Danny Cohen justifies decision to axe Rufus Sewell drama Zen, saying he wants to ‘broaden the palette a bit’ Television is in danger of airing programmes with “too many male detectives” and “too much crime”, according to the BBC1 controller, Danny Cohen. Discussing the decision to axe BBC1′s Rufus Sewell drama Zen two months ago, Cohen said: “You can’t keep on doing everything if you want to bring in new things. I felt that we risked having too many male detectives and arguably we have had maybe too much crime. He went on: “Detectives and crime is the real staple of quite a lot on the BBC but also a huge amount of ITV drama … I want to broaden the palette a bit.” Speaking at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch in London, Cohen said: “I want to broaden the range and make sure we have got enough that is not detectives and crime.” Cohen pointed out that BBC1 already has hit series Sherlock and Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh, which is returning next year. Other BBC1 male detective dramas include Luther and George Gently, while ITV1 has Lewis, Midsomer Murders, DCI Banks and the recent well-received one-off drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. ITV is also due to air new dramas starring female detectives – Vera and Case Sensitive. Following Life of Riley actor Caroline Quentin’s recent call for Cohen to address the issue of more television roles for older actresses, the BBC1 controller said: “I think we know there’s more work to do there. It’s not a BBC issue, it’s an industry issue, we have to get better.” When asked why one of his channel’s most famous faces, David Dimbleby, has yet to agree a new contract with the BBC, Cohen at first said Dimbleby has signed up to host more editions of Question Time. However he then corrected himself and said a deal has not yet been done and that it is being dealt with by the BBC News director, Helen Boaden. Cohen said “I want him to stay and do Question Time”, adding that part of the talks with Dimbleby include the veteran presenter doing a landmark series for BBC1 following the success of programmes such as Seven Ages of Britain. He went on to say that he sometimes wonders about “the degree of scrutiny of the BBC” on a daily basis in newspapers and warned: “Britain would be a poorer place without the BBC, we should be careful how far we kick it.” •
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More than half of the 650 sessions are already oversubscribed after last-minute surge on website London 2012 organisers said they were “thrilled” after revealing they had received applications for more than 20m Olympics tickets during the first phase of sales. More than half of the 650 sessions are already oversubscribed at the end of the first round of ticket sales, with track cycling, rhythmic gymnastics, triathlon and the equestrian cross country among the first sports to sell out. After a last-minute surge in applications that caused the website to slow to a crawl and forced a last-ditch extension of the deadline early on Wednesday, the London organising committee (Locog) said 1.8 million people had submitted applications for the 6.6m tickets available to the public. Locog also confirmed that anyone who had not applied for tickets in the initial 42-day phase would not get the chance to do so until much later this year. Instead, those applicants who have received none or only some of the tickets for which they bid will be offered further opportunities in June and July to apply for other events. The opening ceremony, for which tickets range from £20.12 to £2,012, was the most popular event and was more than 10 times oversubscribed. Successful applicants will have money taken from their accounts between 10 May and 10 June and will be notified which tickets they will receive before 24 June. That has drawn criticism from some consumer groups, which claim the system tilted the scales in favour of those able to rack up a large potential bill in the hope of securing the most sought-after tickets. Track cycling, in which Team GB won an unprecedented eight gold medals in Beijing, was always expected to be among the hottest tickets, as were the opening and closing ceremonies. But some of the other sports to sell out are more surprising. They include rhythmic gymnastics, modern pentathlon, the cross country equestrian events in Greenwich Park and the triathlon in Hyde Park. All have a committed following, a limited number of sessions and tend to be reasonably priced. Locog said that most swimming and tennis sessions had also sold out. Lord Coe, the chairman of Locog, said: “We are thrilled with the response right across the board, in all sports and all sessions. What is most encouraging is that the majority of applications are for multiple tickets and for several sports, which shows that friends and family are planning to go to the games together.” Locog did not reveal which sports have the most