james‘s replacement will be fran unsworth, a long—term bbc journalist who is currently his deputy, ande been speaking to james harding and began by asking him about brexit, and what he says to the many viewers who thought the bbc was part of the establishment during the eu referendum. clearly favouring remain. i think that the referendum was, of course, an incredibly polarising time, as you say, samira. but actually what's interesting is, of course, we've had complaints from both sides and what we try to do, and i think when you look back and you look at the coverage, what we actually did do, was set about trying to explain what the choice was, trying to report out what the choice was. if you look back over the last few years, there have been an extraordinary number of democratic moments, two referendums, two general elections, a host of others around the world. i think one of the real lessons of the last few years is you can't predict what's going to happen. you can't rely on either political predictions or polls, and that means for us we have to do what we're here for, we've got to m

your successor, fran unsworth, is an internal candidate. been an extraordinary person to work with. for people who don't know her, fran has worked at the bbc for pretty much her entire career and knows and understands it. most recently she was running the bbc world service. what you see with fran is an incredibly thoughtful manager of people. a really intelligentjudge of news, and a fantastic ambassador for the bbc. but most of all, she has the capacity to enable great people to do exceptional work. and when you are the director of news and current affairs, that's the thing you really want to do, it's not what you do. the leadership of the organisation is enabling other people to do great things and no—one does that better in my experience, than fran. so i think she will be a brilliant director of news and current affairs. i've loved working with her and a great many people in the bbc feel the same way. thank you, james harding. thank you very much. and that's all from us this week. if you want to share your thoughts on whatjames harding ha

your successor, fran unsworth, is an internal candidate. ht say reflects the decision to go a different way for the bbc. do you have any advice for her? well, i chose fran when ijoined as my deputy, and she has been an extraordinary person to work with. for people who don't know her, fran has worked at the bbc for pretty much her entire career and knows and understands it. most recently she was running the bbc world service. what you see with fran is an incredibly thoughtful manager of people. a really intelligentjudge of news, and a fantastic ambassador for the bbc. but most of all, she has the capacity to enable great people to do exceptional work. and when you are the director of news and current affairs, that's the thing you really want to do, it's not what you do. the leadership of the organisation is enabling other people to do great things and no—one does that better in my experience, than fran. so i think she will be a brilliant director of news and current affairs. i've loved working with her and a great many people in the bbc feel

james's replacement will be fran unsworth, a long—term bbc journalist who is currently his deputy, andho thought the bbc was part of the establishment during the eu referendum. clearly favouring remain. i think that the referendum was, of course, an incredibly polarising time, as you say, samira. but actually what's interesting is, of course, we've had complaints from both sides and what we try to do, and i think when you look back and you look at the coverage, what we actually did do, was set about trying to explain what the choice was, trying to report out what the choice was. if you look back over the last few years, there have been an extraordinary number of democratic moments, two referendums, two general elections, a host of others around the world. i think one of the real lessons of the last few years is you can't predict what's going to happen. you can't rely on either political predictions or polls, and that means for us we have to do what we're here for, we've got to make sure that people get a sense of what the choice is. you mention the need for the bbc to provide informed