They could have said something simple. “Dear Jeremy: Top Gear is old and tired and you’re all manifestly bored with it. Your contract ends in a couple of shows anyway. We won’t be renewing it. Your increasingly gung-ho antics just show how bored you are. It doesn’t matter to us if ITV picks you up. Think Adrian Chiles and Susanna. The BBC has a constant duty to do something fresh and innovative, not churn out more weary formulas to flog worldwide.
“Maybe we’ll lose a few millions in bottom gear; but we’ll certainly lose millions going through final-warningsuspension-tribunal proceedings as though you were some out-of-control football galactico. Thanks a lot.
“Goodbye, goodnight. And the next time you want a hot supper, open the baked beans yourself.”
But, the BBC doesn’t do simple: just galumphing, lugubrious and lethally self-important. So from Rona getting done over to Michael Grade reaching for his dagger, from Danny Cohen playing assistant ref to Tony Hall in the red chair, nothing can be handled swiftly or blow over fast. (PS: Did you notice, a week after Cameron’s empty chair horror, that the Tories are still neck and neck in the polls?)
Norfolk’s great job for the Times took a great deal of time
Andrew Norfolk, the Times reporter in Rotherham, is the hero of most press awards these days and was again at the last week’s press awards. Warm applause, but also a warm lesson as Norfolk thanked his editors, going back years, for giving him time, especially time listening quietly in court, to nail a great, sickening story. Time is the essence of investigation. Courts are the underreported casualty of staff cuts. We no longer sit through trials. We don’t register detail after an opening statement or two. We believe in open justice: but we’re shutting the door on it.
