Radio and TV presenter Danny Baker took to Twitter today to bemoan the axeing of his BBC London afternoon radio show. It's safe to say he didn't take it particularly well, which is understandable.
First up was a tweet which included a link to a lavish trailer for Radio 1's Zane Lowe show. The suggestion seemed to be the BBC could have made savings elsewhere before it touched its Danny Baker budget:
Next came a tweet wondering if the BBC had lost sight of who he is:
Then a little rule breaking:
And then he got his trophies out...
Followed by some celebrity RTs:
I like Danny Baker. He's a brilliant broadcaster and BBC London has left itself with a huge hole to fill.
But nobody emerges from this kind of Twitter tantrum with much credit. Baker's anger is easy to understand and his tweets may have been a little tongue-in-cheek but the unmistakable air of 'don't you know who I am' is a cliché anybody would do well to avoid.
Along with his celebrity friends he's done a good job of kicking off a minor Twitter storm but such influential Tweeters might be better off directing their energies towards the root cause of overarching BBC cuts, rather than cherry-picking those cuts and causes which affect their friends.
After these tweets, Baker called his bosses "weasels" and then took to the airwaves for a momentous last show (a series of clips can be found here). BBC London claims it was still hoping to discuss alternative shows with Baker, which might explain the trust showed in allowing him back on air and the request to refrain from public outcry. But it's hard to see a way back now. However, Baker is still expected to continue with his Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
With all that's going on at the BBC it's unlikely the BBC press office will lose much sleep over Baker's tweets, not least because he described them earlier this week as being only marginally less ludicrous than a Mandrill's bum:
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