Tim Davie will survive calls to quit as BBC boss despite two damning reports into the broadcaster’s handling of Gregg Wallace and a Gaza film that breached editorial rules, insiders believe.
But the embattled Director-General will come under further pressure on Tuesday, when the BBC releases an annual report expected to show declining viewing of its TV channels and more people cancelling their licence fees.
Monday marked a trying day for Davie, with the publication of two separate probes into both the MasterChef host and the controversial film.
Davie admitted a “serious accuracy failing” in the Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone documentary, which was narrated by the son of a Hamas official without audiences being informed of the terror group link.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said Davie should quit over the errors, accusing the BBC of becoming an institution where anti-Jewish bias is now “ingrained”.
In a statement published just two hours earlier on Monday, the BBC also acknowledged that “more could and should have been done sooner” to intervene over Wallace’s inappropriate behaviour, after a legal review upheld 45 complaints against the presenter.
Despite a day of reputational damage to the BBC, the Director-General, nicknamed “Teflon Tim”, appears to be secure in his role.
“Tim lives to fight another day but his job won’t get any easier,” said a BBC insider.
“Staff are split over the Gaza issue but there are also fears over jobs because there are bound to be more cuts and concerns over how much AI will take over people’s roles.”
The controversial BBC documentary was shot over nine months by two Gazan cameramen, directed remotely from London (Photo: Amjad al-Fayoumi/BBC/Hoyo Films)Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who accused the BBC of a “problem of leadership” over mounting controversies, including the live broadcast of Bob Vylan’s “death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury, and is understood to have been privately critical of Davie, was noticeably more conciliatory in her remarks.
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She said of the Gaza documentary failings: “I believe that they (Davie and Chairman Samir Shah) are acting now at pace to put in place measures to make sure that this cannot happen again and I’m pleased that there has been an acknowledgement about what a catastrophic failure this has been.”
She added: “It’s not for the Government to say who should and shouldn’t work at the BBC.”
But Jewish staff were left aghast that the Gaza review, conducted by the Director of Editorial Complaints and Reviews Peter Johnston, found no breach of impartiality and even suggested that the stories of participants told in the film could be returned to iPlayer in a re-edited form.
“With this outcome following the antisemitic Bob Vylan rant, it feels like Jews are still being gaslit by the BBC,” one staffer said. “Once again, there is no accountability for senior executives.”
More trouble on the way for Teflon Tim
Davie will face questions from the media over the Gaza, Glastonbury and Wallace scandals on Tuesday, alongside the publication of the BBC’s annual report and accounts.
The document will reveal if the pace of paid-for licence fee cancellations – the number fell by 560,000 last year – has quickened.
The report will also show how viewing for the BBC’s flagship TV channels is being squeezed by the challenge from streaming platforms.
Davie has also been invited to appear before MPs on the Commons Culture Select Committee for a grilling over the recent controversies.
Another issue on the horizon for the BBC boss is deciding whether to air a delayed MasterChef series, featuring Wallace, which was completed before the host stood down after facing allegations.
The series could run on iPlayer without a regular BBC TV broadcast. However the situation is complicated by the knowledge that the Wallace review upheld offensive language complaints against two other MasterChef figures.
A report for the BBC upheld 45 of 83 claims against Gregg Wallace, including one that involved unwelcome physical contact (Photo: Dave Benett/Getty )The BBC said it takes those revelations “very seriously” and has asked producers Banijay UK to take action.
What Davie has said
Davie apologised for the accuracy error in the Gaza film – by failing to disclose information about the child narrator’s father’s position within the Hamas-run government – and promised “fair, clear and appropriate actions to ensure proper accountability and the immediate implementation of steps to prevent such errors being repeated”.
But Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, said: “This is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of systemic bias in the BBC’s coverage of the war. The BBC’s failure to recognise this and take real action is a serious leadership failure.”
He added: “This looks like a classic case of ‘deputy heads must roll’ and that is nowhere near good enough. As head of news Deborah Turness has questions to answer.”
Turness, BBC News CEO, said those production executives who failed to pursue the question of the narrator’s family with the film’s independent producers would face a disciplinary process but the names must remain “confidential.” She added: “We are responsible for everything that we publish and everything we broadcast.”
On the findings of the Wallace report, the BBC said: “This behaviour falls below the values of the BBC and the expectations we have for anyone who works with or for us.
“Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC. We accept more could and should have been done sooner.”
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