Huw Edwards: BBC boss Tim Davie denies ‘wholesale banning’ of newsreader footage after scandal

Published

4 weeks ago

September 10, 2024

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The BBC’s boss has said there has been “no wholesale banning” of footage from the corporation’s archive after the scandal surrounding former newsreader Huw Edwards.

Edwards was named among the BBC’s highest-paid stars in the year 2023-24, despite being off-air since July 2023.

The 62-year-old is due to be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children at a court hearing earlier this year.

In August, the BBC asked him to hand back the part of his salary, thought to be about £200,000, earned in the five months after he was first arrested.

Director general Tim Davie and BBC chair Dr Samir Shah faced questions from the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee on Tuesday.

Mr Davie said the “standard practice” was to pay suspended employees.

“This affair has not been easy for any of us at the BBC, and particularly for those people who’ve been impacted,” he said.

“But I think it’s absolutely right to look back and reflect and say what are the learnings here. This is standard practice but maybe we should be challenging that.”

A story first emerged in The Sun last year that a then unnamed BBC presenter had allegedly paid a young person for explicit photographs.

Days later, Edwards’ wife named him as the presenter at the centre of the allegations.

Following a separate police investigation, Edwards was arrested and later charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.

Dr Shah said Edwards had “damaged the reputation” of the BBC.

“I should say, it was a shock to discover, when it was announced, when he was charged, that he had led this double life,” he added.

Mr Davie told the committee he did not think it “appropriate” to make public the BBC’s investigation into the initial allegations.

“If in the process of any disciplinary investigation, we found anything of a very serious nature, or criminal, or anything of that type, we would of course refer it to the police and we’d be in a completely different situation,” he said.

“That is not what came through any of the work we did. We’ve clearly got things progressing outside the workplace, but we’re very clear with regard to where we are within the workplace.”

The director general said he would “welcome the idea” of looking again at the policy to pay employees during suspension.

“This affair has not been easy for any of us at the BBC, and particularly for those people who’ve been impacted,” he said.

“But I think it’s absolutely right to look back and reflect and say what are the learnings here. [Paying suspended employees] is standard practice but maybe we should be challenging that.”

Entertainment

Jenna Fischer: US Office star reveals ‘aggressive’ cancer diagnosis

Published

11 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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Jenna Fischer: US Office star reveals 'aggressive' cancer diagnosis

Jenna Fischer, who played Pam Beesly in the US Office, has revealed she was diagnosed with an “aggressive” breast cancer in December last year.

The 50-year-old shared a photo of herself in her “patchy pixie” haircut to mark breast cancer awareness month.

“After completing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation I am now cancer free,” she wrote on Instagram.

Fischer said problems were flagged during a routine mammogram, where inconclusive results due to dense tissue led her doctor to order an ultrasound.

“They found something in my left breast,” she said. “A biopsy was ordered. Then, on December 1, 2023, I learned I had Stage 1 Triple Positive Breast Cancer.”

The actress noted the cancer is “aggressive… but highly responsive to treatment,” and said she underwent a lumpectomy.

“Luckily my cancer was caught early and it hadn’t spread,” Fischer said, before adding she had 12 rounds of weekly chemotherapy from February and had three weeks of radiation treatment in June.

“While I continue to be treated with infusions of Herceptin and a daily dose of Tamoxifen, I’m happy to say I’m feeling great.”

She urged her followers to get their annual mammograms, adding: “My tumour was so small it could not be felt on a physical exam.

“If I had waited six months longer, things could have been much worse. It could have spread… Consider this your kick in the butt to get it done.”

Read more from Sky News:
What we know about Hurricane Milton
Al Pacino reveals he nearly died

Angela Kinsey, who played Angela Martin in The Office and co-hosts the Office Ladies podcast with Fischer, commented on the post: “I love you and I’m so glad you’re sharing. I got your back, always.

Ellie Kemper, who also starred in The Office as Erin Hannon, commented: “We love you, Jenna. Thank you for sharing and for inspiring.”

And Olivia Munn, known for her roles in New Girl, The Newsroom and X-Men: Apocalypse, who revealed her own breast cancer diagnosis earlier this year, said: “You already know how much I love you and how incredibly proud of you I am.

