Tim Davie giving evidence to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee as acting director general in 2012.
PA Archive/PA Images
Facing a hostile government and a financial squeeze, the new boss of the UK’s public broadcaster has his work cut out for him.
Charlie Brooker’s Anti-Viral Wipe brought some much-needed humour to a very dark situation.
BBC/Netflix/Matt Holyoak
Charlie Brooker shouting at the TV is the comic relief needed in the pandemic. The return of The Wipe is as pointed as it is hopeful.
Under scrutiny: health secretary, Matt Hancock, delivering testing figures on May 1.
PA Video/PA Wire/PA Images
Public doubts over some government information have led to calls for more active factchecking of claims.
The Daily Herald’s front page for VE Day: 80% of the UK public read a newspaper during the war.
Philip Bird LRPS CPAGB
Britain’s newspaper’s reported some wild scenes as the nation celebrated, but none wilder than in the Daily Mirror’s cartoon strip.
Screen time.
Shutterstock/ABB Photo
There’s never been so much to watch, but not everyone is able to tune in.
Normal People has been adapted for the BBC. It follows the love story of Connell and Marianne as they navigate love, class and the tricky journey into adulthood.
BBC/Element Pictures/Hulu
Books where loving someone from the other side of the tracks is about better understanding ourselves and the world we live in.
The UK’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and prime minister Boris Johnson taking questions from BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg at the end of March.
10 Downing Street / Crown copyright / Andrew Parsons/PA Wire/PA Images
Calls for journalists to rally round the UK government’s efforts to fight the pandemic are out of touch with public opinion, an in-depth study of news audiences has found.
BBC is the UK’s most trusted news source on the conronavirus pandemic.
Andrew Angelov via Shutterstock
The BBC’s audiences have grown as it provides high quality news an information about the pandemic. But is it doing enough to hold the government to account?
An image of the popular Sandy Macpherson from circa 1958. Macpherson played soothing music for BBC listeners during Second World War.
(BBC Programming)
During the Second World War, anxious but also bored BBC listeners found comfort in the soothing sounds of Sandy Macpherson, Canadian-born organist.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, broadcasting to the nation on March 23, 2020.
PA Video/PA Wire/PA Images
It’s not enough to say the science has changed – now, more than ever, we need clear accountability and transparency about the government’s decisions
Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Wire/PA Images
Broadcasters have a duty to inform the public and hold politicians to account. This mission is more important now than ever before.
mikecphoto via Shutterstock
The BBC is under threat as the government considers abolishing the licence fee. This would be a disaster.
Jo Martin as a parallel Doctor Who in the latest series.
BBC / Ben Blackall
Doctor Who has always been progressive – but now it appears it’s a little too ‘ woke’ for many of its fans.
BBC Africa Editor, Fergal Keane, in a still from the 2001 film about the Rwanda genocide, Hope in Hell.
Comic Relief
Keane is stepping back from his role as the BBC’s Africa editor due to a long struggle with PTSD after years reporting from conflict zones.
In 2009, newspapers prophesied the death of the radio drama. However, as of 2020 audio fiction has become the fastest-growing strand in publishing, with tech, media and film companies crowding in.
Bloody and unbowed: Claes Bang as Dracula.
BBC/Hartswood Films/Netflix/David Ellis
The latest version of the Gothic vampire chiller is brought to you with the trademark humour of writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.
Can the BBC continue to hold leaders to account?
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/PA Images
There were some ominous sounds coming out of the election campaign about what the Conservatives might have planned for the UK’s public broadcaster.
Screenshot from Evolve Politics website with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. Inset, her tweet reporting a story that turned out to be untrue. ITV’s political editor posted a similar tweet.
Evolve Politics
The BBC is looking exposed after a campaign in which it has taken fire from all sides.
Shutterstock
The Portuguese colonisers were not the only ones who could use radio for control. A new book tells how popular radio broadcasts from Angola’s liberation fighters were used as weapons in the struggle.
A gentoo penguin comes face to face with a leopard seal on Seven Worlds, One Planet.
BBC NHU
In showing the natural world as untouched by human impacts and shying away from recommending action, Attenborough’s latest documentary falls short of its potential.