Kenny goes

Ken "Kenny" MacQuarrie gets the BBC equivalent of the 85th minute substitution in football, allowing an individual to take the applause of the crowd solo before the final whistle. In this case, his impending retirement has been made public before dramatic reconstruction of the BBC Executive Committee, possibly later today.

The Director of Nations and Regions has been consigliere to DGs Byford (acting), Thompson, Entwistle, Davie (acting), Hall and now, briefly, Davie again. He's now 68, and presumably on the BBC's final salary scheme pension, with 45 years under his belt; we'll know his final salary when the Annual Report finally comes out in the next two weeks - but it won't be down on last year's £325k. Two thirds of that should be enough for a nice retirement and a new kitchen in Tobermory.  

His legacy is considerable. Effectively in charge of BBC Scotland since 2004, he shepherded staff into the wide-open spaces of Pacific Quay (still much bigger than it ever needed to be), birthed BBC Alba, sorted out radio transmission across Scotland, and quietly grew network tv production from Glasgow.  Kenny and Tony will have rubbed elbows for many years over the issue of the Scottish Six in the 20th Century; the radical answer of a complete Scotland tv channel can only have come from their 21st century conversations. 

He had a shaky time during the 2014 Scottish referendum, but emerged as Director of Nations & Regions in 2016, moving up to the BBC Board in 2017  - a move that very much miffed James Harding as Director of News.

As consigliere, he was the go-to-guy for investigations, first into the Newsnight/McAlpine goof, and then for the altercation between producer Oisin Tyson and presenter Jeremy Clarkson over the lack of a hot meal at the end of a working day. 

I'm not going to calculate the total, but he's favourite for the BBC all-time air miles record. The flights between Glasgow and London started in 2004, increased with global travel in 2010 when he joined the board of the International Press Institute, and stepped up in 2016, with the Nations & Regions role. There's also been a little light EBU-ery. Since the pandemic, he's been Zooming rather than zooming. Let's hope he hasn't put on too much weight.