Grade's Pecking Order

Channel 4 boss Michael Grade presented his keeniest viewer yesterday - a hawk called Samantha.

But it is not programmes she’ll be watching. Samanthas beady eye will be trained on a plague of pigeons in Grade’s new £62 million headquaters.

The pests’ droppings threaten to take the gloss off its acres of glass.

This weekend, the station completes it’s move into the studios in Victoria, London. Twice a week Samantha will keep watch over Grades empire. In a dig at the BBC, Grade said yesterday: “She is the only consultant the channel employs.”

Keeper Andy Garlick said: “Once the pigeons pass the word around, they’ll keep away.” Bosses hope to save £60,000 a year on cleaning when the pigeons stop dropping in.

Pigeon Hole

Channel 4 has hired a hawk to deal with pigeons at it’s new building.

Luckily, the BBC does not suffer a pigeon problem. If it did, different management consultants would be called in to set up different committees - a hawk committee and an eagle committee for example - to decide which bird should deal with the pigeon pest.