• Eager contenders are already vying to run BBC Studios, the brazenly ITV-copying new set-up that is to be spun off from the Beeb’s in-house production operation. No surprise there, it could be a peachy post, but eyebrows may be raised over the decision to once again hire Egon Zehnder - the headhunters notorious for their quest for a DG successor to Mark Thompson, which reportedly cost more than £180,000 and ended up with George Entwistle, who scarcely needed to be “hunted” (he was then head of BBC Vision) and lasted only 54 days. Questions will be asked if the BBC Studios front-runners turn out to be equally obvious figures such as the two ex-BBC1 controllers, Lorraine Heggessey and Peter Salmon, said by Broadcast to be in the frame.
• Though it declines to make him its cover idol (that role goes, curiously and arguably insultingly to living celebs, to a dead movie star), the June issue of Tatler honours Sir Peter Bazalgette with a lengthy, effusive profile in which that most reliable of witnesses Andrew Mitchell MP hails him as “like a bottle of the best champagne, bubbly, effervescent and delicious”. No further testimonials to what he tastes like are provided, but we do learn that Baz - now chairman of the Arts Council, but best-known as godfather to Big Brother when boss of Endemol UK - divides his time between “a vast Notting Hill villa” and homes in Devon and Tuscany, so those who continue to pronounce his surname as Basil Getty may be symbolically right if technically wrong. As for a return to the media world in which he spent 30-odd years, the piece intriguingly ends by speculating that, particularly if an incoming Labour government ousts him, he could become Channel 4 chairman when that job is up for grabs in two years’ time - “I could definitely see him moving there”, says former C4 chair Luke Johnson.
• So now we know what David Dinsmore’s Sun does when it’s in a quandary, and very possibly ashamed of itself: it produces an ugly photomontage front page that fails the basic test of a tabloid splash - being immediately intelligible. Commentators saw as farcical (PR Week called it a “debacle”) the clash between Wednesday’s cover, with its small panel voicing support for the Tories, and the Scottish Sun simultaneously coming out for the SNP ; but the stunt front, with “It’s a Tory!” in giant letters beneath a barely recognisable Cameron depicted as a newborn, was also barmy and baffling in itself - what has delivering a child got to do with a political endorsement? In what way is the PM a baby, and why is that a reason to back him? Apparently loth to straightforwardly celebrate any politician, the paper got into a similar pickle when it wanted to show approval of George Osborne’s budget in March - and so resorted to a grotesque Photoshop image of the chancellor in high heels and the headline “George’s epic strut” (both meaningless to anyone who hadn’t seen the relevant moneysupermarket.com ad). As with Dave and babies, or Nicola Sturgeon and Princess Leia, the link between partial transvestism and announcing sensible-seeming financial measures was obscure.
• Like FT editor @lionelbarber, who in his former Twitter incarnation as @barberlionel was shadowed by someone (a woman with an Ella Eyre-like mane of red hair, if the profile image could be trusted) vexingly using the tag @BarberLionel to tweet meaningless news items in Russian, BBC television supremo @DannyCohen has acquired an embarrassing 140-character doppelganger. The other Danny, a Brooklynite who tweets at @DannyCohenWorld, is big on rambunctious humour, treating his followers to comic videos that often involve him, and sharing non-PC gags about girls, gays, race and celebrity sexual scandals. You could see him as a cruder, younger New York version of Jeremy Clarkson: certainly he’d not be welcome in the other Danny Cohen World.
• Will anyone want to be national news presenter of the year when the RTS journalism awards for 2015 are handed out next February? Monkey only asks because the reigning wearer of the sash is ITV’s Mark Austin, honoured for the second year running just three months ago; and although Austin will figure in the wee hours of 8 May, the network has given much more prominent roles to his co-anchor Julie Etchingham (who hosted its debate) and political editor Tom Bradby (who hosts Agenda, does leader interviews and will solo-anchor the 7 May results programme) in its election coverage. And the winner before Austin? That was Jon Snow, who collected his gong in 2013; and judging by Channel 4’s press release about its fun-infused poll night plans his role too will be humble at best - Jeremy Paxman and David Mitchell will be anchoring, and just to rub it in Snow’s C4 News colleagues Cathy Newman and Gary Gibbon are named in the Alternative Election Night line-up but not him. The case for an RTS curse is firming up.
• The BBC’s election night plans have sensibly ditched the most notorious element of Oliver!, the 2010 results extravaganza overseen by Craig Oliver (now head of spin at No 10), the Ship of Fools where a sidelined Andrew Neil did his best to extract meaningful comments before anything significant had happened from equally fed-up D-listers. Almost as disastrous, though, was the Beeb’s dad-dancing-style attempt to show it was tech-savvy and up to date by stationing Emily Maitlis in front of what looked like a huge smartphone, which inevitably broke down. So it’s surprising to discover that, five years on, the David Dimbleby-anchored overnight broadcast on 7 May will feature “Emily Maitlis illustrating the emerging picture behind the results with the help of a 2.5 x 6m touchscreen”. Have they learnt nothing? Has time stood still?
