Soap opera symbolism is always clunky. When scriptwriters want to add some subtext, they don’t tend to follow the Tennessee Williams’s formula for visual metaphors and keep it subtle or psychological. In soap land, it’s got to smack you right in the face.

So, when River City ended in fire and death the other night, it was rather hard not to consider it some Freudian comment on the state of BBC Scotland. The broadcaster is going up in flames, and it’s the bosses holding the matches.

Like the fate of River City, the collapse of BBC Scotland didn’t need to happen. The soap could still be running, and BBC Scotland could still be functioning. The executives, however, are as useless as rank-and-file staff are talented. It’s a damn shame.

Such is the catastrophe wrought on BBC Scotland that currently the job of every news presenter is at risk. Sixty roles face the chop. 

Indeed, the entire BBC Scotland channel could be axed. It was only launched in 2019. Not so long ago, BBC Scotland scrapped the channel’s flagship news show, The Nine, as well as its entertainment programme The Edit and weekly news review Seven Days.

The bloated boss-class at BBC Scotland simply never knew what to do with the channel. They have neither vision nor patience.

The programming has been woeful - dull as ditch water, and unable to capture public interest or reflect the nation. 

Kirsty Wark recently compared BBC Scotland’s huge Glasgow HQ to “a call centre where half the staff have been made redundant”.

Kirsty Wark recently compared BBC Scotland’s huge Glasgow HQ to “a call centre where half the staff have been made redundant” (Image: Maggie's)

A fish rots from the head down. The BBC’s director-general in London is former Google mogul Matt Brittin - the first DG since 2000 not to work for the Beeb before taking the role.

The culture he’s imported is a big part of the problem. The........

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