spaces remaining, though tickets for those with lots of sessions in relatively large venues will inevitably be among the most difficult to shift. They include volleyball, football, basketball and handball. There was also criticism of the technology underpinning the ticketing process from some who claimed they were unable to access the site in the hours running up to the midnight deadline. Locog said the site was overburdened for only 20 minutes, but some users reported being unable to process their orders for two hours or more. Locog, which extended the deadline to 1am, said all those who kept trying were eventually able to process their order. Andreas Edler, managing director of a web hosting company Hostway UK, said: “Irrespective of the sudden late surge of demand, you would expect ticketing websites in this day and age to build in adequate capacity and utilise better traffic management practices to cope with the excess of visitors.” Olympic Games 2012 Sebastian Coe Owen Gibson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …As the US prepares to withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan by 2014, Afghanistan’s neighbors are jockeying for increased influence—most notably Pakistan, which is blatantly lobbying Hamid Karzai to ditch the US. Rather than allow a long-term American military presence in Afghanistan, Pakistani PM Yousuf Raza Gilani suggested…
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• BP takes additional $400m in charges from oil spill costs • UK budget changes cost BP £414m in extra taxes BP has predicted it will be back drilling in the Gulf of Mexico within a matter of months despite continuing legal threats and rows over pollution from last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. “We expect to be back and actively drilling during the second half of the year,” Byron Grote, the company’s chief financial officer, told financial analysts from the City of London on Wednesday. The comments are likely to infuriate environmentalists who believe BP should be kept away from the Gulf and could upset a US offshore regulator still considering whether to grant permits to BP. Verbal gaffes by former chief executive Tony Hayward in the wake of the Macondo well accident 12 months ago sent the company’s reputation in America into freefall as it attracted widespread criticism from the White House downwards. Grote was speaking as BP revealed it had taken a further $400m of extra charges relating to Macondo in its first quarter financial results which helped dent profits. The company has not drilled any wells in the US Gulf since a moratorium was introduced last summer but formally lifted again in October. Some rival firms have already been granted permission to drill new deepwater wells but not BP. A spokesman for the British company said it had applied to resume drilling production wells to keep up output levels at key fields such as Thunderhorse and Atlantis. “This is clearly subject to the regulator’s permission being granted,” he added. Hopes that drilling could begin soon come barely a month after the US Justice Department confirmed it was still considering a range of civil and criminal charges against BP. It also comes amid continuing arguments over how much oil or dispersant chemicals used in the aftermath of Macondo continue to damage the waters of the Gulf. The financial figures for the first three months of the year were boosted by much higher oil prices but were also damaged by chancellor George Osborne taking a billion dollar bite out of profits. Changes announced in the March budget on North Sea oil fields cost BP $683m (£414m) in extra taxes over the first quarter of the year while a further $400m is expected to go in 2012 owing to fiscal treatment covering the decommissioning of platforms. The higher tax charge in the first three months helped replacement cost profits dip to $5.5bn from $5.6bn during the same period a year ago but the figures were also hampered by an 11% slump in production volumes and higher operating costs. These special items outweighed a substantial increase in oil prices year on year and a very strong performance from its Russian business, TNK-BP, where BP is in conflict with its oligarch partners over a proposed tie-up with another local group, Rosneft. The tax hit from Osborne has infuriated a wider North Sea oil and gas industry which claims hundreds of jobs stand to be lost. There has been a series of meetings between company executives and government officials but so far Osborne has shown little sign of backing down. Osborne presented the move last month as a “fair fuel stabiliser” which would raise the tax rate on oil producers to avoid having to increase the tariff on pump petrol which has reached record levels. The chancellor said the change would raise £2bn of extra taxes but BP’s figure of $683m is the first from a company and BP is still one of the largest in the North Sea. The BP tax rate went up from 30% to 37% over the first quarter as a result of the move, said a company spokesman. The oil group has gradually been running down its UK interests and is talking to potential buyers about various gas fields it wants to sell along with the Wytch Farm onshore field in Dorset. BP has disposed of $24bn worth of assets worldwide as part of a cash-raising move to help pay for the $41bn cost of Deepwater. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Tony Hayward BP oil spill George Osborne Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