“But I just want to say it again; I love you and by sharing your story you’re helping so many women and saving so many lives. You’re just the best.”

Entertainment

Miranda Hart announces marriage after ‘tough few years’

Published

17 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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Miranda Hart announces marriage after 'tough few years'

Miranda Hart has shared she’s become a “young bride at 51” after marrying her “best friend”.

The actress and comedian announced the news on The One Show while promoting her new book, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You.

Hart also said she had had “a tough few years” after being diagnosed with Lyme disease, telling Alex Jones and Alex Scott “I’ve mainly been in bed,” but added it “hasn’t been all doom and gloom… someone put a ring on it”.

“I got married at 51, and it’s just so lovely,” she told the BBC programme.

Hart, who starred in her self-titled sitcom from 2009 to 2015, added she met her husband during the COVID-19 pandemic and while battling “chronic illness when I couldn’t get out of bed or get out of the house”.

“I’d written Gary for on-screen Miranda and it wasn’t until I was 49 that I met my person, and I met him and it’s a little undercurrent in the book.”

She joked that Tom Ellis, who played Gary, was not her husband.

“I’m not going to reveal how we met as that is a little bit of a twist,” she said. “He’s my best friend, we have the best fun and I’m just thrilled to be a young bride at 51.”

After appearing on The One Show, Hart posted on social media to thank supporters for their well-wishes, which she found “really very touching”.

The actress said: “I’ve got my best friend to do life with and it’s wonderful and I’m also utterly thrilled to be back in telly land and having a book out so thanks so much for all your support.”

In the video, she then high-fives her husband – who is just out of frame – and jokes that fans got an “exclusive – his hand”.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread to humans by infected ticks. Symptoms usually present as a circular or oval rash and flu-like symptoms, according to the NHS.

Some people who are diagnosed with Lyme disease continue to have symptoms including tiredness, aches and loss of energy for years.

Hart’s new book, published by Penguin Books, will be released on 10 October.

Entertainment

London Film Festival: Steve McQueen’s Blitz offers view of war ‘through child’s eyes’

Published

20 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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London Film Festival: Steve McQueen's Blitz offers view of war 'through child's eyes'

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen hopes his new film will get “people off their iPhones” and “refocus our gaze” on what war is like for the children who live through it.

His new movie Blitz, set in wartime London and starring Irish actress Saoirse Ronan, will open this year’s London Film Festival later today.

In the film, Ronan plays a mum who, after having her son George evacuated to the countryside for his safety, ends up frantically searching the streets for him after learning he’s defiantly come home.

Eliott Heffernan plays the nine-year-old with much of the story told from his perspective.

Speaking to Sky News, McQueen set out what he hopes his latest movie will bring to audiences worldwide as he said: “Seeing war through a child’s eyes, at what point do we as adults look away?”

While it’s an idea the 12 Years A Slave director has been working on for over a decade, he admitted it certainly feels “even more urgent” to be showing Blitz now as the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond rage on.

McQueen says his young protagonist was inspired by a picture he discovered while researching the Blitz.

“I saw this photograph, a boy with an oversized coat and a very large suitcase standing in a railway station waiting to be evacuated, this black child, and I thought ‘that’s my in’.”

The film offers a much more diverse depiction of wartime London than audiences will perhaps have seen before, with characters like Ife – a Nigerian air raid warden – based on real individuals meticulously researched by McQueen’s team.

He says: “I’m not interested in pointing anything out, I’m just interested in telling the truth… central London was quite cosmopolitan.

“It was kind of an everyday occurrence. Ife, our character, did exist, he patrolled the Marylebone area… So it’s not a case, as my son says, of flexing, it’s a case of just telling the truth.”

From the sound of bombs getting closer, to the scramble to find shelters, the film sets out to give a true sense of the terror and chaos of war for those on the ground. It’s set in the past but, the director hopes, it’s just as relevant now.

“Hopefully, you know, it can help in one way, shape or form… and take people off their iPhones for five minutes or so,” he adds.

Blitz is the opening movie at this year’s BFI London Film Festival. It will be released in cinemas on 1 November and globally on Apple TV+ on 22 November.