, 2017

Shiny ?

Let It Shine on BBC1 claimed the overnight ratings honours, with 6.25m average, a 29.9% share. The Voice ITV UK was watched by an average of 5.95m (26.9 share).

The Voice did much better with those aged 4 to 34, whilst Let It Shine's audience was older and more upmarket. The BBC is still struggling with yoof magnets, and Will I Am is a loss in this respect. Gary Kemp and Dannii Minogue ain't the right answer to any question.

Taboo did ok for BBC1, with an average of 4.79m (22.9% share) - though it lost around half a million over its timeslot (whereas both The Voice and Let It Shine grew). The BBC's investment partners on this one are, whisper it, FOX TV's cable channel FX, where it launches in the US and Canada on Tuesday night.

How news works...

Newsnight editor Ian Katz is following the lead of BBC News boss James Harding forging a sideline as presenter.

Ian interviewed Dean Baquet, editor of the New York Times, back in December about hacking and journalism. A clip made a news story for BBC Online on 15 December, and then came a fuller piece at 11 minutes, on Newsnight. The next day Ian posted what looked like the full interview, at 15 minutes. The Newsnight item sits atop of the programmes's YouTube list of 2016 highlights, along with a Katz mugshot - one hopes, only through recency.

Now, this weekend, BBC World has a half-hour version of the blessed thing, called "Hacking: Truth or Reason", running no less than six times over 48 hours.

Swimmingly

Alan Yentob's nephew, Josh, is moving and shaking in arts and entertainment sectors. The Daily Mail reports that the 28-year-old New York-based fashion entrepreneur squired Daisy Lowe on New Year's Eve in Miami.

Josh's latest venture is "Solid and Striped", an online operation selling mainly swimwear - and thus no stranger to the hacks of Mail Online. In recent weeks, the organ has carried pictures of Justin Bieber, Abby Champion, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Rose Bertram wearing the brand.

Josh now styles himself  'designer', taking inspiration from the 60s and 70s. He'll be hoping for a boost to his Kennedy line of trunks from the new film Jackie, released in the UK later this month. They sell from $138 (£112) a pair.

Grrr

Is it possible that BBC drama script editors are just losing the vowels in a bizarre "Only Connect" hunt for authenticity ?

After the frr (furore) over Jaw-maker Grin, which turned out not to be an undiscovered 18th century rictus, but a Daphne Du Maurier classic re-recorded carefully with the sound assistant placing mikes in the field or room next to the action, came complaints about a new series of Hppy Vlly.  BBC Drctr f Cntnt, Chrltt Mr, issued yet more guidelines.

For Chrstms, Slly Wnwrght, begetter of Hppy Vlly, created a new tale about the Bronte sisters, called To Gabble Inaudible To Walk Invisible. Three actresses, different sizes of Mrs Pepperpot, talked rapidly to each other out of the sides of their mouths, in strng Yrkshr dlct, with the odd word (usually 'publisher') breaking through. This upset Jan Leeming, which is something the BBC should never do.

Last night brought us new blockbuster Tb (Taboo), a mangled version of The Count of Monte Cristo meets An Inspector Calls, dramatised by The Chuckle Brothers. It stars (and is the big idea of) Tom Hardy, which ought to be alright because apparently he is a hnk. Unfortunately, the plot requires our mumbling hero to utter invocations in a language that is NOT ENGLISH, which renders all leaning forward and attempts at lip-reading USELESS.

Chrltt will be up before Tny Hll on Mndy.

Barred

I'm delighted to read that the railway arches under the line that crosses Wood Lane W12 just next to Television Centre are to be opened up for new businesses.

In the dark days of 1997, when Radio 5 Live staff had been moved into the "News Centre" at the front of TVC, a group of us would spend rare downtime plotting the opening of a wine bar in one of those arches. It seemed a no-brainer - wine on sale or return, the odd bottle of posh lager, a limited menu of bread, cheese and pate (perhaps with the addition of lettuce fronds), served by attractive language students.  All we needed was a sponsor to take some risk - and install toilets. A back door would also have been helpful, so that entrants could not be spotted from top floor management offices.

In those days, many BBC managers submitted to the Myers-Briggs/Belbin Team analysis malarkey. We had no completer/finisher in our gang, and the wine bar never happened.

Do they mean us ?

An extract from the FT Magazine's interview with Dame Liz Forgan.

What has been your greatest disappointment? 

Not having children. Not being a national newspaper editor. And, my biggest, discovering just how easily a company that had good women operating at all levels can revert to old chauvinist ways when a couple of key people leave.

Her employeers, in order....

Teheran Journal
Hampstead & Highgate Express
London Evening Standard
The Guardian
Channel 4
The BBC

Late entrant ?

