Questioning of TV executives is almost a bulletin too far

The Sketch

I'M NOT sure what it feels like to wake up in the morning knowing you have to give evidence to a House of Commons select committee but I'm willing to bet that Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, rolls out of bed with a show-tune on his lips, in all likelihood that jaunty number from Bernstein's Candide "Oh what a day for an auto da fe! ".

By contrast Leslie Hill, the chairman of ITV, and Richard Eyre, the chief executive, will have made their way to the House yesterday morning with a certain understandable apprehension. Only this Tuesday, after all, David Faber, a Conservative member of this committee, had resorted to bodyline tactics when questioning Will Wyatt and Sir John Birt about the BBC's loss of Test Match Cricket and Mr Kaufman already has an established reputation for his sledging technique.

What's more, Hill and Eyre will have known they were on a sticky wicket, because they were being questioned on the future of News at Ten. Not just the future, in fact, but "The Future", it having been established at some point that this particular news broadcast is part of the very weft of the national fabric and that any attempt to tamper with its transmission time might begin the unravelling of that vital textile.

So, despite the fact that the committee has no statutory power to decide the matter, Mr Hill and Mr Eyre were present as supplicants, rather like sixth-formers making the case for the alteration of a long outdated school rule.

They argued that their changes would lead to better news coverage and, ultimately, larger viewing figures. They argued that, actually, they were only doing what Sir had asked them to, pointing out in faintly injured tones that on their last appearance before the committee they had been told to "buck their ideas up". In return Mr Kaufman simply argued, enjoying to the full the powers of superior contradiction which are a committee chairman's chief perk.

Every now and then his eyes flicked sideways at members, as if seeking approval for a particularly sly bit of cross-examination, but mostly he just worked away at being unconvinced - bemusedly so, or with an edge of sorrow at the obstinate error of his witnesses.

I would not want to suggest that Mr Kaufman's prejudices are ill-informed. Far from it. He gave early warning of his command of the figures when he pointed out that audiences for the BBC's Six O' Clock News bulletin had been falling steadily, which effectively holed one of ITV's more pious arguments for moving its main news to half past six.

But, my goodness his facts are made to work hard. "I don't want to labour this point too much," he said. But the truth is there is nothing Mr Kaufman enjoys more than labouring a point. Indeed he likes to line up a whole set of points, link them into a chain gang with his gravely deliberate prose, and then march them all up a sand-dune. If the points don't sweat enough he does it again, and if he suspects dumb insolence from any of his statistics he pulls them out of the line and makes them do 40 press- ups before continuing. Only then does he offer the bleak charity of a question mark.

All this takes a great deal of time, but while timings were central to the discussion, time itself seemed immaterial. As the next witnesses were admitted, forty minutes after their scheduled hour, even Mr Kaufman was beginning to yawn, exhausted by this surfeit of pleasure.

There had been much talk about whether the nation could keep its eyes open until 11 at night, but yesterday in Committee Room 15 even the lunchtime news seemed as if it might be a bulletin too far.