On the evening of Sunday 17^th February the BBC gave us  “Problems with Drink,” the finale of its “Blandings” series. This saga first saw the light of day in a book by  PG Wodehouse entitled “Galahad at Blandings” – a very readable but by no means top-class example of the maestro’s art, and remarkable mainly for the complexity of its plot.

Somebody, however, and my guess is that the somebody in question is called Guy Andrews (described by the BBC as a “writer”) decided that in among the tangled web there lurked a golden thread – namely the sub-plot which featured an attempt to marry off poor old Lord Emsworth. Guy (writer) Andrews extrapolated the relevant passages, changed several of the characters and much of the story, spiced up Wodehouse’s dialogue with offerings of his own, and no doubt patted himself on the back – good job well done gimme the money. In fact what he had concocted was cheap rubbish. Whereupon the director managed to persuade several talented thespians to overact to such an extent that they very nearly gave the text the treatment it deserved.

PG Wodehouse is dead. The society that is supposed to look after his literary legacy is probably too wet to get stuck into those who vandalise his work. The BBC is past caring. Nowadays it outsources many of its programmes, and doesn’t give a toss about the quality of the product.

Thank Heavens for Ski Sunday. Five minutes of tripe on BBC 1 was traded in, at the press of a button, for 40 delightful minutes of Giant Slalom on BBC 2. It was some slight consolation to register the fact that the pursuit of excellence has not been entirely eliminated from the principles which fuel the aspirations of Broadcasting House.

There is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The last three bosses of the BBC have looked, sounded and acted like people of no account. They were carriers of the disease known as mediocrity  and over the years they infected  far too many of the corporation’s employees.  The new man, Lord Hall,  is better looking than his predecessors, and has a record of great achievement in his previous job. I have just watched him making a speech, and he rings true. It is not impossible that he will inspire a return to the good old days when the pursuit of excellence was the norm at the BBC and anything less was simply not tolerated. Fingers crossed.