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Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, holds his first ever live press conference to explain monetary policy 2.44pm: A silly question from a nameless interlocator, asking what can the Fed do about providing more jobs. Oh god, it was from the New York Times. Really. “Clearly it is the case that we have done extraordinary things” to get the economy moving, Bernanke argues. And now a question about the ineffectiveness of the second round of quantitative easing – in which the Fed attempted to push on a piece of string using a wodge of cash. Bernanke unsurprisingly thinks that the policy he piloted was effective. It wasn’t going to be a panacea, Bernanke says. 2.43pm ET: And now a question about the end of quantitative easing. Something something something. 2.38pm ET: At last a lovely British accent, via a question from Robin Harding of the FT, looking like a young Michael Caine. The question was about inflation expectations. The answer is so fascinating that words alone can’t convey it. 2.37pm ET: For how long will US economic growth and growth in the labour market continue to be moderate, asks a polite man from Bloomberg. “The pace of improvement is still quite slow, we are digging ourselves out of quite a big hole,” Bernanke says. Basically, a while yet. 2.33pm ET: What can or should the Fed do able Americans being upset about high gas and food prices, wonders the Wall Street Journal. “Gas is of course a necessity, people need to drive to get to work,” notes Bernanke. Well I walked to work this morning, but his broad point is accurate. Demand from growing economies has driven up the demand for oil, while disruptions in the Middle East has restricted supply. “This is a very adverse development,” says Bernanke. “There’s not much the Federal Reserve can do about gas prices per se.” “Our view is that gas prices will not continue to rise at the recent pace… that will provide some relief on the inflation front but we’ll have to wtach that very carefully.” 2.30pm ET: Critics say Fed policy has driven down the value of the US dollar. What does Mr Bernanke have to say to those critics? (That’s asked by someone called Steve.) Bernanke doesn’t really answer the question, and basically says that if the US economy is strong then the US dollar will be strong. Which is true. Low inflation and a strong economy, that’s the ticket. 2.28pm ET: Not a huge PR success so far, based on this tweet from uber-blogger Felix Salmon of Reuters. Still, it’s early days. I think it might have helped if Bernanke had provided a simultaneous translation from Latin. 2.25pm ET: Cracking stuff so far, assuming you have a PhD in macroeconomics from a decent university. If you don’t, it’s slightly on the dry side. 2.15pm ET: And right on time, Chairman Bernanke takes the stage and starts speaking from his prepared text. Alongside Bernanke’s press conference, the Federal Open Market Committee has issued its latest announcement regarding US interest rates: Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that the economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace and overall conditions in the labor market are improving gradually. Household spending and business investment in equipment and software continue to expand. However, investment in nonresidential structures is still weak, and the housing sector continues to be depressed. Commodity prices have risen significantly since last summer, and concerns about global supplies of crude oil have contributed to a further increase in oil prices since the Committee met in March. Inflation has picked up in recent months, but longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable and measures of underlying inflation are still subdued. The upshot to all this is that the FOMC is leaving interest rates unchanged: The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 0.25 per cent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period. 2.10pm ET: Here’s how the Fed explains today’s event: Chairman Ben S Bernanke will hold press briefings four times per year to present the Federal Open Market Committee’s current economic projections and to provide additional context for the FOMC’s policy decisions. The introduction of regular press briefings is intended to further enhance the clarity and timeliness of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy communication. The Federal Reserve will continue to review its communications practices in the interest of ensuring accountability and increasing public understanding. 