BBC axes beloved show after nearly 30 years in budget cuts

The BBC has revealed a raft of planned changes including the axing of in-depth interrogation amusement HARDtalk.

The broadcaster are besides looking astatine reducing much than 100 quality roles amid fiscal pressure.

HARDtalk volition travel to an extremity successful 5 months, aft archetypal launching successful 1997.

It was primitively fronted by Tim Sebastian, with Stephen Sackur taking implicit successful 2005.

After the quality the BBC were shutting HARDtalk – which runs Monday to Thursday – successful March 2025, Sackur wrote connected X: ‘This is bittersweet quality for maine personally, but overmuch much important, I deliberation it’s depressing quality for the BBC and each who judge successful the value of independent, rigorous, deeply-researched journalism.

‘At a clip erstwhile disinformation and media manipulation are poisoning nationalist discourse, HARDtalk is unsocial – a long-form interrogation amusement with lone 1 mission, to clasp to relationship those who each excessively often debar accountability successful their ain countries.’

Sackur besides said that helium had been ‘enormously fortunate to prosecute my journalism wrong the BBC’, and was looking astatine caller opportunities for adjacent year.

A BBC spokeswoman said HARDtalk ‘has done large work’ but ‘some pugnacious decisions’ are being made owed to the request for savings and however radical ticker quality programming.

The long-running programme has seen erstwhile president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? prima Major Charles Ingram, precocious Venezuela person Hugo Chavez, Russian overseas affairs curate Sergey Lavrov, and ex-president of the FIA Max Mosley grilled.

The corp has been nether fiscal unit amid rising inflation, and the erstwhile two-year frost connected the licence fee, and has projected its full shortage volition summation to £492 cardinal for the 2024/25 fiscal year.

It follows Newsnight being reduced to a 30-minute programme, arsenic portion of cost-cutting measures, and astir fractional of its 60 jobs going.

National Union of Journalists (NUJ) wide caput Michelle Stanistreet called it a ‘damaging battle connected journalism and quality astatine a clip erstwhile the UK needs greater plurality and diverseness of news, and spot successful journalism is nether onslaught astatine location and abroad’.

Chief enforcement of BBC News Deborah Turness wrote an email to BBC unit saying: ‘I privation to admit that this is simply a pugnacious day, erstwhile we are sharing immoderate hard decisions we person had to marque to run wrong our budgets.

‘I’d similar to marque wide astatine the outset that anyone who is straight impacted by the proposals we are outlining contiguous volition already beryllium aware, and we are doing each we tin to enactment them.’

She said that arsenic the BBC arsenic a full was acceptable to trim much than 500 roles, chopped an further £200 cardinal connected apical of £500 cardinal yearly savings and reinvestment antecedently planned, past BBC News needed to beryllium portion of those measures.

Turness added that much than 40% of £24 cardinal it planned to prevention from the BBC News fund would travel from ‘non-staff measures including reductions to walk connected contracts, suppliers, organisation and carnal buildings’.

She besides said: ‘I’m atrocious to accidental that station closures are unavoidable. We suggest to adjacent 185 roles and unfastened 55 caller ones – a nett simplification of 130 posts. As a effect of the changes successful news, media operations is besides proposing to adjacent the equivalent of 25 posts.’

There were besides plans to harvester accumulation to prevention costs, on with focusing connected continuous unrecorded and breaking output connected its quality channel.

Other changes projected see moving accumulation of the overnight programme connected 5Live from quality to the BBC’s Nations and Local teams, home vigor taking World Service summaries overnight, and combing Radio 5 Live and Radio 2 quality production.

The Asian Network News work volition besides beryllium closing and the presumption volition alternatively instrumentality Newsbeat bulletins and committee a caller locally made existent affairs show.

Turness added: ‘Thank you for the professionalism and attraction for each different that I person nary uncertainty you volition amusement arsenic we enactment done these hard decisions.’

Laura Davison, NUJ broadcasting organiser, called the plans ‘damaging’, and besides said: ‘It is unclear however overmuch journalism astatine the BBC tin withstand without decisive enactment and concern that recognises the immense payment of independent, credible quality and existent affairs programming.’

Former caput of BBC tv quality Roger Mosey called it ‘weirdly self-destructive’ of the corporation, connected X, portion praising the unit astatine HARDtalk arsenic bringing ‘an quality to their interviewing which is lacking elsewhere’.

BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter Mishal Husain, who has presented HARDtalk, wrote: ‘It’s been my privilege to spot the dedication and absorption of the outstanding Hardtalk team, led by (editor) Lisa Baxter, erstwhile I’ve worked with them. Thoughts with each affected by today’s announcements.’

A BBC spokeswoman said: ‘People are coming to our quality transmission for unrecorded and breaking news, portion crossed the full of BBC News we person hard-hitting long-form interviews and treatment connected much platforms than ever, for lawsuit via our planetary on-air editors and our statement and treatment programmes.

‘We tin nary longer spend to tally truthful galore bespoke programme teams.’

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