John Hardie is on Twitter and Instagram. His Tweets are mainly 'congratulations' to ITN staff, and a regular Scottish welcome to the New Year. This is the closest I can find to an expression of a political opinion....
“Current.” You had to go spoil it.
— John Hardie (@JohnMHardie) January 20, 2021
BBC DG Tim Davie has turned to John Hardie, formerly of ITN, to get his social media guidelines out of their current mess by the end of summer.
John Hardie, 61, (Colston Secondary, Glasgow and MA English & Philosophy Glasgow University) served nearly 10 years as CEO and Editor-In-Chief of ITN, in the days of Deborah Turness leading on the shopfloor. John also served as Chair of the Royal Television Society from 2011 to 2016. In 2020 he was appointed to the Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel, as part of a Government review in to public service broadcasting.
Prior to ITN, John was Executive Vice President at Walt Disney and Marketing and Commercial Director of ITV Network. He began his career at Procter & Gamble, rising from graduate trainee to Managing Director.
Congrats to Tim Davie on appointment to BBC DG. Parochial note: two largest UK media companies now run by ex Procter & Gamble execs
— John Hardie (@JohnMHardie) June 5, 2020
It's difficult to see much change in the BBC Annual Plan for 2023/4, until you compare it with the 2022/23 plan. It suggests an £88m drop in licence fee income, and a compensating £31m increase in 'other income', which is largely BBC Studios' contribution.
In 2022/23, the plan promised to spend £358m on World Service Content, and £27m on Orchestras and Proms; there's no equivalent table or promise for 2023/24.
Despite all the hardship, BBC TV and iPlayer is committed to 7,775 hours of first run programming, compared with 7,000 in 2022/23.
The tendency to add phrases from the marketing department persists, with seven uses of the word 'premium', including in this puff for the new diminished News Channel: "The channel will be a single integrated operation with two premium feeds". As one wise old chum notes, 'premium' used to be associated with more expensive brands of dog food.
BBC News CEO Deborah Turness has been 'drawing back the curtain' at a BBC conference on trust and transparency.
She's revealed that consultant Alfie Spencer has been helping shape the arguments for 'increased transparency' as a means of getting those suspicious of 'institutions' to trust BBC News output. Alfie is a partner at the Office of Ideologies ("Creating brand strategy from cultural theory. Designing ideologies. Be in touch."). OI clients include Abbey Road Studios, Universal Studios, Twitter UK, and distillers William Grant.
Alfie went to Christ's College Cambridge, wrote articles about philosophers for Varsity, and directed Chinese plays in translation, starring OI partner Michael Winawer. Michael has previously been a session guitarist touring with Girls Aloud and The Sugababes, and musical director for Frank Sinatra Jr. Alfie and Michael are occasional members of Charlie Spencer's band The Zoobes.
Meanwhile, the ground floor of Broadcasting House, overlooking the production floor of the merged News Channel, gets major investment in triangle trusses, to make it the groovy, branded home of Debbie's Forensic Journalism Centre....
The Royal Television Society gave its Judges' Award for 2022 to Charlotte Moore, the BBC Director of Content. There's a long citation here, packed with very good things, ending thus: "Charlotte’s been an outstanding leader for the BBC’s content. She’s championed it, defended it, pushed it to be the best it can be. And while doing all that, she’s remained approachable and accessible…always keen to find the next show that will resonate with viewers, always determined to make the next turn of the wheel."
Sadly it's also been a period of change and cuts, and the odd stumble. Mock The Week followed The Mash Report out of BBC2; Paul O'Grady left Radio 2 through lack of support; Scott Mills came in, and the jury's very much out ; it would be hard to characterise the re-launch of BBC3 as a linear channel, now running at half the audience of the soon-to-be-cancelled BBC4, as a success; EastEnders' last genuine star, Danny Dyer, has left the world's most expensive soap set; BBC1 saw The Queen off right, but overdid The Duke; "We are England" was weak; an obsession with game show and quiz formats continues; the BBC News Channel has been slowly dismantled, whilst millions were spent on the BBC1 Car Showroom of News; editions of ITV's extended 6.30pm national news are creeping ahead of The One Show; and Charlotte signed off the cuts to the BBC Orchestras and Singers.
Entertaining times in the conference rooms of Broadcasting House; will chairman Richard Sharp sit through a whole meeting of the Nominations Committee or the Main Board without having to be asked to step outside while they talk about him ?
Yesterday Lord Patten made it clear that Mr Sharp wouldn't be a welcome member of the "Club for Former BBC Chairmen". Mr Patten probably knows more about another Richard Sharp, who preceded him as fly-half in the Balliol Rugby Union team. They also played college cricket together, with Patten claiming to be a 'pretty fast' bowler, and Sharp behind the stumps. Mr Sharp opted to stand up at the wicket after Patten's first two deliveries in the same match; Patten took the hump, and an even longer run-up. Sharp was unmoved and stumped the batsman.
Even Naja Nielsen, who made her journalistic reputation in Denmark, has caught the language of W1A: "We want to keep the best of what we do at the moment, while introducing better ways of reporting what matters."
This is from a statement ahead of the phased subsumption of the BBC News channel, into the money-making mothership of BBC World News. Our Naj does, at least, mention that money is at the heart of this:"We need to modernise the way we deliver the news – while addressing the financial challenges we face.
So the schedules that face the UK from Monday are largely split into half-hour chunks. There's no mention of World News 'brands' like The Context, Outside Source or World Update. Newsday, from Singapore, is there. The all-new-World News America may not be ready for Monday. Newsnight gets a run-out after the BBC News at Ten, in a move demanded by no-one. And the technocrats of BBC News have clearly been unable to turn round a tv version of the Nicky Campbell show in time, despite announcing their intention back in July 2022. Making commercial competitors look agile....
Former newspaper editor Piers Morgan is today trying to get some mileage out of an interview recorded on Saturday, originally set for transmission tonight at 8pm, and clearly out of date in many of its answers.
BREAKING: Now available on the @PiersUncensored YouTube channel, my full world exclusive interview with Israel’s under-fire Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu: https://t.co/7jhnGRX0we via @YouTube
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 27, 2023
Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell is setting up a 'panel' to look at the independence of the BBC.
