Xmas presents

I think it's noteworthy that BBC Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore, not previously noted for a deep interest in radio, is the lead 'quote' for the latest media release on seasonal offerings from BBC Radio and BBC Sounds...

"This Christmas, more so than ever, we’ve created perfect soundtracks that are full of festive cheer and stardust, celebrate our most loved shows, make space for reflection and tell extraordinary stories, both real or imagined."

Will she ever replace James Purnell as Director of Audio, or is she going to have a bash as some form of genre-led restructure ?  So exciting... 

Meanwhile, we await news of a new Chief Operating Officer, a new primus-inter-pares Director of Nations & Regions, and, of course, a new Chair-designate...

Executive

Did we mention that David Weiland, interim CEO of BBC Global News since the departure of Jim Egan, has been confirmed in the role ?

David (Merchant Taylors and 2.1 BA in German and Politics, Bristol, with Distinction in Oral German) joined Worldwide back in 1998, as channel editor of BBC Prime. 

Eartime

A survey commissioned by commercial radio body, the Radio Centre, says its listening hours have increased in at least a section of its regular audience during the second lockdown. 

Thirty-four per cent of listeners of commercial stations are tuning in for an additional one hour and 53 minutes each day this month compared with the period before the first lockdown. In the first lockdown, measured in April, 38% of listeners tuned in for an additional one hour and 45 minutes a day. 

There's still no sign of a promised 'Listening in Lockdown' update, promised by RAJAR for the end of October. 

Sign of the times

Left: Tree at Television Centre, no longer owned by the BBC.

Right:  Broadcasting House, leased by the BBC

Wheel beats Wall

The BBC1 decision to nudge The Wall from Saturday night in favour of The Wheel seems to have paid off. Building on a 10.3m inheritance from Strictly, Michael McIntyre's show retained an average of 5.5m. 

It might have expected stronger opposition from IACGMOOH, but this season, there's a distinct lack of flesh, flirting and fighting amongst the celebrities. And this particularly run of Group Therapy in Padded Jackets finishes on Friday, so Mr McIntyre can expect to do still better, against It'll Be Alright On The Night, even with David Walliams... 

Kitchen sink

 Scene 1: Downing Street flat, 6pm Saturday. 

"Ya boo Wales. Take that, Drakeford and bloody Gething, eh ?"

"Boo, dearest. Allegra's been on. Needs some lines for the Mail on Sunday piece".

"Leggy's a fine young thing, Caz, but she's no hack. Tell her I'll do it - absolutely bosh-ful of T-cells and endorphins at the mo. It'll only take a minute..."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8996881/We-just-throw-away-not-freedom-sight-writes-BORIS-JOHNSON.html

Scene 2: Downing Street flat, 9pm Saturday

"Boo - it's Leggy again. She says the Mail piece hasn't worked. She's drafted a letter".

Not real

Samira Ahmed on Newswatch tells us that BBC News is re-shooting some of its newsroom backdrops, 'to reflect current socially-distanced working'. It's a reminder that what you see in the background is not always 'real', but often a digital construct. 

On most BBC network bulletins, the background was at least once 'real'. Around the BBC regions, and on BBC Breakfast, we still have backgrounds, including apparently moving people, that are entirely the creation of graphic artists. Ah, the bond of trust with the viewer..... 

Not a ninja

Congratulations to Louise Thornton, new Senior Head of Commissioning for BBC Scotland. 

Louise, 43 (BSc Maths, Glasgow and PhD in video coding, Strathclyde) joined the BBC in 2007, as a multiplatform producer for yoof, and has been pursuing them ever since.  Earlier this month she closed down her Twitter handle, Ninja Lou. 

Partial

A number of newspapers with clear positions on the BBC are piling in on the organisation's apparent collapse in impartiality as reported by Ofcom.

I expect even Ofcom are slightly embarrassed by it. Ofcom has for too long favoured 'opinion' questions in its surveys - tracking sentiment over action. It's a bit like giving more weight to the numbers of people who say they can't stand Marmite than to those who actually have a pot in their cupboard. 

Let's give you some bits from the report that the papers have chosen not to highlight. 

Due impartiality in programmes continues to be the issue about which we receive most complaints in relation to the BBC. During the year we [Ofcom] did not find the BBC to have breached the due impartiality or due accuracy requirements of the Broadcasting Code. 

The BBC is the most-used news source in the UK.

In our [Ofcom] News Consumption Survey, seven in ten regular viewers of BBC TV news agreed it was

accurate and trustworthy. This is in line with ITV, Channel 4 and the Sky News channel.

In last year’s news review, we found that audiences recognised that the BBC faces greater scrutiny

than other media organisations, and that they have respect for the calibre of the BBC’s journalism.

We learned that people’s views of the impartiality of BBC news are shaped by a range of factors,

only some of which relate directly to its news and current affairs content. Some told us that their

views were influenced by the BBC brand, its funding mechanism and its portrayal across wider

media. 

Here's another Ofcom chart, from August. Note the position of newspapers and their websites.

Uncut

A report in Radio Today suggests someone in BBC England has found a magic money tree and is shaking it over local radio. It says plans to bring all stations together to share the same programmes at 10pm, and longer parts of the weekend, first announced in July, have now been dropped. 

At the same time, the first of a handful of new local services, in Bradford, will start in December. We're told it will consist of a separate breakfast and mid-morning show, aimed at the city from Radio Leeds' premises. Similar operations are planned for Sunderland and Wolverhampton.

And, by the way, there's no need for more volunteers for redundancy. 

Chase me

The second lockdown seems to have placed more of us in front of the telly at around 5pm, and the majority are currently opting for Bradley Walsh and The Chase, on ITV. On Tuesday it averaged 4.98m viewers, compared with 2.85m for Pointless, which is on a run of repeats.

Other schedulers are clearly aware of the pulling power of The Chase and its various spin-offs - and not beyond a repeat or two themselves. Challenge TV, part of Sky/Comcast, offers ten repeats a day. A glance across schedules of ITV, ITV4 and Challenge produces 84 hours a week of tv.  If you scan Digiguide over the past 12 months, 3,789 episodes of The Chase have been shown. They haven't yet made more than 2,000. 

Netting off

There's a sense of everyone outside the BBC referencing Netflix in all discussions about the future of PSB funding. 17 mentions in the latest Ofcom Annual report on the BBC. A few are in the BBC's favour.

As of March 2020, there were approximately 373 hours of UK produced original content on Netflix and Amazon Prime, compared to 12,402 hours of PSB originations (excluding news) during 2019. This equated to around 5.6% of Netflix original hours and 5.7% of Amazon Prime original hours produced in the UK, as of March 2020.85

This year, use of the BBC iPlayer has increased from an average of 4.7 to 5.9 minutes per person per

day. Whereas BBC iPlayer comprises about a tenth of BBC TV viewing overall, this rises to about a
fifth for 16-34s. Netflix continues to lead the VoD market, with 44% of adults watching each week,
including 66% of 15-24 year-olds, while BBC iPlayer is the second most-used VoD platform, used by
31% of adults and 28% of 15-24 year-olds. 

Today, dear old Netflix announce they intend to spend $1bn on UK productions over the next year. Averaging their UK subscriptions (13m +) at, say £90 a year, their UK income is £1.17bn. At current exchange rates, £1bn is £748m. Leaves a margin of £422m. 

