Watching brief - Amanda Platell gives an award to GMTV's sofa
Published 15 December 2003
GMTV wins the Sofa of the Year Award. All politicians want to be on that sofa, and you can't get Gordon Brown off it these days. What could that possibly mean? Asks Amanda Platell
Without a doubt, and whatever the Hutton inquiry finds, this has been the year of the BBC. Despite the threats, veiled and otherwise, from the government that the corporation would pay a heavy price for its impudence in calling into question Tony Blair's integrity over the Iraq war, it stood firm.
And it was only able to do that with the full backing of the director general, Greg Dyke. I have not been a fan in the past, but after seeing him operate under the most relentless of pressure from Blair and his bully boys, I have a new respect. He's the kind of man you'd feel safe going to war with. Dyke's a fighter, and this year he fought for the very integrity of the BBC. And won.
The Today programme has a new confidence and confirms its place as the nation's premier news programme. The combo of John Humphrys and Jim Naughtie is still unbeatable. Listen between 6am and 6.15am for the sweetest and most unguarded moments.
Much as I lamented Humphrys's loss of his Sunday political show, Jeremy Vine has proved up to the challenge. He's easy on the eye and hard on the head, bringing what Dyke said he was looking for in the BBC's political coverage: freshness and accessibility. He displays these in both his Radio 2 show and BBC1's The Politics Show on Sunday.
Dyke also bet well in choosing Andrew Marr as political editor. He is sinking his teeth into the government at every possible opportunity. And they thought he was another new Labour lickspittle.
Both Andrew Neil's political shows, The Daily Politics and This Week, display one of the skills he had as an editor: choosing talent. The Diane Abbott/Michael Portillo team has worked a treat, and his sidekick on The Daily Politics, Daisy Sampson, is a real find. She has an earthy glamour that could easily take her from the world of politics into more mainstream TV.
Radio 5 Live is still the preferred station of choice for news and current affairs, especially breaking news, provided you can dodge the football.
It's hard to be creative when your present and your future are under attack, but the BBC has managed it - even down to its new ads for digital radio, which have convinced even me to cast aside my Goblin Teasmade and put a new digital radio on my wish list for Santa.
The BBC wins ball-breaker of the year award, so what of the rest? The disappearing act goes to the Prime Minister's wife, who has been thankfully silent of late. All is quiet on the mud-butt-rubbing front, too. Carole Caplin has been keeping her hands to herself and unintentionally giving us all a good laugh with her Mail on Sunday column.
Caplin's writings hailed a new era in investment journalism - for a reputed £70,000 a year, less than half the going rate of other Sunday female columnists, it is a wise investment for the time when the Blairs are no longer in No 10 and the gag comes off our Carole, which may be sooner than any of us thinks.
She is up against Ulrika Jonsson for most execrable column of the year award, but the mistress of mud does it for me every time.
The bravery award goes to Simon Kelner, editor of the Independent, for the courage to think small and sell big. The new tabloid Indy is not only a breakthrough in British newspapers, it may also come to be seen as a watershed: the beginning of the end of the broadsheet culture in this country. Plaudits, too, to Tony O'Reilly for having the guts to back him.
The endurance award must go to the staff of the Daily Express and the Sunday Express, especially the production team. Having been culled and culled again, it's a miracle the papers come out, and it's a tribute to all of them that they do.
Survivor of the year is Piers Morgan. Every time he's knocked down, he bounces back with a world exclusive between his teeth. Slime of the year is Paul - "I'll never write a book about Diana" - Burrell. Guess it's not a betrayal if you're so thick you have to get someone else to write it for you.
Sofa of the year award is retained by GMTV, which is still the preferred recline for politicians keen to get their message across to floating voters. It peaks at six million viewers per morning compared with Today's six million across the whole week.
You can't get Gordon Brown off the GMTV sofa these days. What could that possibly mean?
Surprise of the year must go to Conrad Black and his sudden departure from the Telegraph. No proprietor and a new editor, the least desirable combination for a paper now required to fight off what may be the broadsheet battle of the century with the newly launched tabloid Independent and Times.
Not since a very fat bloke fell off the back of a boat has there been such a sudden and dramatic change in a newspaper's fortunes, nor such a volatile time for the media.
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