2pm ET: Welcome to live coverage of an unusual event: for the first time the chairman of the US Federal reserve, Ben Bernanke, holds a press conference to explain the Fed’s interest rate setting decisions and to explain to outlook for the US economy and its monetary policy. The press conference kicks off at 2.15pm ET, and you can follow it on streaming video through this link – and the Guardian’s analysis right here. For background, here’s how the Financial Times’s Lex column [subscription required] reads today’s historic press conference: Longer term, however, conferences should strengthen the chairman’s control over the Fed’s message. Of late, Fedspeak has come largely from hawkish regional governors. This obscures Mr Bernanke’s feat at the last meeting in mustering unanimous support for a highly controversial policy. He is still guiding the Fed. Now he will have ample opportunity to demonstrate this, and lay out his case. Ben Bernanke US Interest rates US economy United States Economics Richard Adams guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Whopper and the Frosty have officially been replaced by the Frappuccino: Starbucks is now the nation’s No. 3 chain, having leapfrogged in front of burger giants Burger King and Wendy’s, who, according to one researcher, have been struggling to find “their niche.” In terms of total 2010 sales, the…
Continue reading …The big security shakeups are out, by way of unidentified AP sources, and as predicted , Leon Panetta is in as the new secretary of defense, succeeding Robert Gates. Gen. David Petraeus will be nominated to fill Panetta’s shoes as CIA director. Five-time ambassador Ryan Crocker, who retired in 2009 and…
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• Bash F5 for the latest updates • Send your tiki-taka to scott.murray@guardian.co.uk • Click here for tonight’s other scores Scott will be here from 7pm. Ish. In the meantime, you can enjoy this superb animation of Barcelona’s 5-0 win earlier this season and also take a look at Sid Lowe’s pre-match report: This time it’s personal. Barcelona’s coach, Josep Guardiola, finally exploded, sending a year of pent-up anger and frustration gushing forth as he responded to José Mourinho on the eve of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid. The question now is whether Mourinho will feel that he has won the mental battle, dragging Guardiola into territory that is not his own, or if Guardiola will feel a release at having at last had his say. And what a say it was. The days of a respectful silence, of turning the other cheek, are definitively over. This was more like the aggressive weigh-in before a prize fight, complete with an air of “you and me outside”. Mourinho had pricked Guardiola’s pride once too often by accusing him of complaining about referees who get decisions right. It was an accusation that Guardiola, normally so measured, was not prepared to let pass – the last straw after a year that has been a war of attrition. Guardiola was finally drawn into battle. “He called me Pep, so I answered,” Guardiola said at the end of a breathtaking 45 minutes. “Normally, he talks in general terms about a team, a club or a manager, but this time he named me. If he says: ‘Pep,’ I say: ‘Hey, José.’” He said more than “hey”. Sitting down in the press room at the Santiago Bernabéu, he said: “As Mourinho has spoken so candidly about me and spoken about me by name, and using tú [the informal form of you], then I will do the same.” He then asked which of the gathered cameras was “Mourinho’s camera” and began. Article continues here Champions League Real Madrid Barcelona Scott Murray guardian.co.uk
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UK responds hours after Malawi deports Fergus Cochrane-Dyet in row over leaked diplomatic cable Britain has ordered Malawi’s acting ambassador to leave the country, hours after the African state expelled Britain’s envoy over his criticism of its leader. Malawi, a former British colony, expelled Fergus Cochrane-Dyet for calling President Bingu wa Mutharika “autocratic and intolerant” in a leaked diplomatic cable, a Malawian government spokesman said on Wednesday. Britain responded by expelling Flossie Gomile Chidyaonga. The foreign secretary, William Hague, hinted at further consequences in a statement , saying he had asked UK officials “to review rapidly the full range of our wider relationship with Malawi”. Britain gives about £93m in aid to Malawi a year, according to the British government. Malawi’s Weekend Nation newspaper published excerpts of the cable dating from March, which said Mutharika was “becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism”. Diplomatic sources at the British mission confirmed the authenticity of the cable. Mutharika