B+

Ofcom's 3rd Annual Report on the BBC is, as in previous years, a masterly piece of carping condescension. The BBC is doing brilliantly on most fronts, but, if only they'd listen to and engage with Ofcom, they could do so much better. 

There are, of course, some entertaining snippets and stats.  Here's a brief selection. 

BBC Scotland's weekday flagship one-hour bulletin, The Nine, averaged a 15,890 audience and 0.84% share in the year to March 2020, while Reporting Scotland on BBC One Scotland averaged 403,014 and a 28% share. BARB data indicates that the average audience among 16-34 year-olds for The Nine is very low (less than 1,000 16-34s per episode), much lower than for Reporting Scotland (15,000 16-34s per episode). 

We have concerns that currently the BBC does not report transparently on how well BBC Sounds is
delivering to audiences. The BBC’s Annual Report and Accounts referred to the number of signed-in
accounts (3.6 million), that this was above target for all audiences, and that it had met its target for
younger audiences. However, as it did not report on what the targets were, it is difficult to assess
how well BBC Sounds is delivering compared to what the BBC had planned. We note that in the
BBC’s 2020/21 Annual Plan the BBC does include a target of 3.5 – 4 million weekly signed-in
accounts. 

Our BBC Performance Tracker indicates 7% of 16-34 year-olds claim to listen to BBC Sounds. In contrast, Spotify reaches over half of 15-34 year-olds, further highlighting the challenge the BBC faces in this market.

To help us with our own consideration of BBC Sounds, we are commissioning a

survey to understand where BBC Sounds fits in the wider audio landscape, including audience

awareness, consumption and attitudes. We will use this as part of our performance assessment of

BBC Sounds in next year’s annual report. 

There is limited reporting in the BBC’s Annual Report and Accounts on how well BBC Three

is delivering for audiences. We know from third-party research that 5% of 15-34s watched it each week

in the first quarter of 2020, down from 7% in 2019.

National commercial radio services have increased their listeners aged 15-24 by 10% over the past

three years, while the BBC’s network radio services have lost 12% of their 15-24-year-old listeners. 

In 2019, the BBC recorded its highest level of spend for news and current affairs since 2010,

combining network and nations’ and regions’ programme spend.

We continue to find the BBC’s output to be distinctive overall. 

Handover time

The court case between the Insolvency Service and directors of the failed charity, Kids Company, ploughs on - and Richard Handover, former trustee who used to be CEO of WHSmiths, has been grilled. (The only regular reporter in court appears to be Stephen Delahunty, working for Third Sector.)

It's been revealed that the Board was meeting at five day intervals in December 2014. “We were concerned, absolutely,” said Handover. By early 2015, Mr Handover said it was true there had been a breakdown of some of the relationships in the organisation. 

In earlier sessions, the court heard that "payroll was a struggle every month" at the charity. Mr Handover: "I said to the finance team that every attempt should be made to pay on time".

Baked

Highest overnight for a Bake-Off final since it moved to Channel 4 in 2017. Average of 9.2m and a 39.7% share of the available tv audience. Overnight figure for the last BBC final: 14m. 

Pedigree

Ofcom has found six new people to join its Content Board. Four of them have the BBC in their CVs.

Rachel Coldicutt OBE  (47, BA English, King's College Cambridge) had nearly three years at the BBC "running BBC So, then Slink, then Teens, Europe's most successful website for teenagers, plus interactive TV and mobile services." She chaired a pan-BBC Teens Safety steering group.

Peter Horrocks (61, King's College School Wimbledon and Christ's College Cambridge) worked for the BBC for 34 years.  In 2005, Peter, as Head of Television News promoted Kevin Bakhurst (now Ofcom Content Director) from Editor of the BBC's Ten O'clock News to Controller of BBC News 24.

Kim Shillinglaw (51, Holland Park Comprehensive and Wadham College Oxford) was until January head of UK factual at Endemol Shine. She had ten years at the BBC from 2006, leaving as Controller BBC2. 

Dekan Apajee (42, BEng Aerospace, University of Hertfordshire) joined the BBC in 2002, starting as a researcher, then broadcast journalist and producer working for several departments including BBC London, BBC News Channel and BBC Comedy. He left in 2012. 

Don't mention the arts

Sir Roy Strong takes a swipe at Alan Yentob in his diaries published in The Daily Mail. 

July 15, 2015

I was interviewed by Lucy Worsley [for the BBC]. I was surprised to be asked. 

I had always concluded that it was probably Alan Yentob who had kept me off BBC TV for 30 years, except in the early Nineties when he had a sabbatical and [my series] Royal Gardens slipped through.

This man had a death grip over the Arts on BBC TV for some 30 years. Certain people like [historian] Simon Schama were pushed and pushed by him and few things hurt me more this year than Schama doing a series on British portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery.

There he was, a man who barely knew the back of a picture from the front, handling items so very dear to my heart. I couldn't bear to watch it until Brian Allen, a Trustee of the Gallery, said how awful the series had been. I respect Brian. I therefore saw ten minutes of one and, yes, it was truly awful.

The producer [of Lucy Worsley's interview] was a man called Basil Comely, who loathed Yentob and told me what a creep he was, now chasing after Tony Hall, the new Director-General.

Basil is out of the BBC but has an impressive record of production for the Corporation. He must have suffered for some time. 

Noises off

Not really my place, but I wonder if the sound engineers on Strictly Come Dancing might do some sweetening of the audience reactions at the end of performances. Elstree's grand stage currently has the empty resonance of a church hall on Over 60s Badminton Night, not helped by the shrieking of Tess Daly. And the performers at the tables in the audience are simply trying too hard to fill the audio void with their whoops and whistles.

Michael Hurll introduced a 'party audience' soundtrack to Top of The Pops in the 80s. ITV's the Big Match was not above making QPR v Norwich sound as if it was coming from the San Siro. So a visit to the FX catalogue might be in order. Or a little light double-tracking. Something...

Theme tuning

You know that bit where the BBC was all about simplification ? Job titles that made sense outside the organisation ?  All sitting in plain and simple job families ?

Here's a belter. The BBC is advertising for a Thematic Advisor (Media Reform Programme Lead, PRIMED project). 

If it helps, the journalism-charity-wing of the BBC, called BBC Media Action, is leading on a project they've concisely named Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development. It's got £12m from the Department for International Development (presumably banked), to be spent over the next four years in Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. You'll be working alongside Article 19, DW Akademie, Free Press Unlimited, Global Forum for Media Development, Global Voices, International Media Support (IMS), Media Development Investment Fund, The Communication Initiative and Wits University.  

Sounds a hoot. 

It's a girl

New-ish Radio 2 boss Helen Thomas has thankfully swerved both Alan Carr and Rylan Clark-Neal as the long term replacement for Graham Norton on Saturday mornings. The job has gone to Claudia Winkleman (48, City of London School for Girls and New Hall, Cambridge). 

Claudia must be hoping for some serious winter-break after Strictly - she won't start the new gig til February 2021. 

Challenging Hancock

I do hope some of our broadcast outlets can take up the Sunday Times story of Gina Coladangelo. Her Linkedin page is clear: since September she has been a non-executive director of the Department of Health and Social Care.  Her full-time job is as Marketing and Comms director for her husband's [Oliver Tress] 'lifestyle store', Oliver Bonas. 

The Time says the non-executive job follows a six month contract as an unpaid adviser to Mr Hancock, during which she acquired a Westminster pass, and was regularly seen accompanying the Health Secretary to broadcast interviews. 

