Anne McElvoy
How he plans to tackle inequality
Hall insists that he and his senior team have not had their hands forced by the revelations. “Our bill for talent is down 25 per cent since I took over and we do live very consciously within our means.” Contract reviews are under way, he says, a carefully-worded way of saying some on-air staff may find their deals less generous in order to pay women more.
That brings us to the revolt of the BBC women. Big hitters such as Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey at Woman’s Hour have made little secret of their dissatisfaction with their pay and have fought a long internal battle to rectify it.
Both were awarded modest rises in advance of the review but resentments linger. At Radio 5 Live, Rachel Burden pointedly tweeted that she was “in the middle of the £100-150k category” after her co-host on the radio Nicky Campbell pocketed £400,000. The DG looks a bit pained at individual examples.
He does, however, nail the “2020 challenge” to the BBC’s door, assuring that there will be the pay parity by then. A bold claim, and a difficult one to deliver on present budgets. The corridors of NBH are full of presenters planning a more assertive stance in pay rounds, with employment lawyers in the wings.
The cultural dilemma the BBC faces is how much of this is about internal rejigs — and how much it needs to look outside its doors. The Beeb should be “open and porous to talent and promote it very pro-actively,” he says. I fear this brings on a bit of a Duchess of Cambridge e ye - ro l l from me, because as rewarding as the BBC is to contribute to (I regularly present for it on a freelance basis) — overall, proactive and porous are not exactly words that spring to mind.
He spots the protest gesture and breaks into laughter. Hall has a disarming tendency to look at his most benevolent when someone has just been a bit rude to him. “He hates making enemies,” confides a senior staffer. “Given the number of foes the BBC already has, t h a t ’s a good thing.”
I suspect the moment bothers him, though, because he returns to the theme and he wants to know what else he might do. “Give me clever ideas! I believe in a very open BBC. I have brought people in from outside because you do need a balance of people who know how the BBC operates — and those who refresh the culture.”
He thinks he has changed the culture of the BBC as a citadel — “When I last worked here, partnerships were something imposed. Now we do them very much in the spirit of what we can learn from those we work with.”
It raises the question that preoccupies the BBC canteens — how long will “TH” run the show? “I am enjoying myself, there’s no rush to go anywhere as long as I am delivering.
WILL the energetic Hall be around to see all this through? He’s a trim 66 this year, with a boundless appetite for travel and opera. I suggest it might be a good time to tell us how long he intends to stick around and he roars with laughter — and then fudges. “I’m at an age and lucky enough to do the job that I really want to do and can contribute most to.”
Beyond the pay rows, the national broadcaster will face more tensions about impartiality and its definition. “In a more fragmented polity, the importance of impartiality is bigger than ever. We need to think more about how we communicate that.”
He veers off into a segue about his plans to embrace voice-recognition technology — he’s “fascinated by [ A m a z o n’s ] A l e x a” , the virtual personal assistant. I suggest he asks her why the female pay gap persisted so long in broadcast — and he grins ruefully that he’ll try it.
His present TV enthusiasm is the new Doctor Who, Jodie Whittaker. So is she paid as much as the BBC’s last timetraveller”? “Yes, there is parity for the same amount of work,” says Hall, earnestly. “And I do think it is time for 13th Time Lord to be a woman. I watched my first Doctor Who in the Sixties, hiding behind the sofa. As a devoted Whovian, I’m incredibly excited.”
@annemcelvoy Anne McElvoy is senior editor at
The Economist