Its membership may raise eyebrows. It includes TV producer Steve Morrison, a former Granada TV director of programmes and chief executive who leaves his role as a BBC non-exec in five days' time; James Purnell, a former BBC director of strategy and Culture Secretary under Labour, currently struggling on at the University of the Arts London on £340k; TV presenter June Sarpong, who was formerly the BBC’s first director of creative diversity, and the BBC's most expensive manager, pro-rata; and Lou Cordwell, chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, who worked with the BBC on a range of high-profile digital projects, including the digital delivery of BBC Ideas, from an idea by James Purnell.
Here's a reasonable outside bet. BBC News (the new, merged Proudly British, Uniquely Global channel) will fall below Sky News in monthly reach before the end of the year.
Newswatch this week noticed how many times the channel has been showing a half hour special on guide dogs over recent weeks. This week, a half hour special on The Changing Face of Hollywood, gets outings at 0230, 1130 and 1630 today, 1330, 1730 and 0130 Sunday, 2030 Monday and 0230 Wednesday. Not far behind - an edition of Witness History, on today 1330, 2030 and 0030, then 1030 and 1630 Sunday, and then 0130 Wednesday. Is interim channel editor Paul Royall busy on something else ?
How to get your old business chum a job as BBC Deputy Chairman. Here's the just-released full minute from the November 22 meeting of the BBC Nominations Committee, held by video, chaired by Richard Sharp, with Tim Davie and three non-execs presumably all voting in favour.
The BBC statement on 'suspending' the closure of the BBC Singers whilst it explores offers of alternative funding, is lacking entirely in a signature or quote from an executive or senior manager.
Let's be clear - the decision to close will have been informally signed off by the BBC Board, where Chairman Richard Sharp is the only member with a previous history of supporting classical music. Tim Davie, Charlotte Moore, Lorna Clarke and Simon Webb are the other names you need to remember.
Traditionally, the BBC Proms season is announced in the third week of April. The Proms Guide, usually just under 200 pages, is available to order from Amazon, for £7.91 if you indulge in Prime, reduced from its RRP of £8.99, and is published on 20th April.
I suspect, as with L'Affaire Lineker, the first conductor to withdraw could cause a wider drop out, and the real difficulty of replacements, presumably supportive of the closure of the BBC Singers, coming forward. You might like to visit Amazon for a thick black felt tip pen.
Former BBC financial journalist Peter Day has died at his home in Islington, North London, aged 76. Peter (Lincoln School and BA English St Edmund Hall Oxford) trained on local papers in South Devon, and had a spell with the Daily Record before joining BBC Radio News in 1974, in a newly-formed 'Financial Unit' with James Long, focussed on city and business news. He had a short break as industrial and economics correspondent for TV-Am (his verdict - 'disastrous') before returning, and joining the Financial World Tonight. In 1988 he presented the first series of In Business on Radio 4. It kept going to 2016, sufficiently long to get a boost when it was deemed to be a 'podcast', awarded Most Downloaded in 2007.
He survived Birtism, and the arrival of Peter Jay as Economics Editor: "Peter Jay came in and pooh-poohed business and said it was all economics, and business was subjugate to that. And because he had such a reputation, they listened to that type of crap."
In one of the biggest continuing job creation schemes in UK media, The Witchfinders of Ofcom have taken 174 pages to express their plans for 'Modernising the BBC's Operating Licence'. They've been clearly disappointed by the BBC's Annual Plan, now just an agglomeration of early press releases, and demand that it in future contains cast-iron promises on hours of programming in various genres, which the Bean Counters of Riverside House will continue to monitor and review; most traditional quotas are retained, but can in future be counted annually. This means the BBC can put on the odd Passion Play etc when religious targets are in danger of being missed.
Ofcom have lain down without a murmur in front of the cuts; they've apparently been re-assured by a slogan for the new-World-News-dominated News Channel "Proudly British, Uniquely Global". Tosh. On local radio regional programmes, in one case linking Dorset with Norfolk, they propose 'enhanced monitoring and oversight'.
Ofcom want news and current affairs programme to be more 'discoverable' on iPlayer and BBC Sounds. Documentaries are currently on the 'eighth rail' of shows offered to me on iPlayer
Team Turness is advertising for an Executive Editor, Forensic Journalism Hub.
"The newly created unit brings together the BBC’s best analysts, fact-checkers, data specialists and designers from across domestic and global teams with expertise in data journalism, disinformation and the latest Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and verification techniques. The team’s physical location above the newsroom will combine a live broadcasting environment with an operational centre of excellence where we can take the audience through our investigative journey, showing at each step how we verify the information we report."
Amusing to see this new major investment, which could be anywhere, established in London. Have a word, Tim. And, frankly, very irritating to see such poor use of the word 'forensic'. Most dictionaries agree; "Forensic" is used to describe the work of scientists who examine evidence in order to help the police solve crimes. It comes from the Latin 'forensis', meaning 'of or before the Forum', the public court in the heart of ancient Rome. A scientist who produces work for a court case is a forensic scientist.
Its use in this context is misleading and simply pompous.
The BBC heads for a very uncomfortable end to the financial year. It has a matter of days before making an obvious conciliatory move to extend the BBC Singers for twelve months (which would then take the decision to a financial year with a CPI increase in the licence fee).
And it has promised results from the extraordinarily clumsy process to cut the number of local radio staff presenters, with the unsuccessful being made redundant. Interview panels have failed to convince candidates that they've either a) bothered to hear them live or b) actually listened to demanded demos. Demeaning 'live tasks', like asking candidates to 'talk to time' during interview can't have helped. Amol Rajan, Nick Robinson and Justin Webb regularly display failings in this area without sanction, on salaries 6 times bigger than their local radio counterparts. The respect for management, in some areas provocatively bringing in freelances to keep the meter moving during the recent 24-hour strike, is at rock bottom, and it will take years to recover team morale.