has been heavily criticised by rights groups for trying to suppress free speech. Malawi already faces a freeze in foreign assistance over its hostility to gay people and a media crackdown. Hague called Malawi’s decision to expel Cochrane-Dyet “totally unacceptable and unwarranted”. “Mr Cochrane-Dyet is an able and effective diplomat who has behaved with integrity throughout his posting to Lilongwe, and who retains the full confidence of the British government,” he said. “It is a worrying sign that the Malawian government is expending its energies in this way, rather than focusing on the real and substantial challenges facing it, including the need for improved governance,” he said. Cochrane-Dyet was given a formal letter of expulsion on Tuesday night, a government spokesman, Vuwa Kaunda, told Reuters. “Government has decided to expel High Commissioner Fergus Cochrane-Dyet because the tone in the leaked cable was not diplomatic … Government has lost confidence in him,” he said. The European Union said in a statement released in Lilongwe that it was “deeply concerned” and surprised at the expulsion. “The European Union believes that the decision of the government of Malawi, which is apparently based on unconfirmed media reports and perceived criticisms of the government, is unjustified and inappropriate,” it said. Britain had warned on 19 April that “there were likely to be consequences affecting the full range of issues in the bilateral relationship” if Malawi expelled Cochrane-Dyet. Malawi’s government is heavily dependent on foreign aid, with donor funding normally accounting for more than 40% of official receipts. Malawi William Hague guardian.co.uk
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Bill O’Reilly wants WikiLeaks put on trial for revealing US extrajudicial indiscretions, while Hannity and Beck look to 2012 Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly was horrified that the secret files on Guantánamo detainees – which exposed the grim facts that many of the prisoners were held for years on little or no evidence, that many detainees attempted suicide or went on hunger strike and that the 172 detainees who are still captive may never receive a fair trial – are now on public record ( view clip ). He insisted to regular guest Bernard Goldberg that the person or organisation responsible for leaking the documents (which he has decided is WikiLeaks, despite the New York Times’s attribution to a third party source ) be tried for espionage immediately. Goldberg tried to make the case to O’Reilly that unless WikiLeaks colluded with or actively encouraged whoever actually downloaded the secret documents, they should not be prosecuted for publishing the information – any more than the New York Times should be prosecuted. He went further to suggest that, like any other news organisation, WikiLeaks has a right and even a responsibility to make the information public. O’Reilly argued that he would never stoop so low on his news programme as to make information about what the American government is up to a matter of public record, just because the information was made available to him, particularly if it was damaging. OK, this is an ongoing situation. The press, some of the press is seizing upon it. If I got leaked WikiLeaks documents, I wouldn’t put them on air. I would tell everybody flat out I wouldn’t do it. Especially if it put the USA in any kind of dangerous situation – which the Guantánamo Bay thing can whip up people easily around the world. It is true that people get upset when they hear stories about innocent people being held for years without charge and subjected to harsh interrogation methods (or in the case of Mohammed Qahtani, leashed like a dog, sexually humiliated and forced to urinate on himself) while in US custody. Perhaps it was out of deference to the public’s sensitivity about these issues that O’Reilly chose not to mention a single word about the documents contents and focused instead on punishing the leaker. With this in mind, he explained to Goldberg that he accepted his point about news organisations and free speech and what have you, but still thought there must be some way of bringing a charge against WikiLeaks. I know what you’re saying, but now you have, it’s almost like the Rico situation you know with organised crime where they charge people with a Rico ongoing organised crime thing. You say that yourself, this [WikiLeaks] is an anti-American organisation that’s looking, searching and encouraging people to come to them with stolen purloined top secret documents. I think you can get them under that Rico thing. And I think you could probably issue … Now, is Sweden going to extradite over here? I don’t know whether they will or not. I think you can make a strong case that these people are practising espionage against this country. Goldberg reiterated that he didn’t think any such charge would be feasible and so ended the discussion. Sean