John Humphries has given George Entwhistle, Director General of the BBC, his marching orders. The irascible anchorman of Radio 4’s Today programme completed the character assassination of a dithering Entwhistle at 8.47am today by telling him to clear his desk and leave the building. Humphries then amazed BBC staff and millions of listeners by assuming immediate control of the ailing corporation and declaring himself “president for life”.
When Today went off the air, a few minutes later, the scheduled programming was replaced by slow, dreary music, by taking a live feed from Radio 3. From his bunker, previously known as Studio B, Humphries has been interrupting the music, at regular intervals, to issue terse but increasingly incomprehensible edicts about “curfews”, "the will of the people" and “the necessity for martial law”. Listeners are remaining loyal, for now, because listening to John Humphries frothing at the mouth is still better than having to sit through half an hour of Moneybox Live.
