In Praise of Clare

Howard Bowden, head of news, Clarion Communications

Dear Clare, I admit it: I got you all wrong.  We somehow never saw eye to eye in the past, because - and I’ll be frank here - I always thought you were a bit horsey, and a bit posho, and mainly because whenever I turned over to find you on BBC1 on a Saturday it meant I’d just missed Football Focus.

TV’s Best Ever PR. Totally.

Howard Bowden, head of news, Clarion Communications

For the last 20 years, Edina Monsoon - you know, ‘Eddy’ in TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous - has been the default setting in the minds of the Great British Public when it comes to picturing a PR person in all her or his glory.  As comedy characters go, she was pretty good, and as a caricature for the excesses of PR-dom - particularly for anyone who doesn’t actually work in the industry - she was even better.  Yes sir, no-one could top Eddy as TV’s ultimate fictional PR person.  Until now.

Fab or Farcical?

Gary Freemantle, CEO, Clarion Communications

So since mid-April, BBC Breakfast has been broadcasting from MediaCityUK in Salford.  BBC Children’s, Sport and Radio 5 Live are also - or soon will be - at the shiny new offices, which along with other departments will bring numbers of BBC staff at the site to a massive 2,300.