Crisis at the BBC
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yesterday evening, BBC director general Tim Davie resigned, as first reported in the New Statesman by our new political editor Ailbhe Rea, along with his head of news, Deborah Turness.
In the end, it came down to a Panorama documentary accused of featuring a misleadingly edited speech by Donald Trump.
But, having weathered years of BBC scandals, could Davie’s departure be described as death by a thousand cuts?
Oli Dugmore is joined by Hannah Barnes to discuss.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman. |
| 0:05.6 | Yesterday evening, BBC Director-General Tim Davy resigned, as first reported in The New |
| 0:10.4 | Statesman by our new political editor, Alva Ray, along with his head of news, Deborah Turness. |
| 0:15.5 | In the end, it came down to a panorama documentary, accused of featuring a misleadingly edited |
| 0:20.5 | speech by Donald Trump. |
| 0:22.5 | But having weathered years of BBC scandals, could Davy's departure be described as death by a thousand |
| 0:28.3 | cuts? I'm Olly Doug Moore, and this is the New Statesman podcast. I'm joined by Hannah Barnes, |
| 0:33.9 | who survived 15 years service at the BBC. Hello, Hannah. Hi, Ollie. Survives a bit strong. I say it with my tongue firmly in my cheek. I come as a friend, maybe a critical one at times, but I had a good time. Those are the best kinds of friends. Those are the best kinds of friends. Hannah, we're going to talk about the specifics of the resignations. We're going to talk about the long-term consequences of this happening for the BBC. |
| 0:56.3 | But first, could you tell us what you understand the BBC's mission to be? And particularly sort of from a journalist's perspective, like what is the BBC trying to achieve as a public service broadcaster? |
| 1:06.7 | Well, very broadly, the BBC has always had these missions of informing, educating and entertaining. |
| 1:13.2 | And they all kind of speak for themselves. |
| 1:15.4 | Entertaining is obviously, you know, your Strictleys and your traitors, that kind of thing. |
| 1:20.3 | But in terms of news and journalism, its task is to be an impartial messenger of news and current affairs reflecting the country |
| 1:31.8 | that we live in and the world that we live in. |
| 1:33.4 | And I think one of the things that always made me proud to work for the BBC is that's |
| 1:37.5 | what I saw our role as being when I was there. |
| 1:40.6 | That because it has this unique position that it has the license fee, |
| 1:45.7 | it has a guaranteed income, it's not beholden to shareholders, it's not, it's not beholden |
| 1:51.3 | to a political party or the government. It can go for the stories that are most difficult, |
| 1:58.8 | that are most controversial, that others simply can't |
| 2:02.2 | because they're either expensive or it's just too difficult for them to do. So I always thought |
| 2:05.4 | that was its core purpose. And I think the memo that's triggered these resignations highlighted |
... |
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