Government guidelines on non-execs sitting on departmental boards say "These are recruited through
fair and transparent competition. Boards provide the strategic leadership of the Department, and advice and challenge on performance and delivery."

Mrs Coladangelo's appointment is not listed on the DHSC website. 

In the Tory leadership election of 2019, Hancock took advice from Gina Coladangelo, then also a director at Luther Pendragon, on branding and broadcast appearances. He withdrew from the contest after securing just 20 votes in the first round. 

Transfer talk

Most of our Sunday smaller papers share the same story, which may have started with something called 'a telly source' talking to The Sun.  "Eamonn and Ruth have a huge fanbase and are very experienced. They can easily carry any number of shows, so producers at the Beeb are considering handing them a format to front."

I very much hope Tim and Charlotte can nip this one in the bud. There must be a better solution to filling Yentob's shoes at Imagine....

Streaming ahead

 AMC Networks, co-owners of cable channel BBC America, are cutting jobs, with around 100 US-based staff expected to leave before the end of the year, at a cost to the company of between $20m and $25m. 

They say it's a restructuring to focus more on streaming services. Reports say they are ahead of target to reach 5.5m subscribers this year. Their services include Acorn TV - which, in replaying UK content, is in direct competition with BritBox. Uncomfortable. 

Power games

Robert Peston devotes part of his Spectator diary to matters BBC. He says if Beeboids are hoping for a relaxation of the knee on their neck with the departure of Dominic Cummings from high office, then they need to think again. He quotes one senior Tory who was contemplating applying to chair the broadcaster as being warned off "because they just believe I wouldn't do what they wanted , i.e. give the BBC a bit of kicking ....This isn't Cummings, it's Munira [Mirza] and her husband, Dougie Smith". 

And Mr Peston quotes would-be applicants being told "Don't waste your time, the Prime Minister has made up his mind it will be Richard Sharp". 

Staying

A little bit of welcome continuity for BBC DG Tim Davie. Sir Nicholas Serota (74, Haberdashers' Aske's and Christ's College, Cambridge), currently Senior Independent Director on the BBC Board, has been given a new three-year term, running to April 2024.  

He was originally appointed for two years from August 2016, and moved up to Senior in April 2017, after the departure of Dame Fiona Reynolds.   

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson (51, St Cyres Comprehensive School and Loughborough) gets a nine-month extension, taking her to the end of 2021.  She was first appointed in April 2017. 

Over the next 12 months, Board support will be needed for the licence fee negotiations (whether they get much to do with them or not). Today's the end of the week-long 'panel sift' for a new BBC Chair; they'll be posting invitations to interviews for those shortlisted, with dates over the fortnight starting 30th November.  I expect full details to be in The Sunday Telegraph. 

Opening shots

The BBC has collaborated with Ravensbourne University in creating an online library of programme opening (and some closing) titles.  Ideal for lockdown, but frustrating if you want the content, of course. 

Some early discoveries: Tom Jones in the opening titles of The Beat Room in 1964 - way before the launch 'hit' of It's Not Unusual in 1964.   Panorama, from 1962.  And The Flowerpot Men from 1952; music clearly by Britten and graphics clearly by Dali for Hitchcock (cf Spellbound)? 

The letter

Will we ever see the letter written to the BBC by the Princess of Wales, about her interview with Martin Bashir ?  Will the BBC seek cover under Freedom of Information legislation ? ('The information you have requested is excluded from the Act because it is held for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature.’ The BBC is therefore not obliged to provide this information to you and will not be doing so on this occasion.')

Lawyer David Hooper (formerly of Carter Ruck) has posed the important questions....

• The enquiry will need to look at the issue of the letter. There seem to be a number of issues which arise:
(1) Was there in fact such a letter?
(2) If so, who asked the Princess to provide it, given that it is the BBC’s case that she was not shown the documents which she is said to be confirming did not influence her?
(3) Who received the letter and to whom was it shown and when?
(4) Why was it not filed with the other documents and why was it not copied?
(5) Why are there no documents which say in terms (as to which see above) that the BBC had a letter from Princess Diana which states that she was not influenced by the (fake) documents. This would have then been apparent to the Board of Management and the facts would have been clearly established
and investigated as appropriate. Given the documents that were produced and the enquiry which took place into what was a serious act of wrongdoing, one would have expected to see some form of chronology or recital of events saying that such a letter had been received, when and by whom.
(6) What exactly did this letter say and were there are things in the letter (if it existed) which people at the BBC did not wish the Board of Management to see?
(7) If the letter did exist, what is the evidence that it was indeed written by the Princess or was it itself a forgery?
(8) Alternatively, does the evidence show that there was in fact no such letter, given that it was not produced in the 1995–96 enquiry and given the response to the 2007 FOIA enquiry denying the existence of any such correspondence and the fact that it has seemingly disappeared. Lindley’s [long-serving Panorama reporter] book published in 2002 had written about the alleged letter sent by the Princess. Presumably this was the correspondence Andy Webb [Channel 4 documentary maker]was seeking in his 2007 FOIA request. The BBC categorically denied there was any such correspondence,
just as they denied there were any notes about the making of the programme.
or the enquiry into the programme. It was not said that there had been
correspondence but it had been lost.

 

No remit, but...

Top-ranking sanctimony in the latest missive from Ofcom to the BBC, regarding complaints about the Martin Bashir's Panorama interview with the Prince of Wales. 

Chief  BBC Minder Kevin Bakhurst writes first to David Hooper QC who had called on Ofcom to set up it's own investigation. Mr Bakhurst's conclusion: "We do not have any remit under the Charter to investigate whether the BBC has complied with Articles 4, 5, 6 and 9 [of the Charter], as you request. Nor do we have a remit to investigate the adequacy of the BBC’s general corporate governance processes in connection with the Interview, the 1996 inquiry or subsequently. The issue of governance of the BBC is for the BBC Board."

Dame Melanie Dawes notifies the BBC of this decision, yet adds "We think it is essential that the BBC ensures that the concerns raised about this programme are investigated thoroughly.

"One of the BBC’s Public Purposes is to ensure that its news and factual content is provided to the

“highest editorial standards”. It is important that the BBC holds itself to account, openly and

transparently, in relation to historic allegations of failing to achieve those standards. This is

necessary to maintain trust and confidence in the BBC’s journalism and editorial practices. As we 

found in our BBC News Review, historic events can have a long-term effect on the way the BBC’s

content is perceived today. "

My draft letter starts "Dear Melanie, I'm sure you and many of your staff have opinions, but at this stage, nobody's asked for them....  

In colour

The specialist auctioneers selling of bits of the old BBC HQ in Llandaff are ok with technology, but less good with talent.  Still available this morning, Lot 2603 - a framed photograph of 'Hue Edwards'.   Leading the bids at time of writing (1145am) is 'Chastelaine', at £11 - just one pound over the initial asking price.

Listen again

bbc.com is offering online readers the opportunity to have items 'read out' to them by a new, high-quality synthetic voice. Quality in terms of tone, clarity and intonation - but not a traditional BBC 'voice'. Soft, definitely regional, probably north of Birmingham. More BBC TV continuity, than BBC Radio 4. 

Try it on here. The player is just below the byline. 

Camera credit

Freelance lighting cameraman Tony Poole tells All About Horsham's October 2017 edition the details of shooting the Panorama interview of the Prince of Wales by Martin Bashir back in 1995. 