Meanwhile the Soviet approach to Across The UK sees the BBC lose the Rev Richard Coles from Radio 4's Saturday Live, without celebration, after 12 years. Is Cardiff known as the home of lightweight chat ? Will a permanent successor have to live in Wales ? Has Alan Yentob moved from London W11 to present imagine... from its 'base' in Glasgow ? Mr Lineker is allowed on a weekly basis to move from Barnes SW13 to Salford, with, I'm guessing, most of his salary spent outside Scotland - what's different about the Rev ?
Alex Farber in The Times has suggested there's a slow bicycle race in play between the two inquiries into BBC Chairman Richard Sharp. He has 'insiders and senior former executives' saying that Senior Independent Director Sir Nick Serota is effectively dragging his heels on deciding whether or not Mr Sharp had broken any conflict-of-interest rules since arriving in post in early 2021.
Sir Nick is hoping, they say, that the inquiry by Adam Heppinstall KC, into the manner of Sharp's appointment, will report first, and end the Sharp regime. On 16th March Angela Eagle claimed Heppinstall had yet to speak to Sharp.
A BBC spokesman told The Times: “The nominations committee of the BBC board has responsibility for regularly reviewing board members conflicts of interest. In relation to the BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, this work is progressing. Conclusions will be referred to the full board and then published.”
Just wondering, will the one-year saving from closing the BBC Singers exceed the BBC's PR spend on music ? Don't Kerris Bright, Alice Macandrew and John Shield ever put a price on reputational damage ?
The latest Mrs Murdoch is to be Ann Lesley Smith, 66.
Ann's been married before, too. She turned to God after her wealthy first husband John turned to alcohol; she had no money to restart her life thanks to a tight pre-nup.
“Things aren’t important to me anymore. What really matters is other people. When you let the Lord take control of your life, you can make it. Out of the ruins you can rise and let the oil of His anointing just be all over you.”
Until 2020 Ann had a regular weekend chat show on PowerTalk 1360 for Modesto and Stockton. There are oblique references to Make America Great Again on her Facebook page, and a debate about whether or not The Bible allows people to disobey Joe Biden.
Caroline Daniel's time at the FT overlapped with Jo, now Lord, Johnson. They co-wrote a series of articles when Jo was the FT's correspondent in New Delhi.
In 2014, when Editor of the FT Weekend, Caroline made GQ's list of the Top 100 Most Connected Women. After hackery, Caroline joined Brunswick PR, led by Kim Fletcher, husband of Sarah Sands, another of the Top 100. Boris Johnson and Sands were guests at parties thrown by Evgeny Lebedev at his palazzo in Italy.
An image from today's Times website.
A tweet from the past
Great chart on how Goldman's spends 7-9% of its income investing in tech versus 3% for JP Morgan in major tech push https://t.co/wc55CAw7uD
— caroline daniel (@carolinefdaniel) December 9, 2015
More news of Richard Sharp's chumocracy at the BBC, from The Sunday Times.
They say that Richard introduced Caroline Daniel, currently earning £15k as a Board advisor on editorial matters, to her husband Christopher Villiers - and that friendship was declared to senior executives before the formal appointment.
Caroline went to St Helen's, a private day school in Northwood, then studied history at St John's College Cambridge, picking up a First, and colours for badminton. She won a Laurence Stern Fellowship to the Washington Post, wrote for The Economist and the New Statesman, and researched for Gordon Brown, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, before joining the FT in 1999, where she progressed through Technology Correspondent, White House Correspondent, Opinion page editor, Comment and Analysis Editor, and Weekend FT Editor. She joined Brunswick PR in 2016.
Christopher Villiers, 62, (Stowe) is an actor perhaps best known for playing Grayson Sinclair in Emmerdale. He portrayed Captain James Hewitt in the 1996 tv movie Princess in Love, more recently Charles Montague in Fisherman's Friends, and has fond memories of touring with a version of Entertaining Mr Sloane, also starring Barbara Windsor and John Challis. He was previously married to Kathryn Threlfall.
Lugubrious BBC Chairman Richard Sharp has been keeping a low profile over recent weeks - so much so that insiders say they've forgotten what he looks like.
The glum visage is very different to Richard's party days, as reported by the Mirror, after his first divorce. The paper says his house was thrown open to "bankers, models, scantily clad dancers and burlesque hostesses". The parties were organised by one Gabriella Reljanovic, and though I can find no pictures of the Sharp events, there's plenty of photographic evidence of her style on her Flickr page.
As the BBC limps forward, maybe a small group could game what might happen over the next few months with its cuts to classical music provision, in case the spirit of Alan Shearer and Ian Wright rises up in melodic solidarity.
Let's start with Cardiff Singer of the World, coming up in June, featured on BBC4 and BBC2. Vulnerable. Then there's the Proms, where the programme for 2023 is due for launch on 20 April, and the event itself runs from 14th July to 9th September. Last year, the BBC Singers featured twice. What if their peers decided to pull out ? Again, last year we had one major performance by the BBC Symphony Chorus, one from the National Youth Choir, one from The Sixteen, one from the Philharmonic Chorus and one from the Monteverdi Choir.
Every year it's a battle to keep the EU flags out of camera shot in the Last Night; what about rude placards featuring the names of Richard Sharp and Tim Davie ?
A Twitter spat-ette continues between a former custodian of BBC Local Radio and the current leader. A legitimate response might be "Jason Horton - you're no Frank Gillard". Children's Hour audiences were hovering around 25,000 when Frank acted; Jason's heading downward with local radio, but there's a distance to go.
Who knows Andy, but from everything I have read he embraced change. I might be wrong but I think he took Children’s Hour off the Radio because young people were turning to TV…
— Jason Horton (@JasonHorton_uk) March 15, 2023
Former BBC Group Managing Director, 'Covid' Bob Shennan (below left) being presented with the Wesley Rose International Media Achievement Award by BBC’s Bob Harris OBE in London on Friday, March 10, 2023 during an industry reception hosted by CMA in partnership with BBC Radio 2, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp (NCVC), and C2C.
Mr Shennan was presented with exactly the same trophy in 2015.
Below, Alan Yentob hosting a panel at the BFI for a screening of a new short called 'Jerusalem Syndrome'. Second from the right we have actress Isabella Walker, who plays Maria. She's Al's daughter.
