Jonathan Maitland

Six ways the BBC could save money

27 June 2026 1:00 pm

I’m unlikely to be invited to dinner at BBC director general Matt Brittin’s any time soon but judging by the…

To succeed at the BBC, Matt Brittin must learn to be hated

25 March 2026 1:16 am

So farewell then Tim Davie with your spotless white trainers, on-message management speak and complete lack of journalistic nous. And…

The film Nuremberg is almost unforgivable

18 November 2025 9:26 pm

It is said there is only one rule when it comes to dramatising the Holocaust: don’t. The argument is essentially…

Why we’re flocking to matinees

29 March 2025 9:00 am

The Starland Vocal Band were on to something. In their 1976 hit ‘Afternoon Delight’ they sang, in gruesomely twee harmony:…

The mystery of Huw Edwards’s missing phone

19 October 2024 9:00 am

The best thing about being a playwright? The satisfaction of creativity. The worst? Press-night parties attended by friends, industry people…

The Huw Edwards scandal shows that the BBC never learns

17 September 2024 8:12 pm

Albert Einstein wasn’t thinking about the BBC when he defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again…

War of words

2 July 2022 9:00 am

Scrabble players are being censored

Darkness visible

11 September 2021 9:00 am

Translating the story of Jimmy Savile to stage or screen is a creative minefield, says Jonathan Maitland, who knows from first-hand experience

Are you reading this, Rishi?

10 October 2020 9:00 am

Curious thing, writer’s block. If you believe it exists. Terry Pratchett didn’t. ‘There’s no such thing,’ he said. ‘It was…

The idiot box

28 October 2017 9:00 am

How to sum up David Frost? The lazy writer’s friend, aka Wikipedia, calls him ‘an English journalist, comedian, writer, media…