In late October, my agent called asking if I would work on a Sunday. She said, ‘I think it’s a big one. Would you mind if Martin Bashir called you?’ Martin phoned and said: ‘I will mention the name only once. It's Diana at Kensington Palace.’ Right from the start, there was a paranoia that phones might be tapped. 

The interview was cancelled, which I was not surprised about. However, it was re-scheduled for the following week. I went to BBC White City to discuss it with producer Mike Robinson and editor Steve Hewlett. Diana had stipulated that only three people could attend as she didn't want to draw much attention, so there could be no sound recordist. Mike wanted to film the interview with two cameras, which is difficult as you need to light in both directions and synch the time codes. It became complicated as I decided to have a back-up tape in case of a ‘drop-out’ as we filmed on Betacam.

On the day of the interview, Martin made a call to Kensington Palace and to my amazement, we got the green light. I hid my equipment in cardboard boxes as our cover story was that we were demonstrating a new hi-fi. Security was expecting us, so we passed without a problem. Martin had been told where to park, out of sight of CCTV cameras. He rang the bell and Diana opened the door. It was quite surreal. She was very relaxed and showed us around whilst we discussed where the interview should be filmed. There was an immediate warmth and I understood the empathy people felt she had. 

It took an hour and a half to set up and we weren't ready to shoot until 9pm. I put on my sound equipment and could hear a fridge clicking on and off in the background, so I asked Diana if I could switch it off. So that I remembered to turn it back on, I used an old trick and put the car keys in the fridge! The table lamp was too bright, so I attached a neutral density filter to get the exposure right. It may well still be on the lamp. 

The tapes recorded for 32 minutes, so every half an hour we’d stop and change all three. We’d have a brief chat about the next line of questioning before carrying on. There were nine tapes in total, so about 90 minutes of recording. I remember Diana become flustered when asked about James Hewitt. But she answered very cleverly. Martin did tread carefully, although he had prior approval to probe. 

At no point was I thinking about the importance of what was being said. I was just hoping that there would be no ‘drop-out’ and making sure the lighting and sound levels were good. I was listening of course, as it was important to alter the framing at key moments. But I’m never sure what to say when people ask if I enjoyed the interview, as it was work and I was spinning plates.

When the interview was over, Diana brought out some champagne but I couldn’t have any as I was driving home! We left at gone midnight and drove to meet Steve Hewlett, who was worried as he hadn’t heard from us since 7pm. I remember Martin saying, ‘I can't believe what has just happened!’ But there were nerves too as we checked to see if we were being followed.

I believe the duplicate tapes were locked in a safe. An editing suite was created in an Eastbourne hotel, with security personnel either side. Marmaduke Hussey was Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors and his wife was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, so there was great secrecy within the corporation. On the night of broadcast, I was in a room full of BBC bosses. They would shake my hand, telling me what a good job I’d done whilst looking over my shoulder for somebody interesting to talk to.

For the next week, I received calls from the tabloids. They were after any gossip or details about what had been cut. The Sunday Express ran a double page article quoting a supposed ‘insider’ who claimed that Diana had the crew ‘eating out of her hand.’ I phoned the journalist and said the article was fabricated. He claimed that he’d spoken to one of the crew but couldn't divulge his source. I knew he was lying. The story implied that I had advised Diana on what to wear, which made me laugh. Me? Giving tips to a global fashion icon?

Nick ?

So far we haven't heard much from Panorama's deputy editor during L'Affaire Bashir. It was Nick Robinson, now presenter of The Today Programme.

Dyson to straighten things out

Lord Dyson is to help the BBC understand why and how Martin Bashir secured the interview everyone wanted with the Princess of Wales back in 1995. 

Like many who engage with the BBC, he has a book to plug: "A Judge's Journey", published last year with glowing reviews from Joshua Rozenberg and Shami Chakrabarti. It tells of his upbringing in Leeds - his parents, mother Bulgarian, father of Lithuanian heritage, ran an upmarket dress shop ("Chanal") and, as a teenager, he had piano lessons from Fanny Waterman. He came through Leeds Grammar School, via classics at Wadham, Oxford, to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1968. He admits to using the Nutshell books to get him through the Finals, and says he learned the law on the job - sufficiently to rise to Master of the Rolls.  

Since retiring, he's taken on a range of tasks - adjudicating the Peter Beardsley racism case for The FA in 2019, and the Saracens Salary Cap case for Premiership Rugby later in the same year. 

Lord Dyson will have the services of staff from Fieldfisher, who've been advising the BBC off and on since 1998, most recently servicing the four-year-long inquiry by Dame Janet Smith into the activities of Jimmy Savile. 

Mangold surfaces

"I do not pretend to have proof". Thus Tom Mangold (86, Dorking County Grammar and National Service) in The Times this morning. 

Then he fingers a range of people for covering up Martin Bashir's activity in securing the 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana. Principally, the late Steve Hewlett, the programme's Editor at the time. The programme was broadcast in November: Mangold says "The bomb hit the BBC three months later. On Sunday, April 7, the horrendous truth was published in The Mail On Sunday. I know who leaked, and why, but I’m keeping counsel on that. "

Mr Mangold implies that the BBC Press Office bought the cover-up, unwittingly, and briefed against malcontents at Panorama for leaking. The outcome for Tom, in the end, was being fired by the next boss of Panorama, Mike Robinson. Mike had been Bashir's producer on the Diana interview.  

On the internal investigation, he says Bashir "was given what must have been the cosiest formal interview of his life by [Tony] Hall and [Anne] Sloman. I know both of them well, and, with the best will and utmost respect, Bashir would have metaphorically had their trousers off before sitting down."

Updated 0900 19/11/2020 - I initially got the sequence of Panorama editors wrong. 

Cast list grows

 A new member of the dramatis personae in The Court of Public Opinion v Martin Bashir. Peter Horrocks, one of the BBC's 'competitive dads' at the turn of the century, then running tv current affairs, wrote to his counterparts at ITV, complaining about their employee's tactics in securing interviews with victims of Harold Shipman. 

'What Martin does crosses the line of acceptability. Potential interviewees told us that Martin suggested they should not speak to us because Panorama were liars and could not be trusted. One relative of a victim said Martin had claimed that Panorama would sabotage the prosecution by broadcasting before the end of the trial...I would ask that you take steps to control Martin in the future.'

The letter was discovered by Channel 4 News. Perhaps ITV should have a retrospective inquiry about Mr Bashir while he was in their custody.

Own the brand

As 450 doors close, another opens in BBC News. "The Head of Design is an exciting new post that will play a central role in bringing together our award winning designers and system specialists for all our Digital and Broadcast output into one integrated BBC News Design team."

We are told they'll have c90 staff to manage, and will report to dapper in-house-style-guru Kamal Ahmed, who apparently runs something the ad calls "the Editorial Directorate department". 

Following through...

An action-packed start to the Today programme rather tailed off today. There was no pick-up on the "most unethical use of public funds for screening" that is the Cummings-inspired moonshot nonsense, and no pick-up on Channel 4 Dispatches undercover work on Randox labs in Northern Ireland. 

Martha Kearney had an outbreak of "Give us a sense".  There was the first of what appear to be many runs of the Olusoga/Obama interview (Can't see a Farage/Trump sit-down getting the same exposure in 2024), and we glided to an ended with a whole chunk of a Nick Robinson show still to come on Radio 4. Patchy.

