Mission Creep at the Beeb
Way back in the Eighties there were wise and intelligent Directors General at the BBC. One of them introduced Producer Choice. This was intended to bring some financial accountability to the BBC. Everybody charged everybody else for everything and every unit became a profit centre. (There were a few exceptions, I suspect all the chaps in grey suits were exempt.)
Anyway, the rumour was that Pebble Mill worked out that they could make more money per hour by hiring out their TV studio for public meetings rather than actually making TV programmes themselves. Those nice people from the National Front tried to hire it, but somebody in London got cold feet and told Birmingham off!