Michael Grade has become the Winston Churchill of British broadcasting. Churchill was famous for crossing the floor – switching parties. He became a Liberal cabinet minister just a few years after leaving the Tories. Twenty years later he made the return journey, becoming chancellor in double quick time.

Michael Grade’s switch from BBC chairman to ITV chief is just as audacious. It completes a career of moves between the Beeb and the commercial sector. It ends the interminable speculation about the identity of the new head of ITV. And it marks Grade’s final revenge on John Birt: making serious money after reaching the summit at the BBC.

Commentators have been quick to portray Grade’s departure as a disaster for the BBC and its director general, Mark Thompson. Grade and Thompson have lobbied hard – and at times clumsily – for a new licence fee settlement. The government hasn’t announced the outcome. Now Thompson must make the case alone.

My view is that the BBC’s loss may be less than ITV’s gain. Grade will bring chutzpah to the country’s biggest commercial broadcaster. But the BBC isn’t in crisis, unlike its rival, despite doubts about robustness of the new BBC trust as a form of governance. The biggest question is whether the great showman of the Eighties is up to the challenge of saving ITV in the age of YouTube.