How broadcasting works

The greatest living foreign correspondent, John Simpson, seems to have slipped from the list of those paid over £150k by the BBC.(Odd that this might have happened under Fran Unsworth, who John likes, rather than James Harding, who he never rated.)

Part of whatever crust he takes from the BBC is in reward for 'think' pieces that pop up on the Saturday morning edition of Today.

In John's 1998 book, "Strange Places, Questionable People", he recounts his time working in the BBC's Brussels Office in 1975. "The head of it, Noel Harvey, had been on the selection board which first hired me, back in 1966.  I used to sit and talk to him in his office with its view over the old centre of Brussels for long periods of time. He had been in the Colonial Service in Nyasaland."

Before Brussels, Noel Harvey rejoiced in the title Head of Liaison, Overseas and Foreign Relations Department, BBC. Hes now 90+, and lives in Swaffham, Norfolk, where he gets regular visits from his daughter, Sarah Sands, Editor of Today on Radio 4.