The Observer’s editor-in-chief has called for the BBC to be “put beyond the reach of politicians” – and has compared the fight for survival within television to the zombie fungus in The Last Of Us.

Speaking to Sky News about his James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday, James Harding said it “is not the golden age of TV, it’s more like The Last Of Us… just trying to stay alive as the fungus of new things eats through all of us”.

The co-founder of Tortoise Media – which bought The Observer from the Scott Trust and Guardian Media Group in December – said he believes establishing the independence of the BBC is critical “if we want to build confidence in shared facts and respect for the truth”.

“At the moment politicians choose the chairman, they choose the licence fee, they have enormous influence over it,” he said.

“Let’s face it, there’s a suspicion that there’s a certain worldview attached to the BBC. Let’s make sure that it’s obvious to people that actually different points of view are really welcome.”

Mr Harding, who ran the BBC’s news and current affairs programming from 2013 up until the beginning of 2018, said the government must consider separating itself from the institution.

He explained: “When the government established the independence of the Bank of England in 1997, it put confidence in the central institution of the economy ahead of politics; the government today can and should do the same for the shared institution in our society by giving real independence to the BBC.”

The BBC has been criticised for a number of incidents in recent months, including breaching its own accuracy editorial guidelines and livestreaming the controversial Bob Vylan Glastonbury set, where there were chants of: “Death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]”.

Following the incident, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said ministers expected “accountability at the highest levels” for the BBC’s decision to screen the performance.

In his lecture, Mr Harding said the BBC is “not institutionally antisemitic” and that: “Whatever your view of the hate speech versus freedom of speech issues, an overbearing government minister doesn’t help anyone.

“The hiring and firing of the editor-in-chief of the country’s leading newsroom and cultural organisation should not be the job of a politician. It’s chilling.”

Ahead of the BBC charter renewal in 2027, he said the corporation’s “survival is at stake”.

He argued that the BBC chair and board of directors should be “chosen, not by the prime minister, but by the board itself and then, like other such organisations, with the approval of Ofcom.

“The charter should be open-ended. And the licence fee – or any future funding arrangement – should not be decided behind closed doors by the culture secretary and the chancellor, but, as in Germany, set transparently and rationally by an independent commission that impartially advises government and is scrutinised by parliament.”

He also said the BBC should lead the way in striking deals with generative AI companies by taking advantage of the “meaningful pricing of its reliable, ceaselessly renewed library of content.

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“That would help set the terms for other UK news and media companies that don’t get a hearing from the new generation of tech giants,” he said.

Mr Harding suggested that the BBC should look to work with AI developers to provide a “BBC GPT” that could enable the public to utilise AI “without handing over every last detail of what’s on their minds to US tech corporations that have proved obstinately unaccountable in the UK.”

He said it’s “about more than the BBC, it’s a national investment in our future that will come back to reap multi-platform rewards that an investment in no other UK organisation can.”

Edinburgh TV Festival runs from 19 – 22 August.

Robbie Williams has revealed details of several star collaborations on his upcoming album, Britpop – including a track with Gary Barlow.

The former Take That singer teased details at a launch event for the record, which will be his first studio album of original songs in almost a decade.

He also announced he will play his “smallest-ever ticketed gig” as an intimate show for 500 fans, performing both his debut album Life Thru A Lens and Britpop in their entirety, following his current European stadium tour.

Williams listed some of the artists he has collaborated with on the new album, including Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes, and Barlow.

The relationship between the Take That stars famously deteriorated after Williams left the group, but the pair fixed their friendship in later years – and the Angels star reunited with the band for their Progress tour in 2011.

Their song on Britpop is called Morrissey, about the singer-songwriter and former frontman of The Smiths.

Answering questions from comedian Joe Lycett, who hosted the event, Williams said the song was written from the point of view of “somebody that is stalking Morrissey and is completely obsessed and in love with him”, but did not give any further detail.

Another track, Human, is about AI. “We are being told that we’re all about to be replaced, and we need clothes and we need food, so there’s a chance that we will be removed,” Williams said. “Whether it’s a prophecy, we shall see. But, yeah. It’s a song about what we’ve been told about AI.”

The singer rose to fame in Take That in the early 1990s before quitting and going on to have huge success as a solo star, with hit songs including Let Me Entertain You, Angels, Feel, No Regrets and She’s The One.

In 2023, he reflected on his life and career in a documentary series, in which he spoke about his struggles with the limelight and his mental health at the height of his fame. Last year’s Better Man – a biopic of his life in which the star was portrayed as a monkey – also tackled those issues.

Now, he says he is back with the kind of album he would have loved to have released after he left Take That in 1995 – the “peak of Britpop” and the year of Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Pulp’s Different Class, and Blur’s The Great Escape.

“I’ve kind of been musically a bit aimless for a little while because I haven’t known really what to do,” Williams said at the Britpop launch. “I chased yesterday an awful lot. Which happens.”

When you become hugely successful and then “commercial radio, whatever, stops playing you… you think, shit, what was it that I did?” he continued. “I just spent the last 15 years looking backwards. And I think with this album, if I am going to look backwards, I might as well just clear the decks, go back to the start and head off from there.”

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Williams also spoke about other projects, including artwork and investment in arts education. “I want the entertainment industry to be somebody’s Plan A and Plan B,” he said.

“You know when you go to your parents, you say, ‘I want to be a singer, I want to be a dancer or be an actor, I want to go into the entertainment industry’. [The response is] ‘You better have a Plan B.’ I want to create the Plan B for people, too.”

Robbie Williams will play at Dingwalls in Camden on 9 October. Britpop is out the following day.

A member of rap trio Kneecap has been released on unconditional bail after appearing in court charged with supporting a proscribed terror organisation – as hundreds turned out to support him outside.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in London in November last year.

Demonstrators waving flags and holding banners in support of the rapper greeted him with cheers as he made his way into Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning.

Supported by his Kneecap bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, it took O hAnnaidh more than a minute to enter the building as security officers worked to usher him inside through a crowd of photographers and supporters.

Fans held signs which read “Free Mo Chara”, while others waved Irish and Palestinian flags.

As the hearing got under way, O hAnnaidh confirmed his name, date of birth and address. An Irish language interpreter was present in court.

During a previous hearing, prosecutors said the 27-year-old is “well within his rights” to voice his opinions on the Israel-Palestine conflict, but said the alleged incident at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town was a “wholly different thing”.

O hAnnaidh is yet to enter a plea to the charge. The case has been adjourned for legal argument and he will appear in court for a further hearing on 26 September.

Who are Kneecap?

Kneecap put out their first single in 2017 and rose to wider prominence in 2024 after the release of their debut album and an eponymously titled film – a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and their fight to save the Irish language.

The film, in which the trio play themselves and co-star alongside starring Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, won the BAFTA for outstanding debut earlier this year, for director and writer Rich Peppiatt.

Last year, Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK government after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was business secretary.

They are known for songs including H.O.O.D, Fine Art, and Better Way To Live, featuring Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten, with lyrics switching between the Irish language and English.