Scarf-wearing Jeremy Vine departs to leave Panorama without regular presenter

Just under four years after joining Panaroma, Jeremy Vine is stepping down as presenter of the BBC’s flagship current affairs show.

Generally wearing a scarf and standing outside television centre to introduce the Monday night show, Vine’s appointment coincided with a more populist relaunch of Panorama at a shorter half-hour format in the prime-time Monday evening time-slot.

The move to Monday nights was criticised at the time because of the way it deliberately targeted the only other comparable UK current affairs broadcast news strand, Channel 4’s Dispatches which runs from 8 to 9pm.

While Panorama generally has the higher audience of the two shows, Dispatches has arguably won more of the awards and critical plaudits over the last year or so – though Panorama had a high-profile “hit” two weeks ago with Andrew Jennings’ Fifa bribes investigation.

It had another major scoop in September when, working with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, it revealed the high number of public sector workers earning more than £100,000 a year.

According to The Guardian, which has more on this story, there will now be no regular Panorama presenter.