There are, and will be, loads of 'thanks' in the formal tributes. Fran, in various roles, has stepped up to various sticky wickets at the behest of various captains, and only occasionally flailed widely outside off stump (cf not stopping Newsgathering from entering their helicopter shots of Sir Cliff Richard's flat for RTS Scoop of the Year). Yet privately she has described holding the top job as thankless.
The job has been made nigh impossible by the profligacy of James Harding's tenure. Fran's adopted solution to deliver the necessary cuts is barely understood by the people who dreamt it up. Valued colleagues have taken away valuable expertise alongside their redundancy dosh. In a Covid world where staff have demonstrated unexpected mastery of working at distance from any base, it seems daft to squeeze people out early because they won't "go" to Glasgow, Salford, Birmingham or Cardiff.
On top of this, we must layer Sir Nick Serota's impending report on reporting lines at the very top of News.
In reality, there's only three months to choose a successor. The appointment of new executive editor of TV News channels has taken considerably longer, thanks to the helpful input of non-exec Sir Robbie Gibb. Staff will be unsurprisingly suspicious that the real interview panel for Fran's successor will include the knight alongside former Conservative council candidate Tim Davie and major Conservative donor Richard Sharp.
First out of the traps in response to the vacancy (good PR ?) is Jamie Angus, running the bits that Newsgathering hasn't yet acquired.
More to come....
The BBC will miss Fran hugely. She is true to herself and the values of the BBC. Modest in a world of big egos.
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