The BBC has a mission to inform, educate and entertain, but not all at once. The news from Ukraine on BBC1 sometimes looks like the Clive Myrie Show. War reporting that aims to educate as well as inform is patronising. When it seeks to entertain as well it misrepresents and misinforms.

This is especially true when the reporting includes video that enhances plain reality and turns it into a work of cinematic art.

The reality of the war in Ukraine, as shown to us by the BBC, is becoming as unreal as everything else that we see on television. It often looks more like drama than news. As long as the BBC fails to give due regard to the three parts of its mission, each with its own distinctive character and values, none of them will be properly fulfilled – except perhaps the last.