Shunting difficulties

Like our sequestered leader, I blame devolution. Last night's Panorama, produced in Northern Ireland, got stuck in the starting gates. Turning it off and turning it on again didn't seem, initially, to work, and so BBC1 England, BBC1 Scotland, BBC1 Wales and BBC1 Northern Ireland took different routes to fill the gaps - cooking programmes, Garden Rescue, public information films etc. Not all transmitters were due to take Would I Lie To You, so there was more crashing in and out. 

The fact that EastEnders is usually 21 or so minutes in a 25 minute slot helped make up the 15-minute overrun by the time we got to the late news -  but Huw was wrong when he opened with "Tonight at ten...". It was 10.06pm.  Tim Wilcox knows - he was filling on the News Channel, waiting to opt in. 

New berth

Former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Danny Shaw has landed safely after taking redundancy. He's joining Crest,"The UK's only consultancy dedicated to crime and justice", as Head of Strategy and Insight.

Crest was founded by Gavin Lockhart-Mirams, 41 (MA 1st Class in Sociology, Edinburgh University). Gavin's other interests include Themis UK, a think-tank, and The Glorious Game Sporting Company, which offers packages around hunting (truffles), shooting and fishing. 

How branding works

Just in case viewers of BBC America are getting sated with the daily re-runs of Star Trek: Next Generation, the network appears to have purchased the rights to early episodes of the tv series Law & Order. Not the later UK version, but the Dick Wolf original, set in Manhattan. Tonight, you can get six episodes from back in 1997, taking you through to 0100 Eastern Time, when Star Trek starts on rotation again. 

Convenient

So, Graham Norton was not tired of radio when he announced his departure from Radio 2's weekend schedule after ten years. In fact he's planning to double his radio output, with two weekend shows for Virgin Radio from the New Year. 

“I am excited and a little surprised to be joining Virgin Radio UK in 2021. I was very content where I was but the opportunity to host shows across the weekend seemed too good to miss out on. Plus the energy and enthusiasm at Virgin Radio are infectious and I can’t wait to get started ! Did I mention the studios are very close to my house ?”

His London gaff is on Wapping High Street; Virgin Radio is in the News UK building at London Bridge.

Setting

You just wonder whether or not Steve McQueen's powerful drama Small Axe: Mangrove could have been better cosseted in the BBC1 schedules.  It returned an average of 1.1m viewers in the overnights, over two hours and ten minutes. An average of 10.9m opted for the launch of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here on ITV - one hour 35 minutes, but maxed out with adverts, sponsorship and trails. It also attracted 80 per cent of all 16- to 24-year-olds watching tv over that period.   Pity - Mangrove would have opened their eyes. 

• ITV News always enjoys the arrival of IACGMOOH; they can claim 8.9m viewers for their Sunday bulletin. BBC figure not yet to hand...

Awareness

I'm sure that 10 Downing Street will publish full details of its own Covid-19 Secure guidelines before the end of the day, defining as essential the massaging of the egos of backbench MPs at face-to-face breakfast meetings. The event underlines that our Prime Minister has more than one issue with respecting personal space. At the BBC, they use One Hugh Pym to remind themselves of the required 2 metre gap. 

Presence

A regular correspondent for this blog notes the lack of on-the-spot BBC reporting of the Stop The Steal/Make America Great Again, Again demonstrations in Washington - and, indeed in various cities across the USA. 

The late BBC1 news took in agency pictures and turned the story into a feature about social media misinformation by London-based correspondent Marianna Spring. Perfectly worthy, but not the day's story. We needed some assessment of the momentum of these protests, still encouraged by Donald Trump. But the BBC's Washington Bureau, the largest of any foreign broadcaster in the capital, couldn't supply. 

This morning, we awoke to BBC Los Angeles-based correspondent David Willis picking up on the marches and the subsequent clashes. 

THERE he is

Hacks have fearlessly tracked former BBC DG Lord Hall down to his home in Henley, and, in The Court of Everyone's an Ethics Expert v Martin Bashir, he has opined “I want these things to be looked at.”

This doesn't move us much forward from his Tuesday comment that he would co-operate with any new inquiry: “Of course the BBC should look at any new issues raised and speak to whoever they need to". 

Lord Hall must be more relaxed, now the handwritten note from Princess Diana has been found. The BBC has said the note confirms that the princess hadn’t seen fake financial documents prior to her Panorama 1995 interview and they played no part in her decision to speak on camera. It would be interesting to read the full text - to see whether this was a spontaneous letter, and to whom it was addressed - but clearly BBC transparency doesn't yet stretch that far. 

Lord Hall remains exposed to claims of double standards - making sure that the graphics artist who constructed fictitious bank statements didn't work for the BBC again, whilst accepting Martin Bashir's 'contrition' for his inexplicable decision to commission said bank statements.

THERE it is !

Don't panic - the handwritten note from the Princess of Wales, apparently exonerating Martin Bashir, has been found. 

What price some further questions from the Information Commissioner ?  A 2007 request for internal documents relating to the 1996 investigation into Bashir’s interview with Diana was turned down on the basis that the BBC no longer held any such material. Spookily, a repeat of that request this year produced 57 pages of relevant documents, released to a Channel 4 film-maker just before his documentary was to go to air.  The answer to a request for the handwritten note remained the same - it had been lost, and no copies had been made. 

The BBC spokesperson said “Following the announcement of the independent investigation, the BBC has now recovered the princess’s original handwritten note which is referred to in our records from the time. We will pass it on to the independent investigation. As there has been a lot of commentary about this note and journalists have asked about it, we thought it appropriate to put on record that we’ve now recovered it.

“We will set out further details of the independent investigation shortly.”

More Bashir

 Odds and ends we have learnt about Martin Bashir this week.

He started his company, Panoramic Productions, in February 1995 - nine months before his Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales was broadcast. His wife, Deborah, then a district nurse, was company secretary. It's never had much more than £50k to handle a year. 

He shares an agent - John Miles - with Noel Edmonds, Timmy Mallett and Nick Knowles. 

As the BBC's Religion Editor, Martin wrote a foreword to former DDG Mark Byford's 2018 tome, The Annunciation - A Pilgrim's Quest, describing it as ‘an extraordinary devotional journey… unique and thought-provoking.'  Martin lived not far from Byford in Winchester for a time from 2002. In 2003, Martin's people carrier was set on fire by a former friend of his son. 

What are you doing on Tuesday?

It seems only one day of the working week is left untrammelled in parts of the BBC. Director of News Fran Unsworth has noted, approvingly, that some of her departments have instituted 'No Meetings Fridays' as well as 'Wellbeing Wednesdays'.  These now sit alongside 'Motivation Monday' and 'Thinking Thursday'. 

[At the turn of the century, I was privileged with access to a group email address for senior leaders across BBC News. I used to enjoy dispatching emails on Friday afternoons and sit back as the 'Out-Of-Office Auto Replies' poured in...]

Excel-ling

I look forward to proper hacks doing an economic impact assessment of Dominic Cummings' 15 months running the UK. 

On my list: The departure deals for at least 6 Civil Service heads

An unknown number of SPAD tribunal and settlement costs
More or less anything to do with PPE shortages

The costs of setting up the command and control centre at 70 Whitehall
The contracts awarded to Hanbury Strategy, Public First, Faculty and others
The legal costs of the Supreme Court case over the prorogation of Parliament

A level algorithms

Free school meal u-turns

NHS Covid apps

And last but not least, Brexit. Mr Cummings will have left the building when we leave, deal or no deal.

