The parlous state of the BBC's business and economics unit seems unlikely to improve. Having recently lost Ed Crooks, Chris Giles, Peter Morgan and Denise Mahoney, the unit's attempts to recruit a new economics correspondent ended in failure. "They want someone who looks like Michelle Pfeiffer, thinks like Alan Greenspan and will do a 60-hour week for £40k - and few of those applied," says a BBC insider. Still, Greg Dyke might be able to get closer to his ambition of "covering business like sport" by getting Gary Lineker to knock out the odd think piece on the strong pound or John Motson to deliver a Today package on the euro...
Though greeted with joy by the public, Lord Alli of Carlton's Crossroads revival campaign has met with a muted response at ITV Network Centre. Asked last week if the surge of motel nostalgia had made it difficult for ITV to say no to the return of Benny and Miss Diane, director of programmes David Liddiment said: "I never find it difficult to say no."
Channel 4 insiders have let slip the secret to a good working relationship with the fragile genius of Chris Morris. The key is to choose your battles wisely. So instead of protesting about the lack of ad breaks in his Jam series, the channel preferred to tackle Morris about press listings. The crunch came with his pithy description of last week's show, submitted as "Amelia Bullmore [Jam actress] takes it up the arse", a wording we suspect the Radio Times would have failed to find room for. "I wouldn't have minded," says our source, "but that wasn't what it was about at all."
On a night when Martin Bashir picked up a gong at the RTS journalism awards, most of the Tonight with Trevor McDonald team enjoyed themselves. But reporter Vanessa Collingridge was grumpy, berating a fellow diner for disclosing her past as a weather girl, on the grounds that she's now a serious journalist. Not a claim that would impress those RTS guests loudly proclaiming that Tonight bears more resemblance to Family Affairs than current affairs.
Former Daily Mail showbiz hackette Rebecca Hardy has been quick to stamp her authority on the Scotsman, where she is acting editor while Tim Luckhurst takes sick leave after only three weeks in the top post. Out through the revolving door at Holyrood Road goes David Black, appointed assistant editor (news) just a couple of weeks ago. Reversing recent recruitment policy, Hardy has promoted Terry Watson and Tom Little - both Scottish, and with newspaper nous. Which is just as well, since Hardy's leader briefings have been described as "intellectually incoherent".
