Week one: the key players and what they said

The dramatic opening days of the inquiry revealed tensions within the BBC, flaws in its reporting - and a sustained campaign of pressure on Dr Kelly by the Ministry of Defence in the final weeks of his life

KEVIN MARSH Editor, BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme

Marsh on Gilligan

The day after Gilligan's story was broadcast Today's editor was full of praise. "Great ... well-handled and told," he emailed the reporter on 30 May. But to Stephen Mitchell, the BBC's head of radio news, on 27 June, he wrote that the story was "a good piece of investigative journalism marred by flawed reporting" and complained of Gilligan's "loose use of language and lack of judgement".

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL Downing Street's director of communications

Marsh on Campbell

In an email to a colleague Kevin Marsh, editor of the Today programme, wrote of Campbell: "I'm more convinced than ever ... that he is on the run, or gone bonkers or worse."

Kelly on Campbell

Asked by Newsnight's Susan Watts if Campbell had inserted the 45-minute claim, Kelly replied: "All I can say is the No 10 press office ... I think Campbell is synonymous with that press office."

SUSAN WATTS 'Newsnight' science editor

Watts on Kelly

Admitted Kelly had told her about Alastair Campbell and the September dossier two weeks before he spoke to Gilligan - but she didn't consider his comments newsworthy. She dismissed his reference to Campbell as a "gossipy aside".

ANDREW GILLIGAN Radio 4's defence correspondent

Gilligan on Campbell

Gilligan said he had not named Alastair Campbell in his original 29 May broadcast on the Today programme, but did so in the Mail on Sunday on 1 June because other journalists had already done so in following up his story. Campbell had complained about two earlier Gilligan reports from Baghdad in March and April, but Gilligan said he did not believe that had influenced the row over the "sexed up" dossier. Questioned about his apparently contradictory evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Gilligan admitted that he had been "thrown off balance".

GAVIN HEWITT BBC special correspondent

Hewitt on Kelly

Kelly told Hewitt that "No 10 spin came into play" in the run-up to the publication of the dossier. He told him of "unease of some substance" among his colleagues over the dossier's contents.

RICHARD SAMBROOK BBC director of news

Watts on Sambrook

Susan Watts said her BBC superiors pressured her to reveal her source in order to help Gilligan. Said she had refused to identify Kelly to Sambrook because "it would not have been the right thing to do".

PATRICK LAMB Deputy head of counter-proliferation, Foreign Office

Lamb on Kelly

Said officials would "often back [him] ahead of [a] textual source ... such was his expertise and ... our confidence in him". Described Kelly as "under stress" and "very nervous" about giving evidence to the select committee.

TONY BLAIR Prime Minister

Howard on Blair

Martin Howard said the PM wanted Kelly to be questioned again by his MoD bosses to establish any differences between what he had said and what Gilligan reported.

GEOFF HOON Defence Secretary

Hoon on Kelly

In reply to a letter from Sir Kevin Tebbit, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, Hoon's private secretary rejected a suggestion that Kelly be kept out of the public hearing on "presentational" grounds. The memo said he did so with backing of No 10.

MARTIN HOWARD Deputy chief of defence intelligence

Howard on Kelly

Admitted to disquiet in the intelligence community about the Government's dossier on Iraq. He had received two complaints from senior officials about the reliability of the 45-minute claim. Confirmed Kelly had been shown draft copies of the dossiers.

SIR KEVIN TEBBIT Permanent Secretary, MoD

Tebbit on Kelly

Said in a letter to Geoff Hoon that it was "fairer" on Kelly to keep him from having to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Argued that a separate session to question Kelly would attach "disproportionate importance to him".

RICHARD HATFIELD Personnel director, Ministry of Defence

Hatfield on Kelly

Insisted Kelly had breached government confidence in briefings to journalists which were "outside the scope of his discretion". Said he was surprised that Kelly claimed not to have seen guidance for officials governing contacts with the media.

JOHN SCARLETT Chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee

Scarlett on Kelly

Called in a memo for Kelly to undergo a "proper security-style interview" to "thrash out" inconsistencies in his version of events and Gilligan's. Believed Kelly was "not telling the whole story"; presumed Gilligan must have got the "45-minute single intelligence item from somewhere - presumably Kelly".

BRYAN WELLS MoD employee and Dr Kelly's line manager

Wells on Kelly

Kelly admitted in a letter to Wells that he had met Andrew Gilligan, but denied he was the main source of the claim that Downing Street had "sexed up" the dossier. Wells oversaw the blizzard of meetings and phonecalls in Kelly's last weeks as the Government tried to discover what he had told journalists. He was the last person to speak to Kelly, at 1pm on the day he died. He tried again, but the phone just kept ringing.