Lee

Can we help you with some background on Lee Cain, the nearly-but-not-quite-No 10-Chief of Staff, whose principal tool as Director of Communication has been the ban - cf C4 News, The Today Programme and Good Morning Britain ? 

Lee, 39, went to Ormskirk Grammar School; his parents still live in L40. From there it was a BA in Journalism at Staffordshire University, which included some work experience on the Leek Post & Times. From 2006 to 2008 he was with the Gloucester Citizen, starting as Abbeymead and Abbeydale patch reporter. Left, Lee watching rugby union at Gloucester in 2007.

From there he joined South West News Service, and did shifts at the Mirror, Sun and Mail on Sunday. A full-time gig at the Mirror saw him chase 2010 election candidates dressed as a chicken. There followed a short spell on the production team of ITV's This Morning, bolstering the hard-nosed journalism favoured by Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. Thence it was to tech pr specialists Clarity, and spinning for lawyers Slater Gordon. 

In 2016, hedging his bets like his later employer Boris Johnson, he applied to join the press teams for both "Remain" and "Vote Leave". Vote Leave picked him, and, after the referendum, he became a special adviser at DEFRA, under first Andrea Leadsom, then Michael Gove. 

Lee's partner is Nikki Barr, a former Express digital journalist, now with Shell. Here she is explaining social media, when at Yahoo! in 2015. 

 

Phew !

There will be glasses of sweet sherry clinking in the BBC HR department today. The Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation into historic pay issues has come up as clean as can be expected. 

It's taken 20 months to produce the 80-page report - much of it filled with the BBC's own documentation on the Career Path Framework, On Air Pay and Pay Transparency. The EHRC had been poking around for a year before they launched the formal investigation in March 2019. Their investigators took a look at some apparently random pay cases, and a selection of complaints, going into details in just 10.  

They note some serious delays in coming to decisions, and that over 300 people are still paid more than the maximum of their broad band pay range and their job pay range. And that the Career Path Framework now has 730 job categories, compared with 600 when it was introduced in 2017. 

Licenced

So far, so good. The BBC's move to end 'free' tv licences for the over 75s seems to be progressing. 700,000 have been granted the 'free' concession because they are on Pension Credit - we don't know how many are claiming that for the first time. 2,340,000 have paid for a licence. The BBC estimated that last financial year, there were 4,690,000 licences for over 75s in force. Just over 64% have so far come willingly.

Taking soundings

BBC Sounds averaged 3.2 million listeners a week in Quarter 3, from July to September. That compares with 3.4m in the previous three months - the lockdown months - and 3.1m in the first quarter of the year.

Live listening, counted in hours, makes up the bulk of activity - 66% in Q1, 65% in Q2 and 67% in Q3. 

This quarter, the BBC have published their top tens, but not shared absolute numbers. These are the top ten podcasts.

 1 Newscast – BBC News
2 You’re Dead To Me – R4
3 That Peter Crouch Podcast – 5L
4 Grounded with Louis Theroux – R4
5 Fortunately… with Fi and Jane – R4
6 Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave – 5L
7 The Missing Cryptoqueen – BBC Sounds
8 Match of the Day: Top 10 – 5L
9 The Joe Wicks Podcast – R4
10 6 Degrees from Jamie and Spencer – R1

And this is the top ten of 'broadcast' shows (and, apparently, whole genres) listened to on demand. 

1 The Archers – R4

2 Hercule Poirot – R4E (Two series available, from 2007 and 2008)

3 Miss Marple – R4E (One series, from 2011)

4 Drama – R4 (a choice of over 100)

5 Desert Island Discs – R4

6 Radio 1’s Dance Anthems – R1

7 The Infinite Monkey Cage – R4

8 The Unbelievable Truth – R4

9 In Our Time – R4

10 Old Harry’s Game – R4E

Saturday job

"Happily, with the chat show, Eurovision and Drag Race, the BBC continues to be my perfect tv home.”  Thus Graham Norton in the media release announcing his departure from Radio 2 Saturday mornings, with his last show coming on 19th December. He's been in the slot for ten years. We may yet be able to work out how much of his £725k pa direct BBC earnings have been coming from the three hours a week at Wogan (nee Western) House. 

What's certain is that his successor won't get that much. Let's pray the answer to Helen Thomas' hunt for a successor is not Rylan Clark-Neal. 

Quiet please

It looks like shouty Danny Dyer's Saturday BBC1 quiz show, the Wall has hit its equal. Schedule-watchers believe it will lose the post-Strictly slot to another gameshow, from Michael McIntyre, from the end of this month - with two episodes in the run of eight still to be placed. 

We note that yoof-outreach exercise Little Mix: The Search ended with an average audience of 2.3m last weekend. Only BBC1 accountants will know if that represents value for money. 

Investigator

I'm having a bit of struggle imagining who BBC DG Tim Davie will turn to, to lead an 'independent' investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Martin Bashir/Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales back in 1995. 

It can't be someone with 'too much' BBC in their CV. Nick Pollard handled the Newsnight/Savile aftermath, back in 2012. Ken Macquarrie won't have retired fast enough to have another go, after leading on the Newsnight/child abuse mess, also in 2012, and the Clarkson punch-up in 2015.  

Perhaps former C4 News and Current Affairs boss Dorothy Byrne ?  She's still described as 'Editor at Large', and is Chair of the Ethical Journalism Network....

We'll always have Eastbourne

It would be useful to know when Minnow Films recorded their interview with Richard Ayre, who was the BBC's Controller of Editorial Policy at the time of the Panorama/Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana. 

It was woven into last night's second 50-minute part of their documentary for ITV, "The Revenge of a Princess". The episode was clearly recut to to focus on the testimony of former BBC graphic artist Martin Wiessler, still in an uncomfortable state over the emerging clarity that he was scapegoated, 24 years ago, for creating mock-ups of bank statements at the behest of Martin Bashir. 

Richard Ayre recalled viewing the Diana interview pre-transmission in a makeshift edit suite set up in an Eastbourne Hotel. His testimony was that Tony Hall, John Birt and himself were resolute champions of this journalistic enterprise "that might bring down the Royal Family or the BBC". 

Mr Ayre doesn't seem to have been directly involved in the post-transmission investigation into Mr Bashir's commissioning of fake bank statements and their use.  But was his interview with ITV recorded before Earl Spencer made public his notes of other levers pulled used by Mr Bashir to make his interview request stronger ? One hopes that any Controller of Editorial Policy would immediately reach for the guidelines on 'Fair Dealings with Contributors'.... 

Anna netted

Netflix has appointed ITN CEO Anna Mallett to run production across EMEA, LATAM and APAC from its London offices. Anna's been with ITN since April last year (currently working at a Covid-reduced 80% of her so-far undisclosed salary), after her jobs as Group Chief Operating Officer and MD, Production at BBC Studios.  

Before than she was CEO of BBC Studios and Post Production Ltd (now BBC Studioworks - CFO David Conway followed her to ITN) and Controller of Business Strategy, responsible for the BBC’s overall commercial strategy. Before joining the BBC, Anna worked for seven years at the Boston Consulting Group in London, focusing on media and retail. She has an MBA from Harvard and a DPhil from Oxford.

Gang of Ten

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden takes credit in The Telegraph for assembling a panel of 'experts' to advise on the future, or otherwise, of public service broadcasting in the UK. But the fleshy fingers of his Minister, John Whittingdale, are all over this one - he's done it before, back in 2015, with no separately published outcome. 

