Crumbs

The Broadcasting House mice are scratching at the inner glazed ring of the DG's Crystal Maze - Taste The Difference cake crumbs so near, yet so far - as the festivities to mark the departure of Roger Mosey, the BBC's first Editorial Director, leave Tony Hall with yet another conundrum.

Roger has signed off after 33 years pensionable service - four months of them in this new role - and heads to the Master's Lodge at Selwyn College, Cambridge. His final salary package was £277,800. The job surely HAS to be seen as strategic, not just tactical. But finding someone else with the news and BBC nous to fill the role will be tricky.

James Harding, Helen Boaden and Danny Cohen need to respect the decisions of whoever comes in - yet not feel threatened by the new arrival. It's probably a little too risky for someone just to emerge as "the chosen one", with the PAC watching Lord Hall's appointment record; yet it would be odd to fill it by open board.

• While we're on about "boards", a BBC word used to mean both "interview panel" and "pompous overblown meeting of supernumerary managers pretending they're part of an approval and control process", expect the Hall axe to be wielded over proliferation of the latter in coming weeks - probably to distract staff from other bad news over which Tony has less control.