Hannity 2012 can’t come fast enough for Sean Hannity who is exhilarated by the prospect of ousting President Obama in favour of a more palatable candidate who will not keep threatening to raise his taxes and who will not secondguess America’s role as the world’s super power ( view clip ). He discussed the field of GOP hopefuls with regular guest Dick Morris, who was surprisingly upbeat about the current lineup and particularly jazzed by Donald Trump’s entry into the race. I think Trump has just energised the whole election cycle and I think what people like more than anything else is that he’s so hardhitting and so not politically correct. Now, there does seem to be, and you acknowledge this in your column … I think he’s going to have a little bit of a problem with the base in the Republican party – conservatives. I think he’s going to have to talk about protectionism. He’s going to have to talk about once supporting healthcare and tax increases and once pro-choice. Morris suggests that the base might want to consider waiving the purity test in Trump’s case, because he is a billionaire, after all, and you could not ask for a better defender of the “free enterprise, economic laissez faire win system” that Morris believes has made America the great country it is. Hannity asks Morris about the rest of his top tier of candidates, which includes Mike Huckabee (“warm and knowledgeable”), Newt Gingrich (“amazing”) and Michele Bachmann (“Refreshing, intelligent and savvy”). Sadly, neither men believe that Sarah Palin will be able to run because she has had so much baggage foisted on her by the “outrageous sexist liberal media”. But aside from that, Morris concludes that “it’s one heck of a field.” See, I agree with you, those that have been dismissing this field to me … really, they’re just all in Obama worship-land. I agree he’s a weakened president and if food prices continue to rise and gas prices are rising and the economy’s not getting better … Well, you never know what might happen. But at the moment, anyway, Hannity is starting to believe that the road to 2012 may not be so rocky, after all. Glenn Beck Glenn Beck decided to take the high road this week and to put an end to the recent spat of rightwing infighting that he has found himself at the centre of ( view clip ). There is just too much chaos going on in the world for conservatives and Republicans to be fighting among themselves , and Beck is certainly not going to be accused by anyone of damaging the conservative cause or providing entertainment to liberals. It’s about the right-on-right infighting that’s happening right now. For liberals, that’s like girl-on-girl porn. It is! And the media is going to cover that whenever they can, because they think “oh look, we can show the right’s falling apart”. Beck has had a war of words with fellow Fox News host and potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who got a little upset recently when Beck accused him of being a “progressive” for supporting Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign. He has also been feuding with Huffington Post blogger Andrew Breitbart, who is being sued for his involvement in the Shirley Sherrod incident , and is now claiming that Beck stole his material and threw him “under a bus” . Beck does not feel that he has wronged either party, and if he has, he certainly didn’t mean to. He claims that his criticism regarding the edited version of the Shirley Sherrod NAACP speech (which falsely depicted her as a racist and got her fired from her job at the department of agriculture) was directed at the NAACP and not Breitbart. As for Mike Huckabee, who responded to Beck’s insults last week by telling him to “stick to conspiracies that can’t be so easily de-bunked by facts”, Beck claims that just because Huckabee has done some objectionable things while he was governor of Arkansas, such as supporting a sales tax on internet goods, this does not mean that Beck meant any insult when he called him out for being a “progressive” – although Beck has equated that term in the past to being a Nazi. But if offence was taken, Beck is sorry for that – even though he is the one who is really being wronged. It’s almost like anyone who poses a threat to the establishment, somebody that calls a progressive a progressive, Lindsay Graham, and all of a sudden you’re going to get a tire iron shoved into your wheels. Isn’t that weird?! You’re getting shot from the front and the back! Beck realises, however, that no matter how much his fellow conservatives upset him, what unites them – the need to defeat President Obama in 2012 – will always supersede what divides them. Fox News US television Fox Republicans Barack Obama Donald Trump Mike Huckabee Michele Bachmann US elections 2012 US politics United States WikiLeaks Guantánamo Bay The Guantánamo files Newt Gingrich Sarah Palin Sadhbh Walshe guardian.co.uk
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