The return of Panorama

Much is being written this morning abou the relaunch of Panorama tonight in a prime time slot ,especially that it has been put up against Channel 4''s dispatches programme.

Dorothy Byrne writing in Media Guardian ,and with an obvious byas for its rival Dispatches, has a concern that

" the new, shortened version of Panorama simply will not have the time to cover complex issues in any real depth."

And continues

But I have to question whether what the public needs is another half-hour programme with a populist consumerist agenda. Let's face it, Tonight does the job really well. The deficit which public service broadcasters should be addressing does not lie there. C4 gets nothing from the public purse and the BBC gets about £4bn of public money to do what the market cannot do. Strange then that the hour-long, in-depth current affairs show, which often focuses on foreign affairs, should be on C4.

The Independent meanwhile interviews the man charged with its relaunch,George Entwhistle.

"Entwistle, who is 44, faces his biggest challenge yet. He has to make a re-jigged, half-hour version of BBC's flagship current affairs programme, Panorama, work on a Monday at 8.30pm - starting tonight. And he has to make it work going head-to-head with Channel 4's impressive Dispatches, which airs at 8pm. Of course, as the chief of TV current affairs, Entwistle is responsible not just for Panorama, but for all the Corporation's long-form current affairs output. But he has gambled heavily on his flagship programme, and it will be its Monday night success or failure upon which his performance is judged."

Responding to the point made by Byrne,

Whether the Panorama team will be able to do a good job in only half an hour, though, is a moot point. "Length is always an issue," says Entwistle. "There are producers who would rather make 40-minute films than 30-minute films. I think they are wrong.

The new format, he says, will also allow the programme to be much more flexible. So, while most of the films will be commissioned and filmed in advance, there is scope to do very fast turnaround pieces, as the news agenda demands.