Category Archives: BBC

‘I have to take ultimate responsibility’: Tim Davie’s BBC resignation statement

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Full text of director general’s note to staff and the resignation statement from head of news Deborah Turness

Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, and the head of BBC News have resigned after a former adviser to the corporation accused it of “serious and systemic” bias in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights.

This afternoon Davie sent the following note to staff:

Dear all,

I wanted to let you know that I have decided to leave the BBC after 20 years. This is entirely my decision, and I remain very thankful to the Chair and Board for their unswerving and unanimous support throughout my entire tenure, including during recent days.

Dear all,

I have never been more proud of the work that you do every day. You really are the best of the best.

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Tim Davie expected to resign as BBC director general

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Corporation has faced accusations of ‘serious and systemic’ bias in its reporting

Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, is expected to resign after a former adviser to the corporation accused it of “serious and systemic” bias in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights.

In a shock move, the Guardian understands that Davie is to imminently announce his departure. It comes with the BBC preparing to apologise for the way the broadcaster edited a Donald Trump speech.

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Why is the BBC expected to apologise over a Donald Trump speech edit?

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Boris Johnson and White House criticise the corporation, but some journalists say criticism is part of campaign to destroy the BBC

The BBC is expected to apologise on Monday for the way in which a speech by the US president, Donald Trump, was edited in an episode of Panorama. The show is one of a number of examples highlighted by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, who detailed his concerns about the broadcaster’s impartiality in a memo published by the Telegraph.

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Veteran actor Tchéky Karyo, star of Nikita and The Missing, dies aged 72

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French-Turkish actor appeared in a string of high-profile films, as well as hit BBC series The Missing

Tchéky Karyo, who appeared in some of director Luc Besson’s biggest hits and a string of international films, died on Friday at the age of 72, his family have announced.

A statement from his wife and children sent to AFP said he had “succumbed to cancer”.

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BBC journalist barred from leaving Vietnam and interrogated repeatedly

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BBC ‘deeply concerned’ for journalist’s wellbeing after Vietnamese police withhold their ID card and passport

Vietnamese authorities have barred a BBC journalist from leaving the country and ​subjected them to days of interrogation, in a press freedom case that comes to light during a high-profile visit by Vietnam’s leader to the UK.

The journalist, a Vietnamese citizen who lives and works in Thailand, had returned to their home country in August to renew their passport, according a source with knowledge of the situation.

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BBC reporters cannot wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts in newsroom, says Tim Davie

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Director general says it is inappropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue ‘to be campaigning in that way’

BBC journalists cannot wear T-shirts in the newsroom supporting the anti-racist movement Black Lives Matter, the corporation’s director general Tim Davie has said.

Davie said the BBC stood against racism but it was “not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way.

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Broadcaster John Stapleton dies aged 79

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Tributes paid to ‘consummate pro’ and ‘rock solid’ presenter of Newsnight, Watchdog and GMTV’s News Hour

Tributes have been made across the world of television to the “rock solid broadcaster and ultimate gentleman” John Stapleton, who has died at the age of 79 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2024.

Stapleton’s agent, Jackie Gill, said on Sunday: “John had Parkinson’s disease, which was complicated by pneumonia. His son Nick and daughter-in-law Lise have been constantly at his side and John died peacefully in hospital this morning.”

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BBC asks police to investigate new Strictly allegations, reports say

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Move comes after claims earlier this month that two stars of the TV dance show used cocaine

The BBC has asked the police to investigate Strictly Come Dancing amid fresh allegations, according to reports, after claims two of its stars used cocaine.

The Sun on Sunday reported that the corporation has alerted the Metropolitan police to new allegations about the dance competition show, the details of which it does not specify.

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Pioneering Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter dies at 92

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Leicester-born producer was editor of BBC children’s show for more than 20 years and introduced Blue Peter badge

Biddy Baxter, the pioneering television producer who transformed Blue Peter into a national institution, has died at 92, according to the BBC.

As editor of the children’s programme between 1965 and 1988, she introduced viewer engagement segments including the national appeals and the famous Blue Peter badge, encouraging children to send letters, pictures and programme ideas.
The show’s former presenter Peter Duncan remembered her as “a true force of nature”.

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BBC commentator Andrew Castle sorry for getting US footballer’s name wrong

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Trinity Rodman, girlfriend of tennis star Ben Shelton, was repeatedly called ‘Tiffany’ during Wimbledon coverage

The BBC commentator Andrew Castle has apologised after repeatedly getting the name of a top American footballer wrong.

Trinity Rodman, who is the girlfriend of the American tennis player Ben Shelton, criticised the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage in which Castle called her “Tiffany” several times.

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More than 400 media figures urge BBC board to remove Robbie Gibb over Gaza

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Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle and Mike Leigh among signatories to letter criticising Jewish Chronicle ties

More than 400 stars and media figures including Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle, Juliet Stevenson and Mike Leigh have signed a letter to BBC management calling for the removal of a board member, Robbie Gibb, over claims of conflict of interest regarding the Middle East.

The signatories also include 111 BBC journalists and Zawe Ashton, Khalid Abdalla, Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and the historian William Dalrymple, who express “concerns over opaque editorial decisions and censorship at the BBC on the reporting of Israel/Palestine”.

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Adult gaming centres failing to help problem gamblers self-exclude

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UK regulator expresses concern as vast majority of centres visited by the BBC did not properly implement scheme

Flaws in a scheme meant to help gamblers bar themselves from 24-hour slot machine shops have been described by the industry regulator as “very concerning”, following revelations in a BBC documentary.

