As job titles go, ‘Director General’ is undeniably formidable. Sitting opposite me in the Hawking Room at the Union is Tim Davie, the seventeenth Director General of the BBC. A long-standing champion of a free press, beacon of impartiality, and a tool of soft power, the BBC is also a magnet for controversy, perpetually entangled in debates over its funding, its content, and its politics. However, relaxed and charismatic, if Davie feels the extraordinary weight of responsibility that comes with holding one of the most privileged yet ‘hellish’ media jobs in Britain – and, by extension, the world – he certainly does not let it show.
On paper, Davie’s role is to oversee the creative, operational, editorial leadership of the BBC. As for what this means in practice, he breaks it down into two main roles: CEO of the organisation, and Editor in Chief of its content. “You can over-complicate my job,” he explains. “At the end of the day, the BBC is all about content. It’s about the news stories we report. It’s the dramas we produce. It’s the factual programming. My job is to keep the standard of those things incredibly high.”
Meanwhile, his position of CEO and leading the corporation's 20,000 employees brings its own set of “highly varied” responsibilities: “One moment, we could be worried about the safety of journalists in a particular market. Another day, I could be thinking about our business in Los Angeles, where we make Dancing with the Stars (the American version of Strictly Come Dancing) and what the economics of that look like.” Just that day, before travelling to Cambridge, Davie details that his agenda had been filled with “talking about the World Service, about our technical products like iPlayer, and numerous other things.”
“I’ve got a story I want to tell, but I don’t want to force it onto you in one particular way. I’m less concerned about the medium; I’m more concerned about the message.”
The ability to juggle competing responsibilities is something Davie honed during his student days at Cambridge. He read English at Selwyn College, graduating in 1989. Amid ongoing discourse on the value of Arts degrees, Davie is a staunch defender of their importance: “I’m a big believer in degrees like English and their relevance, even in the business world, because of the ferocity of intellectual rigour, that ability to critically engage with the best writers.” Though, he does note that the Cambridge workload – particularly the expectation placed on humanities students to churn out essay after essay – was at times “incredibly stressful”. “We talk a lot about mental health for students now, and I know I found the volume of work, the intensity of the work, really demanding,” he recalls.
The first in his family to go to University, Davie overall reflects on his time at Cambridge with gratitude and humility. “I just thought it was an incredible privilege to be here. I was one of those kids who walked around thinking ‘I’m so lucky’.” While he admits he “wasn’t top in the class,” he speaks warmly of the opportunities that Cambridge afforded him. As it happens, it appears Davie was something of an omni-hack, “hustling away doing all kinds of things”.
Alongside being Social Secretary of the well-loved Selwyn Snow Ball, he was also President of his JCR – “the one and only time I’ve ever been elected by popular mandate!”, he quips. It was also during these years that Davie’s business-savvy attitude took root, albeit in an unexpected – and slightly unorthodox – setting: “I had a very good friend who was really into music, and we ended up forming a nightclub,” he reveals. Sultan’s was housed in the basement of a restaurant in the city centre, becoming known for its “very early house music – we’re talking in the 1980s here!”. Davie fondly recalls the enterprise’s modest success: “We used to take home a bag of cash at the end of a good evening. We did get student grants at the time, but let’s just say that made life a little easier!” Perhaps it is little wonder that Davie was recruited by Procter & Gamble as a marketing trainee while still a student, setting him on a path that would eventually lead to the boardrooms of global business at PepsiCo, and in 2020, the helm of the BBC.
Davie’s personability – his normality, even – is almost disarming. But make no mistake: his relaxed demeanour is underpinned by a fierce drive, clear ambition, and razor-sharp attention to detail. He selectively chooses his moments to unleash this during his Union Q&A, critically but calmly dismantling audience challenges on issues such as BBC Verify, changes to long-running programmes such as Newsnight, and accusations of political bias stemming from his unsuccessful bids as a Conservative council candidate in 1993 and 1994. He applies the same measured approach as we turn to discuss the challenges facing the BBC today, ensuring that his responses are both comprehensive and considered.
One such challenge is how to navigate a modern media landscape characterised by social media and streaming services. “It’s an amazing thing,” he reflects. “When I was at Cambridge, I had no mobile phone, no email, and the BBC had two out of four available TV channels.” But while some have concerns about the BBC’s relevance in the future, Davie is strikingly optimistic about adapting to the times. “We need to make sure that we are out in TikTok and YouTube […] rather than assuming you’re definitely going to come and sit down in a chair and watch an hour’s television news at the end of evening,” he says. “I’ve got a story I want to tell, but I don’t want to force it onto you in one particular way. I’m less concerned about the medium; I’m more concerned about the message.”
Easily destroyed but not easily generated, trust is vital for the functioning of the BBC. Upholding the BBC’s reputation of truth and impartiality has always been a challenge, but it has become much more difficult in the age of online echo chambers and filter bubbles. Again, rather than diminishing the BBC’s place, Davie views this as a sign that its voice is even more important than before. “[People] don’t just want polarised media. They don’t just want people shouting lies at each other. Yeah, they might have fun watching those clips, but at some point, the BBC can provide a safe space where people know we have clear editorial standards.” He reveals that during July’s general election, BBC Verify received unprecedented levels of traffic to its website, which he argues is evidence of people asking “what are the actual facts?”
“We’re in an age where there are very serious threats to democracy. 75% of the world does not have a free press. We are seeing state actors spending hundreds of millions of pounds trying to affect how you think.”
However, the BBC’s fact-checkers are up against an ever-intensifying onslaught of fake news, disinformation, and ’cognitive warfare’. “We’re in an age where there are very serious threats to democracy,” Davie warns. “Seventy-five percent of the world does not have a free press. We are seeing state actors spending hundreds of millions of pounds trying to affect how you think.” Against this backdrop, Davie sees the BBC’s independence as a vital safeguard. “One of the amazing things about the BBC is that it’s independent of government, and we can ask politicians tough questions. Everyone is accountable to the public.” That accountability, he stresses, includes himself: “My own staff in the newsroom can interrogate me, and I think that’s incredibly important.”
Davie has recently called for the reverse of a decade’s worth of cuts to the BBC’s World Service, in order to counter the rise of propaganda by malign powers. “I can’t ask the UK population to fund our 42 language services forever. We need funding to do it. It needs investment. And I think it’s really important [for] the UK Government [to] invest in what we stand for as a country around the world, which is free speech and the ability to find truth – that is what strong journalism is.” I cannot help but notice his reflections echo those of legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, who famously described the virtue of journalism as searching for “the best obtainable version of the truth.”
The BBC’s first Director General, John Reith, laid the foundation for the Corporation with the enduring ‘Reithian values’ of “Inform, Educate, and Entertain.” These principles remain at the heart of the BBC’s mission. If Tim Davie were to define his own guiding ethos, however, it might be “ferocity” – a quality he consistently champions as vital for pursuing truth and steering the BBC through the complexities of the modern media landscape. His ability to embody that resolve will not only shape his legacy but also determine the BBC’s relevance in a rapidly evolving world.
