Byford bites back

That BBC deputy director general Mark Byford is a one. And that's not something Monkey thought it would ever write. David Dimbleby extracted some humour from the proceedings at the BBC news festival last week by pointing out Byford kept saying he was "passionate" about working for the BBC, "passionate" about BBC3 and "passionate" about impartiality. According to Ariel magazine, David turned to Mark and asked: "Given the great range of things the BBC now does, is there anything that you think you are marginally less passionate about?" Without missing a beat Byford quipped back: "The only one that I have personally under review at the moment is Question Time." Ouch.