Here's a brief run down on the ten. 

Baroness Bertin, previously Gabrielle 'Gabby' Bertin, 42 (Croydon High School and Southampton University) Senior Advisor at BT and former Press Secretary to David Cameron

Miranda Curtis CMG (Lycee Francais, London and Durham University), self-described 'grandmother of the British Cable Industry). She won a BBC graduate traineeship with her Spanish degree, worked on le subtitling and dubbing foreign programmes, then joined BBC Enterprises, sent to the US to implement a new North American distribution contract and sell shows such as Life on Earth. She became commercial manager for the BBC Micro computer initiative and the BBC Domesday Project. Now a Non-Executive Director of Liberty Global. Other Liberty Global executives are backing GB News. 

Sir Robbie Gibb, 56 (Royal Holloway and Bedford, University of London), former Head of BBC Westminster and Director of Communications at No 10, now Senior Advisor at Kekst CNC, part of Publicis, supplemented by articles for the Mail and Telegraph, and fees for advising GB News. 

Lord Grade of Yarmouth CBE, 77 (Stowe and St Dunstan's College) Former Chief Executive of Channel 4, Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, and Executive Chairman of ITV plc.

Andrew Griffith MP, 49 (St Marys & St Josephs, Sidcup and Nottingham University) Member for Arundel and South Downs, former Chief Operating Officer & CFO of Sky Group plc. Started out with Rothschilds and PWC. Worked with Dido Harding on "Fix Britain's Internet". Saviour of Just East, advisor to Boris Johnson, who used his London home as HQ in the Tory leadership election.  

John Hardie (Glasgow University) Former CEO and Editor-in-Chief at ITN. Contemporary of Tim Davie at Procter and Gamble. 

Nicola Mendelsohn CBE, 49 (Manchester High School for Girls and Leeds University). Currently Vice President, EMEA for Facebook. Worked with Tim Davie at the Creative Industries Council. 

Sophie Turner Laing OBE, 60 (Oakdene School) Former CEO of Endemol Shine Group, 5 years at the BBC in programme acquisition, 7 years at Sky, launching Sky Atlantic. 

Dr Samir Shah CBE, 68 (Latymer Upper School, Geography and Maths at the University of Hull, D Phil, St Catherine’s College, Oxford) Chief Executive of Juniper Productions, former BBC non-exec and old brother of Radio 4 Controller Mohit Bakaya. 

Jane Turton, 58 (St Andrews and MBA, Cranfield) Chief Executive of All3Media (spookily owned by Liberty Global)

Jolly nice to have a long lunch with, I'm sure, and I'm guessing Mr Whittingdale will be focussing on how much money the BBC could really make abroad..... 

 

Connections

We note that ITV's contribution to the current Diana interview anniversary (first part tonight) is produced by former Beeboid Fiona Stourton. There may be new insights.

At the time of Martin Bashir's scoop, she was Fiona Murch, toiling in the BBC's Current Affairs team, albeit with a specialism in Foreign Affairs, on programmes like Assignment (later Correspondent). In 2002, she became the second Mrs Edward Stourton. Edward was a founder presenter of Correspondent. 

Part-time

Lord Hall of Birkenhead, appointed a trustee of the National Gallery a year ago, missed one of the two board meetings he should have attended, according to the Annual Report 2019/20. He's now been elevated to Chair.

A sense of history

 I'm not sure there'll be much call for this announcement from the archives. 

Whoa, the excitement at the BBC is off the charts as they announce Biden’s win pic.twitter.com/sJ1g7xhUY1

— Charlotte Edwardes (@chedwardes) November 7, 2020

Head of steam

Joy of joys. David Hooper, a lawyer who has been advising Earl Spencer, has submitted a 15-page dossier to Ofcom, alleging that the BBC broke its own rules on fair dealing with contributors, when Martin Bashir persuaded the Earl to make his case for an interview the Princess Of Wales. Tim Suter, who was Managing Editor of TV Current Affairs at the time of the Panorama, is chair of Ofcom's Content Board. 

Mr Hooper (Eton and Balliol, Oxford) acted for the publishers of Spycatcher, and is the author of three books "Public Scandal, Odium and Contempt", "Official Secrets – The Use and Abuse of the Act" and "Reputations under Fire".

We have also been reminded of another dramatis persona - Anne Sloman, who was at Tony Hall's side in the internal investigation into Mr Bashir's conduct, after the Earl first complained back in 1996. She was awarded the OBE in 2003 for services to broadcasting. Until 2015, Anne was Chair of the C of E's Church Building Council. She has retired to the village of Sharrington, and contributions to the local food bank can be left on her doorstep, next to the church. 

Mark making

More than half of yesterday's Feedback on Radio 4 was devoted to the thoughts of redundant presenter Mark Mardell; BBC News executives declined the opportunity to comment. 

He focussed on closure of reporters posts dedicated to Radio 4 current affairs programmes, like Today and The World At One.

'We have to make difficult and harsh cuts, and if I truly believe that the only fat on the bone, the only thing that could be cut, was reporting, and the programme's budgets, then I say that's a great shame and does great damage, but we've got to do it to survive.  

'But is there no other way that the BBC can make cuts? Is there nowhere that any of the five or six people that have "head" and "news" in their title can look and see other areas where there's too much fat on the body of the BBC? "

Recount ?

It may run longer than the US Presidential Election. The claims by Earl Spencer that BBC reporter Martin Bashir systematically misled him and his sister Diana, in order to secure the Panorama interview of 1995 won't go away. Grandees are calling on BBC DG Tim Davie to set up an independent investigation. Richard Kay, the Mail's long-serving Royal watcher, was among those apparently smeared by Bashir, and won't let it lie. Even BBC Royal Correspondent Jonny Dymond has contributed a piece to BBC Radio bulletins. 

The only investigation into the matter was conducted by Lord Hall, then just Tony, as Director of News, in 1996. 

So that you can keep up with the dramatis personae, we mentioned yesterday graphic artist Matthias 'Matt' Wiessler, who 'reconstructed' bank statements to Martin Bashir's instructions. After the Diana interview went out, Matt took his concerns to current affairs managers Tim Gardam and Tim Suter. Tim is currently Director of the Nuffield Trust; he left the BBC to become Director of Programmes at Channel 4, then ran St Anne's College Oxford and was on the board of Ofcom for six years. Tim Suter is now Chairman of the Content Board at Ofcom and Chair of the Intellectual Property Office. 

Digital radio

I could have sworn I was listening to Ed Stourton. Mark Mardell - gone, but not forgotten by BBC Sounds. 

Logan's Run

Radio 1 continues to churn in the chase for young listeners. Going from the schedules by the end of the year are Huw Stephens, 39, Dev, 35, and Phil Taggart, 33.  Station boss Alex Hadyn-Jones, 44, leaves Scott Mills, 46, at the heart of weekday afternoons. 

Banker

Just for context, an extract from Andrew Morton's book, Diana - In Pursuit of Love, covering how Martin Bashir secured his Panorama interview with the Princess. Matthias Wiessler was a graphic artist working for the BBC at the time, and was paid £250 directly by Bashir, sending the completed recreation of bank statements by BBC driver to be handed to Bashir at Heathrow Terminal 2 in October 1995. The interview was broadcast on 20 November 1995. 

The computer discs that contained Wiessler's copy of the 'bank statements' were stolen from his flat three weeks after the broadcast. 

