Diary

The Beeb's own goal

The BBC's promotional trailers are so good, they scare the corporation's bosses. The success of Perfect Day and the sublime Vic & Bob Poldark on Mopeds led to complaints from commercial broadcasters that they were no more than advertisements, and a sign of the BBC being too competitive. Showing their usual fearlessness, the corporation was led to lock away another comedy promotion - apparently even funnier than the Vic & Bob madness - in the vaults, where it will never be seen.

Labour baby

New Labour's efforts to tap the soul of the nation give it interesting bedfellows. The fabulously named Dawn Bebe, editor of New Woman - it has been compared to a female Loaded - attended a reception at Downing Street recently. So impressed was the Prime Minister that she was invited back to brief party advisers on the state of the nation's 18-25-year-old women. Labour's next poster campaign could be interesting.

Voting with their feet

ITV last week blamed a heat wave for the lowest FA Cup final viewing figures ever. Just 7.8 million viewers tuned in to Arsenal vs Newcastle United. How does this bode for ITV's much-vaunted World Cup season? Well, a survey running on ITV's own Teletext service last Tuesday may hold some clues: viewers were asked to nominate the channel on which they preferred to watch football. Of more than 2,140 voters, 71 per cent said they preferred the BBC's coverage, 19 per cent plumped for Sky, and just 10 per cent chose ITV.

Pre-emptive strike

Despite an overwhelming vote in favour of strike action by BBC staff last week, the corporation's top brass was unwilling to be negative about the union, Bectu. It needs to give only seven days' notice of strike action, but for some reason gave the BBC management three weeks to get contingency plans - otherwise known as scab labour - in place for the June strikes. BBC bosses think this means the union is trying to play a moderating role.

No hiding place

The organisers of the Baftas showed a sick sense of humour when allocating seats at the dinner afterwards. The Sawalha family - the character actor Nadim Sawalha and his daughter, EastEnders star Nadia, who suffered not a little press interest after the suicide of her estranged husband last year - had a nasty shock on taking their seats. They discovered they were sharing a table with show business and TV hacks from The Sun.

Dead men don't talk

During the Bafta award-giving itself the media room was startled by a remark from the PR company handling the bash that David Dimbleby would receive his special award from Richard Dimbleby. Assembled reporters waited for the other shoe to drop, but it never did.

Evans's influence

What a difference a ginger DJ makes. Before Mr Evans joined Virgin Radio its advertising and sponsorship revenue was coming in at pounds 1.2m a month. That figure is now closer to pounds 3m and Ginger Media is already ahead on its repayments to backers. Apparently there is enough money left over for an advertising campaign - though Virgin would get more coverage if Chris just went to the pub with Anthea Turner and Gazza at the same time.

Where the Sun shines

Last time Evans did go drinking with Gazza, James Eisen, a student journalist, made himself some money snatching a photograph of the footballer with a kebab in his hands. The Sun's picture desk turned it down, but The Mirror took it and ran its "Pittaful" headline. James thinks someone at The Sun will suffer for this error, but that is to forget the close relationship Evans enjoys with the Wapping red-top.

Paul McCann