As well as a new Washington-based presentation team, there are more moves to sell and monetise BBC News across the USA. Krystal Bowden, from Brooklyn, is the new VP of Content Strategy, promoted from her gig with BBC Storyworks; Ilyas Kirmani, from Lexington, is the new VP of Live and Talent Strategy and brings experience from NBC, MSNBC and CNN.
Danny Boyle is the sole UK hire in this recruitment drive. He was Kent's Young Journalist of the Year 2007, for his work with the Bromley and Bexley Extra. He comes more recent experience at the Express and the Telegraph, and is to be 'Head of Newsletters'.
A little late for the morning meeting, but by lunchtime can we have a piece on how many times over the past 20 years income tax thresholds have been frozen in budgets, how many times they've risen by less than inflation over the previous year, and how the tax take from income has changed over the full 20.
Thank you.
.
A quick scan suggests that only two English regions have attempted a 6.30 show without NUJ members - Spotlight South West and East Midlands Today.
Crikey. Peter Johnson seems have enjoyed his secondment with BBC Editorial Policy in London so much that he's making the move permanent, with the title Director, Editorial Complaints and Reviews (I'm sure HR will have OK'd that - why limit the number of 'Directors' ?).
Peter, 58 (Ballymena Academy and Imperial College) has been Director of Northern Ireland for 17 years, and was brought to London to organise the post-Dyson Impartiality Sheep Dip of Staff - an immersion presumably skipped by Gary Lineker.
The job of Director Northern Ireland has now been advertised.
Somebody with a sense of humour is scheduling BBC1 today - the 6.30pm regional news shows across England are to be replaced by a repeat of Garden Rescue. The 10.30 regional update is still showing in the schedules - but coming only from BBC London.
They're having ago at keeping going on Radio Leeds. Mid-morning presenter Gayle Lofthouse signed off after just an hour of her show at 11am, and promised to be back, a tad late, at 11am tomorrow. There was an announcement apologising for a lack of news at 11am, then someone called Jim Davies started spinning discs - he may well be appearing on other stations. More as we get it.
Merseyside, Manchester, Cumbria and Lancashire came together; Jonathan Morrell, an executive producer from Cumbria, presented a 2pm bulletin and was followed by Pete Moss with 'the sound of where you live'. He offered a Great North West Quiz. Pete bills himself on Twitter as "Party DJ, mainly at Lux Delisa Carlisle" - he can't expect many NUJ members to show up for his next gig.
At Radio Cornwall, freelance Francesca Carpenter presented a 2pm bulletin. David White followed "I'm hear with Kath for another four hours of mischief, and your gonna need your air guitar...."
International choices for BBC World output from Washington (coming our way in the UK), and all from outside the BBC.
Sumi Somaskanda is to be chief presenter. Born in Rochester, New York, in a Tamil family that had escaped Sri Lanka, she went to Allendale Columbia, interned with WHEC10 News, and then took degrees in broadcast journalism at the Medill School, Northwestern University, Chicago.
She worked New York, Washington and San Francisco, before moving to the English service of Deutsche Welle in Berlin in 2010, and last year became their correspondent in Washington.
Her editor will Adam Levy, from Fair Lawn New Jersey, who joined CNN straight from George Washington University in 2007.
After BBC Sport's uncomfortable weekend of torn loyalties, BBC Local Radio will be solid in its 24 hour walkout by members from 11am, and, strategically, management ought to just plan to play out standby material - some sort of joint national service might be easier, but much more provocative. But what will be the decision about tv regional output, where the walkout might not be as well supported ?
Jason Horton, Director of Production, will be trying to work out whether a blank screen at 6.30pm is the least divisive outcome. Will various regions try to produce the short lunchtime bulletin ?
A reminder that this strike comes as a number of journalists are having to apply for their own jobs.
Just call my number - it’s at the bottom of my emails and have a chat - or email me and we can talk.
— Jason Horton (@JasonHorton_uk) March 3, 2023
As we type, NUJ officers and officials are mulling over some last-minute movement from the BBC side on planned cuts to local radio output. A 24-hour strike is set to start at 11am tomorrow, and one senses that the spirit of solidarity has been emboldened by the events of the weekend past, so it might also impact BBC tv's regional news output.
Meanwhile, one of the petitions asking the BBC to reprieve the BBC Singers has reached 110,000 signatures. Entertainingly, the edited consultants' review which is said to drive the decision doesn't use 'Singers' at all; the summary by Rachel Jupp, Editorial Lead, BBC Content, described as a review of the 'classical music eco-system' is also 'Singers'-free.
There'll be some scrambling around at BBC World Service over the next week. Just as a range of language staff are about to move out of the door, the government has awarded a one-off payment of £20m The Extremely Cleverly View "The money is being provided to protect all 42 World Service language services over the next 2 years, support English-language broadcasting, and counter disinformation".
Unfortunately, World Service is close to implementing cuts of somewhere between £28m and £30m in 2023/4.
"Having spoken to many of our BBC colleagues over the last week, there is a recurring narrative of toxic culture that now exists at the BBC, reflected in the working environment from the Director General downwards. Our own experiences of aggressive and confrontational dialogue (particularly with xxxxx xxxxxx) have been echoed time and time again in accounts from other colleagues. A culture of fear and paranoia has been created as seismic decisions on the corporation’s future are taken at speed without any proper analysis or meaningful consultation."
An extract from a letter to the BBC Chairman Richard Sharp, "as the only other person in the senior team who has heard the BBC Singers", by the Choir's current co-directors has fallen into the hands of Norman Lebrecht, blogging indefatigably at Slipped Disc.
Eye-watering stuff that's worth a read.
There were dips for both our excitable challenger tv news services in the February reach figures from BARB.
Talk TV is down from January's 2.55m to 2.25m; GB News is down from January's 2.94m to 2.77m. The big boys are up: BBC News, in its last full month before creeping merger, reached 11m, compared with 10.5m in January; Sky News was up to 9m, from 8.4m.
Minutes matter on Twitter. The BBC Breaking News (51m followers) tweet of a Lineker Solution was timed at 10.04, as was Gary's tweet (8.8m followers) announcing his return. Almost as if synchronised.
