So farewell then Tim Davie with your spotless white trainers, on-message management speak and complete lack of journalistic nous. And hello Matt Brittin, the new Director General of the BBC, a job which may just be The Most Impossible In The World.

To survive, the BBC is going to have to adapt, big time

To survive, the BBC is going to have to adapt, big time

Unlike those other two all-time difficult gigs, Prime Minister and England football manager, there are no potential big wins like wars and World Cups, only potential catastrophes.

The Hutton Inquiry of 2004 (more of which later) was, for some, the most damaging episode in BBC history. But then came the Jimmy Savile revelations. And the Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana. And the Huw Edwards scandal. And the Hamas-sponsored documentary. And the dodgy Trump Panorama edit. You get my drift.

Will Matt Brittin’s reign end with a similar catastrophe? Yes, according to a Times editorial this week, which asked the question “what could possibly go wrong?”

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The absurdity of Kneecap’s convoy to Cuba

The answer, it argued, was everything: Brittin, a former Google exec, is a tech bro with no broadcasting experience who has never worked in a newsroom or made a TV programme. So his appointment was ‘baffling, to the point of idiocy.”

But, say colleagues, you only have to look at three of the biggest issues facing the BBC – the power of the streamers, how people access content, and the curse of misinformation........

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