Charlotte Moore

Discussing the BBC’s Across the UK strategy – which seeks to shift creative spend and decision-making out of London – the BBC’s Chief Content Officer praised Blue Lights and Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland.

Moore said: “What both Blue Lights and Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland demonstrate so brilliantly, is that thinking bigger about how we harness and showcase the creativity of the whole of the UK is paying huge dividends – for us and for audiences.”

It is rare for the BBC not to be in the crosshairs of a crisis and 2023 has been no exception. Behind the headlines, though, the opening months of the year have been a time of ­triumph for its creative chief, Charlotte Moore. The BBC has dominated the TV awards season. At the RTS Programme Awards, the corporation pocketed 17 out of a total of 30 awards.

Little Mix The Search will see Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock become mentors to a new generation of talented singers and form new all-female, all-male or mixed bands.

From contestants to judges, The X Factor winners will also be joined by their inner circle of song writers, producers, stylists and vocal coaches who have contributed to their success.

The new groups will live together and be given the opportunity to win the prize of performing alongside Little Mix on their UK summer tour in 2020.

Further evidence that the BBC is striking a more strident tone as it calls for greater resources in the streaming era was provided by the corporation’s director of content, Charlotte Moore, in her recent Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture.

In a wide-ranging and, at times, feisty speech aimed primarily at policy­makers and politicians, Moore argued that trusted, authentic British storytellers in the tradition of Hewlett risked being undermined unless the BBC was properly funded.

“Since winning The Great British Bake Off I’ve been lucky to have had some amazing opportunities with the BBC," reads the statement, issued by the broadcaster on Hussain's behalf. "I believe that making it my home gives me the scope to work across such a unique range of diverse and interesting projects."

Although the much-publicised ‘steak-gate’ incident led to the end of the Clarkson, Hammond and May era of the show, the end had been looming, Wilman suggested.

“We were collapsing under the weight of the work we were doing,” he added.

Appearing at the festival to promote the team’s new Amazon Prime show The Grand Tour, Wilman would not be drawn on how much the company had paid for the series. “It’s a good whack,” he conceded, but denied that it was as much as the rumoured £4 million per episode.