TO QUOTE Hugo Drax in 1979’s Bond movie Moonraker, BBC director-general Tim Davie once more appears in the news headlines, “with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season.”

The list of self-inflicted Snafus that have occurred on Davie’s watch at the BBC are too numerous to recount here, but many, if not all, seem to stem from his lack of editorial experience, Tory background (deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Party in the 1990s, standing unsuccessfully as a councillor in 1993 and 1994) and willingness to bend the knee to the government of the day.

In October 2023, Davie went so far as to subject himself to a grilling before the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, in an effort to defend the corporation’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war to the usual Conservative headbangers.

Which brings us to the DG being caught again on the back foot, this time over Glastonbury, where his dithering over pulling the iPlayer performances of Kneecap and Bob Vylan proved unpopular with virtually all shades of British political opinion.

Many BBC journalists appear to have reached the ends of their collective tether with both the indecisive Davie and his grey eminence, board member and “Active Tory Party Agent” (according to Emily Maitlis) Sir Robbie Gibb. Such is Gibb’s perceived influence within the corporation that 111 BBC journalists recently signed (anonymously, for fear of reprisals) a letter to BBC management calling for his removal due to a conflict of interest regarding the Middle East.

The letter claimed the BBC was “crippled by the fear of being perceived as critical of the Israeli government,” and the “inconsistent manner in which guidance is applied draws into focus the role of Gibb, on the BBC board and BBC’s editorial standards committee. We are concerned that an individual with close ties to the Jewish Chronicle … has a say in the BBC’s editorial decisions in any capacity, including the decision not to broadcast Gaza: Medics Under Fire.”

The missive went on to say, “For many of us, our efforts have been frustrated by opaque decisions made at senior levels of the BBC without discussion or explanation. Our failures impact audiences. As an organisation we have not offered any significant analysis of the UK government’s involvement in the war on Palestinians. We have failed to report on weapons sales or their legal implications. These stories have instead been broken by the BBC’s competitors. In some instances, staff have been accused of having an agenda because they have posted news articles critical of the Israeli government on their social media. By comparison, Gibb remains in an influential post with little transparency regarding his decisions despite his ideological leanings being well known. We can no longer ask licence fee payers to overlook Gibbs’s ideological allegiances.”

The letter ended with the declaration: “We, the undersigned BBC staff, freelancers and industry figures are extremely concerned that the BBC’s reporting on Israel and Palestine continues to fall short of the standards our audiences expect. We believe the role of Robbie Gibb, both on the board, and as part of the editorial standards committee, is untenable. We call on the BBC to do better for our audiences and recommit to our values of impartiality, honesty and reporting without fear or favour.”

The BBC’s new edict stressing the notion of impartiality before truth is especially worrying, given the excuse for shelving the Gaza documentary was that it “risked creating a perception of partiality.” (My underline).

To many in British media Davie was always an odd choice for DG, coming from a Pepsi marketing background with no discernible experience in or aptitude for editorial matters. 

As he said in 1996 promoting the Pepsi can colour change to blue: “This is not just a change in packaging. It is a change in attitude. Pepsi and Pepsi drinkers will be seen to do things differently.”

His stint as temporary DG, after his hapless 54-day predecessor George Entwistle resigned in November 2012 over Savile/Lord McAlpine, proved a harbinger of things to come, as a clearly tense Davie walked out of the Sky News studio when pressed on the crisis.

In the video of the interview, Davie’s eyes always were frequently looking to the right, presumably seeking advice from a corporation PR person in the wings. I can’t say Davie’s public performances have improved markedly since he became DG in 2020; but maybe he’s a commanding/charismatic turn when off-camera. Or not.

I confess to some surprise to read usually dependably sane producer/presenter Roger Bolton (Death on the Rock) state that Davie “is central to the BBC’s survival. The futures of the licence fee, World Service funding and public service media in general are under threat. There is no plausible successor.” What a sad state of affairs if this were actually true, that such a fundamentally unserious fellow is the best person to be editor-in-chief of the BBC.

Personally, I think a figure in the vein of ex-BBC executive/presenter/BBC World Service head/Barbican Centre manager/author John Tusa would have made a superb DG; someone with the eloquence, editorial chops and independence to lead the corporation. At the age of 89, I doubt the still active Tusa is interested in the idea, but one should note that 82-year-old Michael Grade is currently chairman of media regulator Ofcom, doing whatever he does there three days a week.

Tusa’s intellect, erudition and curiosity contrasts mightily with Tim Davie, who appears to spend much of his time “ultrarunning” when not obsessing over PR matters, or curating an extensive collection of expensive Adidas trainers.

But in all seriousness, I guess ANY government, no matter what the political persuasion, would much prefer a nonentity as DG, rather than someone who failed to pre-emptively toe the line.