Matt Wiessler won a graphic design BAFTA for his work on the 1992 Election. He left the BBC in 1996, but continued to freelance for them through his company Bedeau Wiessler. He is now the co-owner of a bicycle company and still working in design in Devon.  

Unleashed

Jeremy Paxman has a new series of interviews in the form of a podcast, entitled The Lock In, 'free at last of any editorial oversight'. His first run of guests includes Michael Palin, James "Herdy Shepherd" Rebanks, Lee Child, and Katharine Birbalsingh. All but Palin have been marked "E" for explicit content by Google. His producer (but not editor) is James Bray, a Newsnight alumnus.

Paxman last surfaced in a podcast in 2006, with weekly audio highlights from Newsnight. 

Harbinger

BBC US Election Night host Andrew Neil re-appeared this morning on BBC2's Politics Live, as a pundit, rather than interlocutor. Also on the panel was SNP MP Alyn Smith. The discussion moved seamlessly into an SNP-bashing exercise from blouson-covered Andrew, who "relished the freedom". A sign of things to come on GB News ?

Hail and farewell

No recount or legal challenge for Andrew Neil, captured at the end of his last shift for BBC News. Now it's time to shape GB News... 

What a night and what an ending for ⁦@afneil⁩ at the BBC. For this team the shift has ended but the drama will continue for who knows how long!? ⁦Christian Fraser ⁦@franunsworth⁩ ⁦@samwdhouse⁩ ⁦@chrisckmedia⁩ ⁦@KattyKay_⁩ #Elections2020 pic.twitter.com/h3TfvWhLwQ

— Sally Bundock (@SallyBundockBBC) November 4, 2020

Motivation

While we were worrying about the future of democracy, the BBC's recruitment website has had a makeover, and is now peppered with pledges and promises. 

The most direct route to find the online list of jobs on offer is found by clicking on "We're hiring" (slightly surprised there's no exclamation mark). This takes you to a search page headed "Make the moments that matter". Other joys to browse: "Why Join Us ?", which leads you to "Work Your Way", "Create Together" and "Have Impact" ("You work on things that matter to have a sense of purpose every day".)

I feel thoroughly uplifted. 

Connecting

Top show on BBC2 in consolidated ratings for the week 19th-25th October - Only Connect, at just a tad over 3m, knocking University Challenge (top in the previous week) down to third place. 

For C4, the big breakthrough is Gogglebox, consolidating to 6m, second to Bake-Off at 10.6m.  

Seeing straight

A letter to The Times from Sir Ronald Neil, 78, of Teddington - former Director of BBC News and Current Affairs and, as plain Ron Neil, launch editor of BBC Breakfast. Could it be an apology to Selina Scott, for pairing her with Frank Bough ? She told The Sunday Times yesterday that Mr Bough made 'smutty remarks' to her about his manhood, and noted that he was paid four times more than she was. 

No, it's about one of Ron's specialist subjects - tv graphics. 

Sir, When will No 10 employ a decent graphics artist? The charts that Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty put on the screen at these press briefings may be fine for a conference where there is time to study them, but they are hopeless for a few brief seconds on the TV screen. There is far too much information, the type sizes are often too small to read, and sometimes part of the image is bleeding off the side of the screen. No 10 should take a lesson from the TV news channels, whose graphics are simple and easy for the already confused audience to follow.

Ronald Neil

Former head of BBC News  

Building regulations

Broadcast magazine tells us that the BBC's Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore is about to commit to a new way of organising tv commissioning - by genre, rather than by channel.

My take is that this a centralising move, rather one of liberation, with an eye on saving money. If you pool the content spend across BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and Daytime (with a little bit of current affairs) you end up with £1.3bn a year. (This will shrink closer to £1bn by the time we get a new licence fee deal). Then you have commitments - public promises about the hours of drama, science, religion etc - largely agreed with Ofcom. Within that framework, traditionally, the Controllers of the Big Spenders, BBC1 and BBC2, jointly sign off new programmes with genre commissioners. 

Bringing it in to one pot, ostensibly to reflect the growing importance of iPlayer, allegedly enables you to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney. There, you simply spread blockbusters over the year, usually quarter by quarter, and churn the back catalogue in the hope that subscribers don't notice how much old stuff there really is. 

Two analogies of what might be lost in this new system. If programmes are the building blocks of channels, channel controllers can shape them ahead of delivery to site, to make their palaces more distinctive and memorable. In this move, controllers become assemblers, choosing from a limited range of bricks specified in size and shape by someone else.  Assembly work has been a feature of the lockdown, as schedules have been propped up by reclaimed bricks. 

My second analogy takes us to the High Street. BBC1 as John Lewis, BBC2 as the old Laura Ashley, BBC3 as JD Sports, BBC4 as a second-hand bookshop, and Daytime as Warner Leisure Hotels. You can get all this sort of stuff via Amazon - but you have to know what you're looking for. And I'd argue shopping online is never as satisfying. 

Skipping the questions

When BBC1 left the Downing St presser last night, around a million viewers appeared to stick with the event by switching to the BBC News channel. The overnight figures show 3.07m viewers to the channel  between 1915 and 1930 - an average of 2.13m watched if you measure the slot from 1845-1930. A average of 1.42m watched on Sky News. 

So, of the average 14.2m watching Johnson, Whitty and Vallance performing their sand dance on BBC1 between 1830 and 1915, 10.3m stayed with Strictly Come Dancing. 

Doctor Doctor

Clearer, simpler ? The BBC has advertised for a Head of Medical Affairs, seeking a "GMC-registered Occupational Health Doctor with proven senior strategic and corporate experience in the development and implementation of health and safety programmes."

Updated 12.30: Is this instead of, or in addition to, the role of Chief Medical Officer, a position filled for the past 14 years by Dr Colin Thomas (Magdalene College, Cambridge) ?,  a post filled by Dr Clare Fernandes, described as 'interim' in May 2020, and without further qualification in this video. Dr Clare (University College Hospital London) has a company, called Dr Clare Ltd.  

What time is it on ?

What is it with Downing Street and timekeeping ?  Is it old Etonian arrogance - we'll do this presentation when we're good and ready?  Is is boosterish optimism - we'll dash this Powerpoint/essay off by 4pm, and we can still get a game of squash ?  Is it an OCD approach to detail [not on current form - Ed] ?

Or were they genuinely still trying to nail down the message and terms of the lockdown between 4pm and 6.30pm, with rows between Cummings, Johnson, Whitty and Vallance ?

There are people working in communications close to Cummings and Johnson who understand newspaper deadlines better than tv. I point to Lee Cain, who had to make sure his pieces from a chicken suit were ready for the next day's Daily Mirror. But Allegra Stratton, with a BBC and ITV pedigree, is also now on hand.  When the briefing finally started, there was an apology from the PM for disrupting our viewing on a Saturday night, but no explanation for the delay. My guess is that someone insisted on saying that The Army would be taking a bigger role in track and trace, and there was a row. The outcome is hardly a vote of confidence in Serco/Harding Enterprises....

When they finally came to the podia, we opened with the now traditional Two Ronnies-style sketch of Whitty talking about the slide after next.  Few of the images fitted the BBC1 screens, often with both axes, titles and legends cut off. The BBC director kept his ticker in place, so that didn't help. They finally butted up against an immovable deadline - the Strictly Live show.  Cain and Stratton were probably pleased that the question-and-answer session was thus consigned to the News Channel.