The Guardian has previously revealed how gambling operators are exploiting favourable planning and licensing laws to flood UK high streets with “adult gaming centres” (AGCs), which are disproportionately concentrated in the poorest areas.

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Bargain Hunt expert jailed for offences under Terrorism Act

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Oghenochuko Ojiri given two-and-a-half-year sentence over failure to report art sales to suspected Hezbollah funder

A BBC Bargain Hunt art expert who failed to report a series of high-value art sales to a man suspected of financing the militant group Hezbollah has been jailed for two and a half years.

Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, sold artworks worth a total of about £140,000 to Nazem Ahmad, a man designated by US authorities as a suspected financier for the Lebanese organisation, a court hearing was told last month.

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Gerry Adams’ BBC libel win risks more benign view of Troubles taking hold

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Concerns raised that hefty award to politician over Spotlight episode could lead to less hard-hitting journalism

For more than half a century, Spotlight has roved a beam over Northern Ireland, illuminating dark and overlooked topics. But now the flagship BBC documentary series is itself in the glare of scrutiny.

Gerry Adams’ victory in a libel case on Friday dealt a heavy blow to Spotlight and the BBC and raises questions over the programme and the impact of the case on journalism in the UK and Ireland.

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Gerry Adams awarded €100,000 damages in libel victory over BBC

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Former Sinn Féin leader sued broadcaster over allegation in documentary that he sanctioned murder of MI5 informant

Gerry Adams has won a defamation action against the BBC over a documentary that carried a claim he sanctioned the murder of an MI5 informant in 2006.

A jury at Dublin’s high court on Friday found that the BBC had not acted in good faith or in a fair and reasonable way and awarded the former Sinn Féin leader €100,000 (£84,000) in damages

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Joe Don Baker, tough-guy actor from Walking Tall and Bond films, dies aged 89

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The prolific performer played varied roles – from arms dealer to baseball star – and made the rare switch from Bond villain to Bond good guy

Tough-guy actor Joe Don Baker, a prolific performer in movies as varied as GoldenEye, Cape Fear and Mud, as well as the BBC TV series Edge of Darkness, has died aged 89.

Born in 1936, Baker grew up in small town Texas, and studied business administration at North Texas State College. After a period in the army, Baker moved to New York and joined the Actors’ Studio in the early 1960s, where he was a contemporary of Rip Torn. Baker made his Broadway debut in 1963 with the Actors’ Studio company, appearing in Marathon ’33, about the dance marathons of the Great Depression, and made his film debut in an uncredited role in 1967 in Cool Hand Luke. He also appeared in numerous TV series, including the pilot episode of a western show called Lancer in 1968, the making of which was fictionalised by Quentin Tarantino in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton in Baker’s role.

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Danny Dyer says Harold Pinter’s death sent him into ‘spiral of madness’

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Actor tells BBC about his relationship with the playwright, his ‘mentor’, and how he went ‘off the rails’

The actor Danny Dyer said the death of his mentor, the Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, triggered a “spiral of madness” in his life.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Dyer reflected on how he had stayed at Pinter’s home while performing in his play Celebration. The play opened at London’s Almeida theatre in 2000, before transferring to the Lincoln Center in New York.

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US and UK set to announce trade deal today – UK politics live

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US president set to announce ‘full and comprehensive’ trade deal between UK and US with Starmer due to make statement

The Liberal Democrats treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper has reiterated the party’s position that any trade deal with the US should be put to parliament for approval before being ratified, saying Labour “should not be afraid” of a vote if they are confident a deal is in the country’s best interests.

Cooper, the MP for St Albans, said in a statement:

Parliament must be given a vote on this US trade deal so it can be properly scrutinised.

A good trade deal with the US could bring huge benefits, but Liberal Democrats are deeply concerned that it may include measures that threaten our NHS, undermine our farmers or give tax cuts to US tech billionaires.

If it’s correct, and you know, whilst we haven’t been named publicly, it does sound like something’s happening, nevertheless, it would be wholly speculative [to comment].

As you appreciate and know full well, with any deal like that, the devil is in the detail. What is the nitty gritty? What does it mean for individual sectors and so on.

I think if we don’t know at all what’s in it, or even if it’ll definitely happen, I think to try and sort of pre-judge what might or might not be in is not something I’m going to get into respectfully. I totally understand why you’re asking that. I think it’s an incredibly important issue, particularly with the wider challenge of tariffs and so on. I’m a big free trader. Our party wants us to see the UK growing by striking trade deals. But I just think you’ve got to wait and see, because who knows, quite frankly.

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‘This is your victory’: Churchill’s VE Day radio address to be broadcast by Timothy Spall

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Actor joins four days of national events including concerts, church services and a military procession in London

Eighty years after Winston Churchill addressed the nation from Downing Street with the words “This is your victory!” a recitation of his famous VE Day speech will be broadcast as the nation commemorates the day the Allies formally accepted Germany’s surrender in 1945.

Events across four days of national UK commemorations include a military procession through central London on Monday, with tens of thousands expected to line the route from Parliament Square to Buckingham Palace, and a service at Westminster Abbey on the 8 May anniversary on Thursday.

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UK woman says she was not at abortion clinic ‘to express views’ after conviction

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Livia Tossici-Bolt says she was ‘disappointed’ to be convicted of breaching Bournemouth clinic buffer zone

A woman who was given a conditional discharge after being convicted of breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth has claimed she was “not there to express my views”.

Livia Tossici-Bolt, an anti-abortion campaigner whose case has been cited by the US state department over “freedom of expression” concerns in the UK, told the BBC’s Today programme she was “really disappointed” with the conviction “because it’s nothing to do with protesting” and said she would “continue my fight for freedom of speech”.

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