Is dithering stupidity a crime? If it is, then Peter Fincham was right to walk away from BBC1 taking his poor PR Jane Fletcher lady with him. But even the BBC can make too much of stupidity.... which is, in the toughest sense, no crime at all.

The RFD documentary team obviously didn't intend to portray HM walking out when she was walking in. What would be the point of doing that since, once shown, the Palace would wax high in protest. Which they did. So we're talking stupidity. So now we're sitting around after five with Fincham, Fletcher and, maybe, the mighty head of Vision, too. They should have warned the press that RDF's trailer was a bit of a hapless fix. They didn't. They sat around biting their nails whilst journalists wrote misleading tales.

On the following morning it all came out. Be clear: it was always going to come out. This was an accident happening on cue. It wasn't even some Blue Peter producer covering up, just too long a ponder in foolish perplexity. Is that a hanging matter? Only, alas, for a BBC that shows less and less nous in a crisis, that doesn't try to treat its servants with common humanity. Peter Fincham was doing a good job and holds it no longer. And stupidity is a problem widely shared.