Emma Barnett was never the right fit for Today
As Oscar Wilde – were he a media correspondent – might have said, to lose one presenter is misfortune. To…
The day the Today programme lost the plot
I never wanted to be one of those grumpy ex-BBC types who write articles with headlines like ‘what has happened…
What Cambridge should have learned from the Milli Vanilli fiasco
With hindsight, Milli Vanilli’s 1989 worldwide smash hit ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ should have been called ‘Actually, It Isn’t…
Fantasy football is good for you – and your kids
It’s 3.19 am and my brain cells are ricocheting. Nothing to do with the usual sleep-wreckers of money, sex or…
There is nothing worse than a bad radio advert
Hell, I have come to realise, may not be other people, but repeated, everlasting exposure to 30-second radio adverts featuring…
Six ways the BBC could save money
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
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
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
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
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
Albert Einstein wasn’t thinking about the BBC when he defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again…
War of words
Scrabble players are being censored
Darkness visible
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?
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
How to sum up David Frost? The lazy writer’s friend, aka Wikipedia, calls him ‘an English journalist, comedian, writer, media…
