BBC Panorama editor Tom Giles leaves role after four years

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/16/bbc-panorama-editor-tom-giles-leaves-role

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Panorama editor Tom Giles is to leave the flagship BBC1 current affairs series after four years at the helm.

It is understood that Giles is to be charged with a new role designing the future of current affairs at the BBC.

The news comes just a fortnight after Panorama hit the headlines with its expose of care homes in Essex and Tory MP Patrick Mercer resigned his commons seat following a Panorama expose.

Notable programmes during Giles's tenure include Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed, which won a Bafta for its horrific account of the abuse of vulnerable young patients at a private hospital near Bristol, and Fifa's Dirty Secrets, controversially broadcast three days before the football governing body's vote on the staging of the 2018 World Cup.

Panorama also investigated its sister BBC2 news programme, Newsnight, at the height of the Jimmy Savile scandal over its decision not to broadcast its Savile report, and aired a much delayed investigation into charities including Comic Relief last year.

A source paid tribute to Giles, saying he had "not been afraid to challenge the powers that be" and described him as "a courageous and dedicated seeker after truth". Despite pressure from some senior executives, Panorama turned its spotlight on the corporation itself during the Savile scandal.

Giles also ditched the introductions by Jeremy Vine that were brought in when Peter Fincham, then controller of BBC1, moved Panorama back from Sunday to Monday in 2007.

However, it has not all been plain sailing for Giles. There have been budget and staff cuts on the programme and he faced the controversy over reporter John Sweeney's undercover trip to North Korea for the programme, which was criticised by the BBC Trust for breaching some editorial guidelines.

The trust said last month in its review of the BBC's news and current affairs output that Panorama "can do more to increase the impact" of the flagship current affairs series.

However, veteran film-maker Roger Graef dedicated a speech at Bafta on Monday to Giles and defended Panorama, saying that "contrary" to the BBC Trust report the programme "does take risks" and should not be "under increasing pressure to boost ratings."

The respected chairman of Films of Record pointed out that "the average Panorama is 2.3 million or 2.4 million – that equals all the broadsheets put together and more".

There has been speculation that Giles could leave the BBC to join an independent production company but insiders said he was staying with the corporation.

One source suggested BBC head of news programme Ceri Thomas – a former editor of Radio 4's Today – as a contender to replace Giles.

The BBC had not commented at time of publication.

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