Earlier today, the BBC’s “head of newsgathering” sought to counter speculation about how the Beeb managed to get camera crews down to Cliff Richard’s apartment in time to film the police walking in:

Lots of q's re original source of @BBCNews story on Cliff Richard. We won't say who, but can confirm it was not South Yorks Police.

— Jonathan Munro (@jonathancmunro) August 15, 2014

This afternoon, South Yorkshire Police released this statement:

“When a media outlet contacted SYP with information about an investigation, we took the decision to work with them in order to protect the integrity of that investigation.

“Since the search took place a number of people have contacted the police to provide information and we must acknowledge that the media played a part in that, for which we are grateful.”

‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello, what’s all this then?