The BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, Fran Unsworth, is leaving the corporation at the beginning of next year. Fran Unsworth says: “After more than 40 years with the BBC, I have decided that the time is right for me to hand on the job of leading the world’s best news organisation.” Guido’s sense is that she did try to hold the line on BBC impartiality against internal forces pushing their agendas. Which means one of the most critical jobs in setting the tone of the BBC is up for grabs.

Appointed in 2018, one of her main tasks was to oversee a major restructuring intended to focus on pooling resources into “multi-skilled story teams”, instead of the usual BBC farce of sending multiple news crews to the same event to cover it for different programmes. It was always bonkers that individual programmes have their own economics, science, and tech presenters when they are only occasionally used. Don’t get Guido started on the BBC jamborees that are Glastonbury and a US presidential election. It will be interesting to see, after 3 years, how big the BBC presence is at the party conferences next month. The BBC contingent has in the past been so bloated that it matched in size the rest of the entire media…