Three minutes after ten is the time.

I got a little moment there, I thought, was that a little previous,

suggesting that in the course of the next 90 seconds,

we'd get the news concerning the future of the BBC chairman Richard Sharpe.

Did anyone set a clock?

Did anyone start a stopwatch?

And there it was.

Just while I was rearranging my papers and checking the temperature of my tea in the studio.

The announcement came through from Thomas that he has indeed resigned.

Well, he's still talking.

So what I'm going to do is, well, I'm not going to wait until he finishes necessarily,

but I'll play you his statement in its entirety when it is available here. So we're just doing the, you know,

we've got the razor blades out and the tapes and we're splicing the tape and sticking it

together with glue and Keith's got the Prit stick. And so I'll play the statement in its

entirety shortly. I want to tell you something first, though. I want to tell you two things

first and foremost, because this is, as you'd expect, one of those stories where I perhaps have a little bit more knowledge and even insight than I do on other stories.

The first thing is that Richard Sharpe's period as chairman of the BBC has been quite well received in much of the corporation, up to and including other board members,

and I mean proper board members, not people just put there entirely to pursue the conservative agenda,

people like Robbie Gibb.

And the second thing is, which cancels out the first thing, is he tried to get on the board

under normal circumstances and failed.

And then somehow ended up as chairman after applying for that from the building in which he was

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