The improved and moved, tightened and brightened Panorama lies at the intersection of powerful new forces in BBC thinking on current affairs.

First, there is the desire - partly built into BBC genes, partly a canny obeisance to the Great God who grants the licence fee - to do what the director-general Mark Thompson invoked in a speech last month as "serious, dispassionate, impartial journalism". Practically, that means beating back the channel controllers who hate such a thing because it depresses the ratings, at least enough to carve out slots for Panorama and Newsnight.