It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours for BBC News

First, Andrew Tate granted an exclusive interview from house arrest in Romania, and then Phillip Schofield gave a joint exclusive to the BBC and The Sun.

As the BBC struggles to keep pace with the streaming giants, caught in the culture wars crossfire, it should be cautious about proliferating ‘tabloid’ content lest it damages its credibility as a herald of severe world events. Still, it’s a PR win for Aunty in the short term.

Lucy Williamson’s performance interviewing a hostile Andrew Tate was undoubtedly part of this success. Tate went ‘full Trump’ in his aggressive, absolutist denial of every accusation and positing of conspiracy theories about the BBC’s agenda for the interview. It’s tough to hold someone to account when they refuse to engage, but the interview -and Tate’s followers’ response on social media- effectively exposed the dangers of Tate’s philosophy and influence. Of course, Tate and his cultists saw the interview as a resounding victory, but this sentiment hasn’t penetrated the ‘Matrix’.

If Tate was Trumpian, there’s an argument that Phillip Schofield went ‘full Meghan Markle’ in a carefully stage-managed performance of his side of the scandal that has engulfed both him and ITV. Both Tate and Schofield wanted to seize control of the narrative, and while Tate was a blunt instrument, Schofield’s approach was a complex theatrical production.

First there’s the script – near-identical in both BBC and Sun interviews. There have been some (fair) accusations of insensitivity around Phillip’s comparison of himself to Caroline Flack. Still, he’s far from the first to do so, and his invocation of the tragedy might give even his most vociferous critics pause for thought. Overall it was an effective damage limitation exercise, contrition mixed with an emphasis on the limits of his moral failings (chiefly his contestation that nothing illegal or coercive happened). Some even speculate that it may have contained a veiled threat – “I knew everything about Holly”- to his former co-host of retaliation should she add any fuel to the fire…

There were other elements. Props: the disposable vape which has become a meme and a reasonably if not effective ‘dead cat’. Then there was the performance: Schofield is undoubtedly under immense stress, but his particular signalling of emotional fragility, much like the script, was near-identical in both interviews. People close to the edge aren’t usually capable of staying so consistent, so on-message. It’s left commentators feeling a tang of inauthenticity, but overall Schofield’s version of events is now part of the overall narrative, and as long as he told the truth, these interviews may temper the furore.