When a Daily Mail-reading friend (yes, I do know people who read the Mail) told me Ed Stourton was being axed from BBC Radio’s Today Programme, I pooh-poohed it.

“That story’s a hardy annual in the Mail,” I scathed. “Whenever there’s a lull in media news they run a piece about Ed Stourton being sacked by the Beeb for being too posh.”

Bit of an exaggeration, of course, but broadly speaking true. While in the great tradition of Mail volte-face, last year they ran a story about 5Live’s Peter Allen not getting a job on Today because he wasn’t posh enough.

Russell Brand (unlike his masters) has redeemed himself with a fulsome and thoroughly convincing apology to Andrew Sachs and the Satanic Slut. He must have been under a lot of pressure –  in the video footage on the mediaguardian site he seems to have lost weight, with something Edvard Munchian about his elongated visage. And, just as puzzling, his beard has grown substantially in the couple of weeks since his misdemeanour. Has he refrained from trimming his stubble in an act of self-deprecation.

Whatever… he’s apologised and resigned, and that’s laudable.