With rumours of a takeover swirling, ITV CEO Adam Crozier has been allowed to take an extra job as a non-executive director of Whitbread PLC, who bring you Costa Coffee and Premier Inns.

One possible suitor for ITV is Liberty Global, who already own cable provider Virgin Media and recently purchased the Formula One operation.

Mr Crozier is rising 53, and though he says he doesn't like the public eye, a pedigree that goes through Mars Petfoods, The Telegraph, Saatchi & Saatchi, The FA and the Royal Mail, might attract the interest of DCMS head-hunters. A portfolio career of BBC Chairman and Whitbread would allow Adam to keep an eye on the the unbranded Costa in the piazza of New Broadcasting House....

The Apprentice DG - James P

2017 will be a big year for BBC Director of Radio and Education, James Purnell. The strategist-turned-politician-turned-strategist has now to prove he can handle content and content-makers.

Now a Hoxton Hipster and Daddy, Jim has demonstrated chameleon qualities throughout his career, and currently happily twitters eclectically across his portfolio - from Mozart to Annie Mac, from the BeeGees to Baba Yaga's Hut, from In Our Time to iPlayer for Kids.  According to the Guardian, he thinks he looks a little like Daniel Craig; according to Gillian Reynolds in The Telegraph, he could be played by Mark Gatiss (with his radio minder Bob Shennan played by Kevin Whately).

Some of his deliverables look tricky. Lord Hall gave him the job of sorting out a new line on religion and ethics output; very few people have an idea what an Ideas Service might look like, and so far we've heard little articulation; and the impending implementation of "Compete and Compare" principles (prop: Purnell, J) in network radio has invoked anxiety from former big radio cheeses like Jenny Abramksy and Roger Mosey, and stress in the staff managed day-to-day by Kevin Bob Shennan.

First task, however, is to make sure he's one of the four BBC staffers on the new unitary board. Hall, Bulford and Harding are shoo-ins; Charlotte Moore, running tv, has a very strong case to elbow out our Jimmie, and may sulk if she loses out.  Purnell, often in the cross-hairs of Tory politicians, needs to find many more supporters in the industry if he's to compete for the top job; an RTS spat with C4's Jay Hunt over Bake-Off in September wasn't the best start to a long-term campaign.

Nightly

Interesting that LBC is Fox-ifying itself before Talk Radio (now owned by clan Murdoch). Perhaps the fact that Farage is now tied up until 8pm each weeknight ought to stop him appearing on Question Time. Oughtn't it ?

I will be presenting The Nigel Farage Show on @LBC, a brand new weeknight programme from 7pm-8pm starting on Monday 9th January. pic.twitter.com/MVE5SOWYKZ

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) January 5, 2017

Meaning

The Sunday Herald says it's seen a draft finding by the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee, on a complaint that BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg over-stated Jeremy Corbyn's reluctance to endorse "shoot-to-kill", after an interview with him back in November 2015.

According to the paper, the Editorial Standards Committee "decided there was a significant difference between what Mr Corbyn said and what the report inferred. This had led to a failure of due accuracy." The interview came on the back of Government moves to step up security after the Paris shootings; the take, still available on the BBC News website, reads "Jeremy Corbyn says he is "not happy" with UK police or security services operating a "shoot-to-kill" policy in the event of a terror attack."

The next day Mr Corbyn said he had been talking about shoot-to-kill in general terms of police action in Britain and Northern Ireland: "Of course I support the use of whatever proportionate and strictly necessary force is required to save life in response to attacks of the kind we saw in Paris."

The Trustees of the committee had concluded, in draft, that there was "no evidence of any intent to deceive or distort" but "Trustees considered that the effect of the failures to observe due accuracy had, on this occasion, resulted in a failure of impartiality".

It looks as though both BBC News and the complainant have made further comments in response to this draft finding. and the wise heads of the ESC -  Richard Ayre (chair), Sonita Alleyne, Mark Damazer, Bill Matthews and Nick Prettejohn  - will reconvene. The Herald understands that they haven't interviewed Laura; I can't see why they would need to - the finding about the broadcast shouldn't be coloured by background, unless, of course, there's an untransmitted bit of the interview that backs the News line.

Big numbers

Nine months after the question was asked, the BBC has revealed headcount and wage bill by division, as at March 2016.

News is the monster - still with 7,248 staff on the books (almost 37% of the workforce), incurring a wage bill of £371.5m. Average salary works out at £51,261. That compares with £49,326 for 'Radio' and a mere £48,673 for 'Television'. Well done to Director of Content (TV) Charlotte Moore (that's despite 6.7% of her workforce being paid at is-it-management-or-not Grade 11, compared with 2% in News).

At least 9% of staff are paid above the roof of their published salary grade.

If you plan to publish or broadcast a story using the information provided in this response please include the following statement from the BBC. 