Gary thanked Tim Davie for his support, and allowed himself one reminder of his position: "A final thought: however difficult the last few days have been, it simply doesn’t compare to having to flee your home from persecution or war to seek refuge in a land far away. It’s heartwarming to have seen the empathy towards their plight from so many of you." Gary can now concentrate on a gag to open Saturday's programme.
Losers here: probably Richard Sharp, Sir Robbie Gibb and David Jordan. Unless they come out and say otherwise, you'd guess that they were calling for some punitive action on Gary.
Damaged: Tim Davie and most of the Executive Board. Unless, of course, they weren't asked for their opinion, which is possible.
Mildly chuffed: Me. Got the statement nearly right.
My favourite Bill Tidy cartoon: man with a polar bear on a lead in a crowd of people milling outside steamship office: "Yes, but is there any news of the iceberg ?". He drew it at least three times, but the best version is copyrighted to Punch archives.
The giant brains of the Two Marks came out this morning, to offer solutions to solve L'affaire Lineker.
Former DG Mark Thompson was on with Laura Kuenssberg, and former Controller Radio 4 Mark Damazer joined Paddy O'Connell. Markie D was surprisingly clear - reinstate Lineker now, no apology necessary, announce a 'public review' of social media activity by BBC 'names' outside News, lead by BBC Board members other than Richard Sharp, involving Ofcom, presenters, BBC staff, 'the public', to report in three months, and then decide next steps.
Markie T said 'calm down'.
There's a narrow, archery-style window to move ahead. Both Starmer and Sunak had been watching public opinion more attentively than Tim Davie; YouGov's instant poll came out pro-Lineker. Mr Starmer backed Gary; Mr Sunak indicated he wanted the matter resolved quickly, which indicated that the Tory strategists recognised sacking was not an option; that losing Lineker would be laid at their door; and that a deal no longer needed a Lineker apology.
So here's my draft news release.
The BBC and Gary Lineker have agreed that Match of the Day will be back to normal next week. Both parties acknowledge that the issue between them has revealed wider inconsistencies in guidelines, guidance and contracts for presenters outside News and Current Affairs; it was more than unfortunate that matters escalated so quickly, in way that impacted on other BBC staff and the audience, which neither side wanted.
There will be no change to current guidelines, and there's unlikely to be a change in the rules governing staff working on News and Current Affairs output. But the BBC will be instituting a review of the way it expects those working in other departments to conduct themselves on social media - remembering that social media is now an established and influential part of our national debate. This review will involve a panel of experts from outside the BBC, and we hope it will lead quickly to some clearer and simpler rules and processes for enforcing them, to be in place ideally from September.
Tim Davie really didn't look comfortable or confident when doorstepped by the BBC's Nomia Iqbal in the States yesterday.
Amongst many problems facing Tim over the next month, most are a consequence of an early decision as fully-appointed BBC DG. He's tried to police the relationship with Gary Lineker and his love of plain-speaking Tweets on a one-to-one, mates basis, rather than by strict interpretation of some clear rules. (By the way, the 'rules' remain unclear - there's a difference between 'guidelines' and 'guidance'; and, if rules do come into play, there can still be differences about statements which some deem partial, and others deem statements of the bleedin' obvious).
Has he been leading this week's conversations with Gary, or are others involved ? Mr Davie last night 'owned' the decision to suspend the presenter, but who 'owns' the consequences ? It's not surprising, really, that many BBC Sport staff and regular freelances regard Gary as a good bloke, and shouldn't have been surprising that they've been prepared to take his side in this argument, rather than side with a DG making cuts. This morning, Sport managers will be trying to work out if they have enough vt editors, graphics operators and assistant producers to make a shortened Match of The Day, using the commentary provided to Premier League rights holders around the world. (Remember, the punditry is padding, to make more airtime out of the very expensive and limited minutes of real football).
Thus for Bournemouth v Liverpool, you might hear Jim Proudfoot and Matt Holland; for Leicester City v. Chelsea, Andy Bishop and Matt Upson; for Spurs v Forest, Paul Gilmour and Efan Ekoku; for Everton v Brentford, Ian Crocker and James McFadden; Leeds v Brighton, Pien Meulensteen and Andy Walker; and Palace v Manchester City, Peter Drury and Lee Dixon. Even some of them won't be happy about what's happened to Gary.
There isn't much room for mediation here - we're already working at CEO to most expensive presenter-level. It's not beyond merchant banker Richard Sharp to have already made promises behind the scenes to 'deal with Lineker'. Tim Davie says he understands positions taken by Alan Shearer and Ian Wright; will he take the same tolerant view of production and technical staff - will they have pay docked ?
This week we will see other rows - over BBC local radio, over the BBC Singers and orchestral cuts, over whether an environmental debate on iPlayer is fundamentally different to an environmental debate on BBC1 - continue. Mr Davie will be very lucky to make it in place to the next General Election.
Whoever's playing Gold Commander on this one hasn't gamed it properly. Culture war logic now screams whoever presents Match of the Day, and their accompanying pundits, either don't oppose the Government's language on 'illegal migrants', or don't care about it.
Mr Davie and team are not helping my temper when they claim Gary Lineker has been "made to step back" He's been suspended. As Gary says, language matters.
The BBC's music 'strategy' could have a chilling effect on the smallest orchestral ensemble, the Concert Orchestra, and you wouldn't be surprised if this was the long-term intention.
50 volunteers are sought from the BBC Symphony Orchestra (currently based at Maida Vale, and, until otherwise informed, moving to the East Bank in Stratford in 2025), the BBC Philharmonic (firmly based at leased HQ9 studio at Dock10 MediaCityUK, Salford) and the BBC Concert Orchestra, still looking for a new home since the announcement of a move outside London exactly two years ago.
The Concert Orchestra's current schedule includes R2's Friday Night is Music Night, usually from the old Mermaid Theatre in London, a season at the Southbank, and some touring in Northampton, Nottingham, Saffron Walden, Chichester, plus one gig in Great Yarmouth (apparently a three year 'residency'). No sign of a new 'home', but the clear expectation of something north of Birmingham suggests orchestra members mulling over an exit deal are the most uncertain about their working future.
A piece by Adam Sherwin for The Independent says some BBC journalists believed leading on the Lineker/Braverman row rather than the substantive 'illegal migrants' story was justified by some sort of cock-eyed view of 'balance'.
