The Media Show

The Media Show began with Ros Atkins and Katie Razzall interviewing Russell T Davies about his memoir and screenwriting career. He described Queer as Folk as his big break and said the series changed his life and kept a door open for him. He discussed his recent Channel 4 drama Tip Toe, saying it deliberately laid out its subject of creeping homophobia fuelled by an online voice, and he raised concerns about financial pressures and cuts facing public service broadcasters. He suggested the iPlayer could be promoted more and carry Channel 4 programmes, and said older Granada episodes and unavailable shows should be made more accessible. On Doctor Who, he said he would not return a third time, the show is out for tender, a CBeebies cartoon is due in 2027, and he expected a new Doctor and companion to begin production next summer. He also said he does not use AI, fears it could replace writers and threaten copyright, and called a boss’s remark about an AI Doctor Who clumsy.

The programme then turned to BBC News’s apology to PinkNews founder Benjamin Cohen and his husband Anthony James. It said that in 2024 BBC News published a detailed investigation into their behaviour, which was widely covered, and that the couple took legal action. Last week, the BBC said at the High Court that it apologised unreservedly for defamatory allegations, removed the documentary and article from its website, removed related coverage from other programmes, and would pay damages. Cohen and James said the BBC had reinforced a damaging homophobic trope. Former BBC News executive Katie Searle and former BBC legal correspondent Clive Coleman discussed how such stories are verified and the legal considerations. Searle said the sources and evidence did not stand up, that warnings about evidence would be a red flag, and that the settlement warranted online coverage. Coleman said the BBC would have to prove truth on the balance of probabilities and, if it could not, had no option but to settle. The discussion noted Radio 4 news summaries carried the development and the corrections page was updated, but there had been no coverage on the BBC News website.