A Jeremy Paxman performance that sounded on par with the legendary
Michael Howard gig took place earlier this week, although, alas, we won't get to see it. Paxo interviewed BBC DG Mark Thompson at an internal BBC event and took the opportunity to lay into his new boss, who is behind the plans for major job cuts at the Corporation.
According to the Guardian, Paxman kicked off with what he referred to as his "Gordon Brown question" - "Why should we believe a word you say when you said last year [while still running Channel 4] that you weren't interested in being director general?" The Guardian report Thompson "looked sheepish"
and stumbled over his answers, frequently sipping from a glass of water while Paxman rounded on him again.
At one point Paxman asked: "Were you ignoring the facts when you said the BBC was basking in jacuzzis of cash?", referring to something Thompson said while still at Channel 4 which seems, of course, at conflict with his cost cutting agenda since arriving at the Corporation. The poor DG had to admit that comment had been "a bit of a joke".
But
Thompson stuck to defending his proposed changes at the Beeb.
When asked about moving whole departments from TV Centre in
London to new premises in Manchester he said the move was necessary because the Beeb's London HQ was "creaking at the seams", adding, "To use a technical term, it's completely fucked."