"Editors ensured the Lineker story was accorded the same prominence as the row over BBC Chairman Richard Sharp’s involvement in facilitating a loan to Boris Johnson. That affair had also led BBC News bulletins, despite causing embarrassment for senior executives."
If that's the quality of thinking currently coming from Turness/Munro/McAndrew triumvirate, then Tim Davie needs to get into the transfer market.
The BBC in Northern Ireland has given ground on its planned cuts to the output of Radio Foyle, but not enough to stop the NUJ going to a full ballot of members on industrial action.
Originally, the 7-9 Breakfast Show was to be cut entirely; now it's back in the schedules, at a measly half-hour from 8.30 to 9. Originally, Foyle was to lose its hourly bulletins; now they're back until 3pm. Originally, 36 posts were to go across the BBC in Northern Ireland, at least half of them in the Foyle newsroom; today, the balance sheet is unclear, with talk of 5 new posts. One weekday show currently produced in Belfast shifts entirely to Foyle - funnily enough it's presented by Hugo Duncan, 72, who lives in Strabane (77 miles from Belfast, 15 miles from Foyle HQ in Londonderry).
In the current mode of BBC double-speak (shame on you, Kerris Bright and John Shield), these concessions are headlined "BBC Northern Ireland sets out ambitious plans for BBC Radio Foyle". Hope Gary Lineker doesn't pick up on the story...
GB News Ltd's annual report shows that it spent just over £12.7m on salaries, pensions, and social security costs for an average monthly staff headcount of 175. My calculator produces a generous average of £72,668pa per head.
I'm hoping that the biggest editorial brains at the BBC were on some sort of extended awayday yesterday, and junior hands were on the tiller. Leading on the Lineker v Braverman story at 6pm and 10pm on BBC1 was reporting the smoke and not the fire. It has clear appeal to those who enjoy our current culture wars, and is eminently reportable. But to make it a lead is playing to the Government's unevidenced assertion of 'the people's priorities', which further asserts that unless you support their current proposed legislation you are fundamentally unpatriotic and anti-humanitarian.
If Rishi Sunak's advisors really want to redefine migrants approaching our shores in inflatables as 'illegal', then the right place to start is withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights, and other international agreements. Then, judges in this country, at the highest level, would simply have to accept an Act of Parliament saying a foot on the pebbles of Dungeness is sufficient offence to be jailed and transported. But the Government is absolutely not doing that, having calculated that the very act of 'being thwarted' by forces of darkness and Gary Lineker over the next 21 months will win them sufficient votes to be re-elected.
One of the BBC's previous big editorial brains, Richard Ayre, was on the Today programme this morning, and thought on balance that Gary Lineker would and should go. He created a new category of presenter - Crown Jewels - and clearly thought that by invoking comparisons with the language of the Third Reich, this particular diamond had broken an as-yet unwritten rule that no person in receipt of an as-yet unspecified amount of BBC funds should express a political opinion on social media in the next 21 months.
With time to reflect, Richard might realise this would lead to a mad perpetuation of this current culture crusade. He tried to make it sound as if it were common sense, in the run-up to an election. Since the successful tactics of Alastair Campbell last cowed the BBC in 2003, we have been in continuous election campaigning, with every day a battle to define and 'win' the agenda. Once Lineker is ousted, they'll come for non-compliant comedians, dramatists, essayists, poets, rappers, on top of their current hunt for environmentalists and academics-defined-as-woke.
Last July, on the First Night of the Proms, Paul Hughes left the BBC after 23 years as director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, and BBC Singers.
He says "The [BBC] review of classical music that was undertaken last year, led by those ignorant of the classical music world and reporting to similarly uninformed chiefs, was presented as nothing to worry about; an assessment of the value of the BBC’s contribution to the classical music ecology of the UK. How naïve we all were."
He says the axing of the BBC Singers comes on the eve of their centenary, and they will be denied a final appearance in the Proms; the Symphony Orchestra is to be 'restructured and reduced'.
"I am shocked at the manner, the haste and the illogicality of this decision...to all BBC musicians, my heart is with you and I don’t believe this is over yet".
In June 2012 John Myerscough produced a report on how to save 20% from the BBC Performing Groups budget, which then stood at £26.9m. Politely, he said it was a bad idea, and to make any real case, the BBC ought to identify the cheaper, perhaps non-live music output which would replace the inevitable cut in BBC-driven music making. Yesterday, without full figures of the impact on a current budget of £23m, we learned that 22 BBC Singers are to go, plus the BBC seeks some 50 voluntary redundancy candidates from salaried staff in three orchestras.
With elements of both the Dock Labour Scheme and minimum hours contracts, the caring BBC has decided not to kill one of its five orchestras (too obvious), but to make a fifth of the musicians currently in them redundant.
"A voluntary redundancy programme will open across salaried posts in the English Orchestras (BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra), aiming to reduce salaried orchestral posts across the BBC orchestras by around 20%."
This action, they claim, is based "on the founding principles of the BBC orchestras as flexible and adaptable". Produce the text, I hear you say.
No such agility required of the BBC Singers - they're now toast. And, for the first time since they were founded as the Wireless Singers in 1924, BBC managers have had another blinding flash of light. "It is essential that the BBC invests in more broadcast opportunities from a greater range of high-quality ensembles, and therefore the BBC has made the difficult decision to close the BBC Singers (20 posts) and invest resources in a wider pool of choral groups from across the UK."
Mark Steyn employed his journalistic brain on Covid stats from the UK Health Security Agency live on GB News on 21st April 2022. He stated their figures, issued two weeks prior to the broadcast, showed that “There’s 32 million who had the third booster shot, there’s 31 million who didn’t. So, we can directly compare the numbers, overall numbers, because they’re the same size. So, if you got the booster shot, you’re dying at three times the rate of the people who didn’t get the booster shot.”
Being Mark Steyn, this wasn't the only time in the show he asserted this as fact. There were four complaints, and the first we knew of an Ofcom inquiry was mid-July 2022.