A BBC spokesperson said: “A number of steps were taken to create a leaner BBC and decrease workforce costs specifically at Senior Manager grade. A combination of headcount reductions and pay restraint has saved £150m a year and now only 6% of the BBC’s controllable spend goes on running the organisation.”

New Year resolution

The BBC's plans for Scotland ought to come soon. The pressure group "Inform Scotland" is pushing ahead with a crowd-funded ad campaign which asks "Is the BBC Mis-Reporting Scotland ?" in the second half of January, with single posters in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Dundee and Wishaw. Their advertising partners Clear Channel made them turn a statement into a question for the billboards, but apparently have decided there's no such restraint necessary for ad-vans, where the poster will read "The BBC is Mis-Reporting Scotland".

They've made up their mind about the new regime at Pacific Quay. Here's the thoughts of Inform Scotland author Peter A Bell (left) on Donalda McKinnon:  

"The most striking thing about Donalda MacKinnon’s pleas on behalf of the BBC in Scotland is that she sounds exactly like the leader of British Labour in Scotland (BLiS). The tone is identical. A tone of wheedling condescension that somehow manages to be simultaneously self-effacing and self-righteous. An elusive shifting between superficial mea culpa and thinly-veiled rebuke. An admission of fault from which all the sincerity has been sucked by an underlying insistence that the error lay in a failure to take due account of the public’s obdurate inability to comprehend."

Ding dong

While the BBC's Anne Bulford struggles with re-distribution of the licence-fee, to pacify the Scots, Welsh, Brummies, etc, etc, husband David can look back on a successful 2016.

In February he was part of the launch team for a fundraising appeal to provide a set of bells for St George's Memorial Church at Ypres. Now, within the year, the target of £195,000, has been reached, and a new set of eight change ringing bells are being cast at the John Taylor foundry in Loughborough. The project has also acquired 16 Victorian handbells previously owned by Great War veteran Charles T Coles, and now being re-furbished at the Whitechapel Foundry.

David and Anne were married in 1991 at All Saints, Market Weighton, followed by a peel of 5072 Plain Bob Major by his fellow ringers as a wedding compliment. In 1980, David made it to the National 12-bell Striking Championship, competing, unsuccessfully, for the Taylor Trophy

The Apprentice DG - Peter F

Peter Arthur Fincham (Tonbridge and Churchill College, Cambridge) edged into broadcasting via keyboards. He played the piano for Footlights Revues, with Griff Rhys Jones, Jimmy Mulville, Rory McGrath and Clive Anderson front of mic.

After college, he was playing in the house band for Godspell when a call came from Griff and Mel Smith, who needed someone to look after the books for their fledging indie, Talkback. That was 1985. He became Chief Executive and is thought to have made over £12m when the company was taken over by ITV.

His next move was to BBC1, a period curtailed by a dodgy trail, which appeared to show The Queen storming out of a photo-shoot for a documentary. In fact RDF's Chief Creative Officer Stephen Lambert had changed the order of shots. The BBC held an enquiry under Will Wyatt (this blog, passim) which concluded Fincham and his team has "misread the mood" and were working "in a bubble" in the immediate aftermath, and were too slow in making a full apology. Fincham was selected to go, and the careers of his boss Jana Bennett and Mark Thompson as DG sailed on, unsullied.

Fincham went to run ITV for eight years, and in January left to form a new indie with Tim Hincks. He probably doesn't need the money - houses in Notting Hill, Walberswick and Courcheval. He's just 60 - and ought to be persuaded to have another shot at the BBC.  

Too many repeats ?

Daily Mail Online January 2 2015

Sexy back! Myleene Klass proves she looks good from all angles as she poses in two eye-catching bikinis on idyllic holiday

Emma Forbes displays her curves in plunging red swimsuit as she goes rock hunting in Barbados 

Lady Victoria Hervey shows off her slim figure in bright yellow bikini before leaving Barbados to film The Jump in Austria

Daily Mail Online January 2 2016

Check out My Lean physique! Busty Myleene Klass flaunts her famed bikini body in TINY two-piece during festive family Sri Lanka trip Bottoms up!

Emma Forbes, 51, shows off stunning figure in chic scalloped swimsuit as she heads to the beach in Barbados with husband Graham Clempson

Lady Victoria Hervey displays her enviably slender frame and peachy derriere in skimpy blue bikini as she tries her hand at paddle boarding in Barbados

All together ?

11.63m of us watched the New Year's Eve Fireworks on BBC1.

6.64m of us were watching when man-of-the-people Robbie Williams sanitised his hands after greeting members of his Central Hall audience during Auld Lang Syne.

BBC One has launched a new, underwhelming series of station idents, featuring "Oneness", a concept I think should have stayed with the C of E.