BBC One has announced a substantial increase in current affairs coverage, including doubling the number of prime-time Panorama specials.

However, Jana Bennett, the BBC's director of television, said that there was no point pitting Panorama against Coronation Street merely to satisfy "reminiscences of totemic schedules of yore".

A review conducted by the BBC governors concluded that current affairs had been "ghetto-ised" and said that it must now become a "priority genre".