He announced his resignation<\/a> after a leaked memo revealed clips of a Donald Trump<\/a> speech from 6 January 2021, the day of the Capitol riots, had been spliced together in the Panorama programme Trump: A Second Chance? The programme was broadcast by the BBC in October 2024, the week before last year’s US election.<\/p>\n Mr Davie will stay in post until a successor is appointed, Sky News understands. Here are some of the key points from the call.<\/p>\n 2:05<\/p>\n What BBC boss told staff on call<\/p>\n ‘A tough few days… but BBC will get through’<\/p>\n In understated fashion, the outgoing director-general admitted it had been “a tough few days”.<\/p>\n He told staff he had lived through previous BBC storms and seen the organisation “go through very tumultuous times”, and understood employees might be questioning the future.<\/p>\n “And maybe one of my biggest emotions at the moment is I care desperately about the organisation, the thousands of people who work for it,” he said. “And I think we all need to be looking after each other and making sure we set everything in context\u2026<\/p>\n “I think what I would say is these times are difficult for the BBC, but they get through them. We will get through it\u2026 we will thrive.”<\/p>\n Image: ‘This narrative will not just be given by our enemies’<\/p>\n The downfall of the BBC’s leaders has been greeted with undisguised glee by many on the right of British politics, says Sky News political correspondent Amanda Akass.<\/p>\n In his call, Mr Davie appeared to address this, telling staff that “this narrative will not just be given by our enemies”.<\/p>\n Read more: He continued: “It’s our narrative. We own things. Why do we have traction and ownership in that? Well, as I said, I’ve been here before, and the key thing is, the BBC is more than one person… it’s about thousands of people, 23,000 people, and more besides making our programmes.”<\/p>\n Mr Davie described the corporation as “unique and precious” and continued: “I see the free press under pressure, I see the weaponisation. I think we’ve got to fight for our journalism.”<\/p>\n He said trust in the organisation had “actually grown”, and it was important for people to know this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The decision to resign<\/p>\n Mr Davie said there were three reasons behind his decision to step down.<\/p>\n “Firstly, for my own life”, he said, describing the job as “pretty relentless” and continuing: “I’ve dealt with a lot. I’m very proud of the team I’ve built up. And I thought at some point I’m not going to be at the BBC, and I need to reflect on that and the relentlessness of it and ensure that that’s done in a way that does work for the BBC.”<\/p>\n He also highlighted the broadcaster’s upcoming once-in-a-decade charter renewal – the current charter began on 1 January 2017 and runs to 31 December 2027.<\/p>\n “I also felt that obviously we’ve got this big moment, the charter, and giving someone a runway into that charter does make sense,” he said.<\/p>\n Finally, he addressed the Panorama edit. “I think we did make a mistake, and there was an editorial breach, and I think some responsibility had to be taken.”<\/p>\n Image: A coup or conspiracy theory?<\/p>\n Amid the controversy, there has been speculation about a coup and behind-the-scenes boardroom plotting.<\/p>\n Questioned about this, BBC chairman Samir Shah, who sat next to Mr Davie on the call, said the job of the BBC Board was to represent public interest – to steer a route between support for the executives and holding them to account.<\/p>\n This “tension has become clear” in the last week, he said, and isn’t easy to navigate.<\/p>\n Read more: Mr Shah said mistakes had to be acknowledged, but there also needs to be a sense of proportion and perspective.<\/p>\n “I don’t believe in conspiracy theories,” he said, adding that the BBC Board has questioned whether it has “done enough”.<\/p>\n He said there were “no easy answers… we’re all human and sometimes make mistakes”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After days of headlines, and the looming threat of a $1bn legal action from the US president, outgoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-257218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/skynews-bbc-trump_7079006.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pic:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/skynews-bbc-broadcasting-house_7077856.jpg\")
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\n Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n
Analysis: Staff fed up with ‘nothing to see approach’<\/a>
Eight people who could replace Tim Davie<\/a><\/p>\n![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/bbc-trump-media_7078187.jpg\")
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\n BBC chairman Samir Shah. Pic: PA<\/p>\n
The man behind the leaked BBC memo<\/a>
Trump’s legal threat letter in full<\/a><\/p>\n