Yesterday, some eight months later, Ofcom ruled that GB News and Mr Steyn had materially misled their audience, in breach of the Ofcom code. It takes more-judgely-than-real-judges Ofcom twenty pages to deliver there verdict - there is no sentence.
Entertainingly, some of the 20 pages are needed because GB News, occasionally advised by Nick Pollard, former chair of the Ofcom Content Board, defended the programme. Some of their grounds:
The sharp tongues of Twitter have been opining on Gary Davies' first full morning takeover of Ken Bruce's Radio 2 slot.
The 'merger' has started. Lead story with Maryam Moshiri on 'BBC News' at 1400; a feature film and sitrep on the Turkish/Syrian quake one month on, plus Oxfam interview. Takes us to 1409, then it's a look at Rishi Sunak's Small Boats plans, starting "The Government in the UK....". A Ukraine sitrep follows, plus a Pakistan copy story. 1417 Wayne Couzens sentenced.
As we await news of jobs gone in BBC local radio and Northern Ireland, the growth of the BBC in New York continues apace. This time they seek candidates for another new job title....
The Senior Creative Strategist for BBC StoryWorks Americas will collaborate across BBC Global News Ltd.’s editorial, sales, and product development teams to create unique, multi-platform content programs aligning with all BBC.com brands, for clients across the US, Canada, and Latin America. The ideal candidate has a strong editorial mindset, passion for uncovering innovative digital storytelling products and platforms, and a solid understanding of digital advertising and the RFP process.
RFP, I think, stands for Request for Proposal.
Other jobs still open in New York: Director of Product Development; Co-ordinator Brand Marketing & Licensing; Manager, Licensing, Home Goods and Health and Beauty
I'd like to bring you news of BBC COO Leigh Tavaziva's talk last Thursday, to members of WeQual, a coaching and networking company. Sounds strong: "Known for her openness and honesty, Leigh will share her story of leaving Centrica after 20 years and joining the BBC. Not only will she cover her experience of gaining executive buy-in, or as she puts it, ‘board buy-in’, but also the raw, authentic and inspiring moments of her leadership journey. This is going to be a powerful and authentic conversation, don’t miss out!"
Sadly I can't afford the basic membership, at £1,740 per annum.
Massive congratulations to the @WeQualAwards Operations Category winner, Leigh Tavaziva of @centricaplc#women #business #genderequality #wequal https://t.co/2DGu7xLSNq
— Katie Litchfield | Founder | WeQual (@KTLITCH) September 17, 2020
Clearly vital for BBC News No 2 Jonathan Munro to visit New Delhi for the announcement of the BBC Hindi-run poll for BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year, now in its fourth year. And an opportunity for him to talk public service broadcasting, tax matters and more with the Indian Express.
The latest brainstorm between the editor, producer and presenter of imagine..., Alan Yentob, has lighted upon another artistic icon to profile.
"imagine… Stephen Frears: Director for Hire profiles acclaimed British director"
"Produced by BBC Studios for BBC One and BBC iPlayer, documentary premiering May 20th sees the Oscar nominated director open up about his life and career for the first time."
Yes, my italics. The twin colossi of Notting Hill, nairy half-a-mile apart, have been a double act on the literary and cinema festival scene for at least as long as I've been blogging. The BBC Press Office may have forgotten Frears 'opening' up to Yentob at the 2014 Hay Festival, re-broadcast on the BBC. And BBC Films have put money into a long list of Mr Frears' cinematic ventures: Liam, Dirty Pretty Things, Mrs Henderson Presents, Tamara Drewe, Victoria and Abdul, The Snapper, Philomena, Florence Foster Jenkins and The Lost King, beyond nurturing him on Play for Today, and continuing through streaming ventures like a A Very British Scandal and State of The Union.
The profile may or may not mention that Harvey Weinstein invested in Philomena, Mrs Henderson Presents, The Snapper or the Frears-directed Lay The Favorite and The Grifters .
Stephen Frears and Alan Yentop visiting the Third Man Museum.#thethirdman #orsonwelles #derdrittemann #vienna #wien #postwar #filmnoir #drittemannmuseum #drittemanntour #filmmuseum #viennafilmcommission #marijanastoisits pic.twitter.com/Uc0oBviLjB
— Third Man Museum (@ThirdManMuseum) December 11, 2022
The YouGov tracker disagrees with the BBC about the relative popularity of Autumnwatch, Springwatch and Winterwatch. The BBC has cancelled Autumnwatch because, it says, it has the lowest impact, and clearly not just because it wants to save money fast.
A little sad that there were no BBC suits obviously on hand to thank Ken Bruce for his service on his last working day. Producers Phil McGarvey and Janine Maya-Smith ducked left with Ken coming out of Wogan House (lease for sale), and then back in to the door of the ground floor BBC Club.
Can the idiot in the hat please get out of shot https://t.co/Wk4KERoJjo
— Phil McGarvey (@PipMcGyver) March 3, 2023
Many Americans will be waking up shortly, asking themselves where can I catch up on the tales of Conan The Barbarian.
Well, it's BBC America, natch. Conan the Barbarian (1982) is at 1.00pm and again at 6.00pm; Conan the Destroyer (1984) comes at 3.30pm and then 8.30pm. Providing an important inheritance to Planet Earth: Frozen Planet II, in the 11pm peak slot...
I'll take a small bet that Huw Edwards' new three-year contract with the BBC includes getting the best bits of the Coronation; first dibs on any preview interview with the King; and hosting the results of the next General Election, promised before the end of January 2025, at least until the size of the Conservative defeat becomes clear. And maybe even a landmark series about the state of the UK ?
"On Tuesday, 7 March, Huw Edwards will present the BBC 6pm and 10pm network news from Pacific Quay as part of the anniversary week celebrations."
Yet another strong journalistic reason for the RTS Network Daily News Programme of the Year to go on the road.
(The actual anniversary of "The BBC in Scotland" is 6th March; the date in 1923 when the British Broadcasting Company’s Station 5SC first aired from an attic in Rex House 202 Bath Street, Glasgow. Was there a niff of favouritism in the hiring of the station's first staff ? The first director was Herbert Carruthers, a former Royal Marine captain, hired from his job as organist at Park Parish Church; one of his assistants was Kathleen Garscadden, soprano in the church choir, and daughter of electrical appliance distributor George Carscadden, who operated from Rex House. The minister of Park church was the Rev Dr George Reith, father of John.)
An interesting wrinkle in an FOI enquiry about the BBC Board's Nominations Committee. Someone has asked, simply enough, for "full copies of all minutes, agendas, action logs for the BBC Nominations Committee meetings held in 2020 and 2021."
"Please also include any other materials that were handed out or received during the meetings, such as presentations, reports, etc.."
The BBC has asked for more time. "We write to advise that we will require additional time in order to provide this. We currently estimate that we will require up to an additional 20 working days. If it is possible to provide a response sooner, we will of course do so."
Does one sniff black ink from the felt pen of redaction ?
The Royal Television Society Journalism Awards 2023 had a feel of the old order, of say, 15 or twenty years ago - nicely spread, almost as though there'd been some coordination.
Four for ITN - Paul Brand for Political Journalist, and for his scoop, Partygate, and the News Coverage Home award for general coverage of the story. Proper recognition for a story that dislodged a Prime Minister. The fourth for ITV News Granada coverage of the Manchester Arena Enquiry. One shared between ITV and Motherwell-based DM Productions, with David Modell's special on Channel crossings.
Two for Sky - News Channel plus Network Journalist of the Year for Stuart Ramsay.
CNN International won the Breaking News award for their coverage of the invasion of Ukraine.
News agency AP can claim Camera Operator of the Year, for Mstyslav Chernov, although he's much more than that, as director of the 90 minute documentary 20 Days in Mariupol. Working alongside him in Mariupol was Vasilisa Stepanenko, a Ukrainian freelance journalist and video producer, who'd just started with AP - she won Young Talent.
Deborah Turness, CEO BBC News, could have claimed credit for the ITN awards; instead she noted 10 awards to 'BBC Journalism'. Some were outside her direct ownership - Mark Daly's Disclosure for BBC Scotland, on ferry building contracts; Jax Sinclair's short fort Disclosure 'Should I Tell You I'm Trans ?'; and Colin Campbell, BBC South East for a portfolio of complex crime stories.
Debs can claim Clive Myrie, presenter; Huw Edwards' News at Ten, programme of the year; Michael Buchanan, specialist journalist; Undercover Votes, an innovation from Newsnight; Steve Rosenberg's half-hour toe-to-toe with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko as Interview of the Year; and the award for International Coverage to BBC News for Ukraine reporting.
A sort-of-turning-up-when-not-expected gong ought to go to host Dan Walker, now with Channel 5/ITV, after his horror cycle crash.
"I’m up here on stage largely because of drugs and make up. I’ve lost all my inhibitions. To give you an idea of my mental state, if a weather presenter was to question me in any way shape or form I’m liable to storm off stage in an enormous huff. I might even go so far as to start a new TV channel based entirely on my ego which no-one will watch"
Jacob Rees-Mogg's guests on Day 2 at GB News: Ian Paisley Jnr and Ann Widdecombe, plus a handover to Dawn Neesom (in for Dan Wootton, who floored the Moggster with 'Good evening, gorgeous'). Has the MP/Presenter come to an arrangement with his employers should a parliamentary vote require him to be elsewhere ?
Meanwhile BARB overnight figures for Day 1 gave Rees-Mogg: The State of The Nation an average of 79,200 viewers; over on TalkTV, Piers Morgan attracted an average of 35,300.
After nine years in lively Liverpool, and a couple of virtual/Covid sessions, the BBC Showcase, flogging programmes and formats to the world, was based in Leicester Square for the past two days. New big cheese Rebecca Glashow flew in from the States.
Thank you for a phenomenal two days at #BBCShowcase23!
— BBC Studios (@bbcstudios) March 1, 2023
With a spotlight on unscripted content for our second day in Leicester Square, we spoke with CEO of Global Distribution, Rebecca Glashow, about the unique opportunities available at BBC Studios Showcase 📺👇 pic.twitter.com/GEO7hYvoil
The best of British creativity ?
Breaking Point
A visually stunning and highly entertaining gameshow that sees two teams of celebrity duos attempt to predict the exact moment when something will explode, burst, crash or smash! The format is designed to test intuition and judgement across a series of compelling, ridiculous and unique games that all end with the show-defining Breaking Point. But if contestants overplay their hand and miss it, they lose the entire game. With surprising pay-offs, super slo-motion reveals and plenty of play-along for the entire family – could you predict the unpredictable and find the ultimate Breaking Point?
A BBC Studios production for RTL
Ultimate Wedding Planner
Eight fledgling wedding planners battle it out to prove they have the talent, creativity, and vision to deliver real life couples the best day of their lives. But with a career-elevating prize at stake and only three days and a modest budget for each spectacular ceremony, the pressure is on. Split into two teams, the planners must work together to curate a unique and bespoke celebration whilst under the intense scrutiny of the judges. Each episode brings a new challenge with a different real life wedding to deliver from novelty to classic. But who will be crowned the Ultimate Wedding Planner?
BBC Studios Productions for BBC
An exciting two weeks ahead for the leadership team of BBC England, as the NUJ calls a strike from 11am on Budget Day, March 15th.
The impact will be largely felt on BBC1's top show - the 6.30pm regional news. Has the management in each of the English variations of this half-hour got enough non-union hacks and presenters to get on air in a credible form ? Will technical support staff from other unions cross picket lines ? Will management try one or several 'sustaining' services for English local radio ?
Meanwhile, in IR terms, is there anything the management side can afford to negotiate - or do they intend to sit this out as far as the Coronation and Eurovision ? Remember, this is not a pay dispute, but an argument about deployment of resources.
On the BBC side, you have Rhodri Talfan-Davies, Jason Horton and Zoe Baker (HR) against the ring-savvy Michelle Stanistreet and Paul Siegert from the NUJ. In the background, the West Country Duo of Nigel Lewis and Phil Thomas, flexing their industrial relations experience for perhaps the first time in their eight years with Auntie. And, welcome to the BBC, Uzair Qadeer, Chief People Officer, presumably chairing his first crisis meeting today. I wonder if his three-month deep dive into BBC HR included a scenario like this.
