I NOTE with a sense of resigned inevitability how the biggest splash to come from the BBC’s Religion Editor, Aleem Maqbool, since he began just over two years ago, is an exposé of sordid behaviour and safeguarding failures in the Church of England.

Mr Maqbool has fulfilled his contractual functions — such as presenting Beyond Belief — competently; but it is clear from his much heralded File on 4 report (Radio 4, Tuesday of last week), on the handling of the Canon Andrew Hindley affair (News, 16 August), that Mr Maqbool is, at heart, an investigative journalist.

Much has already been covered in the news, but the documentary offered some additional insights beyond scene-setting choral music and descriptions of sand-martins darting in and out of the muddy banks of the Darwen; for instance, the contribution of Andrew Graystone, who spoke of a conversation that he had had with Archbishop of Canterbury, in which the latter was said to have hinted that a well-targeted leak would be more effective in dislodging Canon Hindley than the Church’s lawyers.

Yet, underneath all the shameful fascination of the inappropriate (a euphemism that is here stretched to breaking point) and the ineffectual lies the considerably more banal and boring story of ecclesiastical HR; of freeholds, risk assessments, and church tribunals. If the documentary had wished to get to the heart of the matter, it might have got into definitions of “office-holders” and “employees”. And, having heard the submissions of the Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, and his predecessor, the Rt Revd Julian Henderson, I felt bound to conclude that this has been a scandal primarily not of individual complacency or indifference, but of institutional impotence.

An art exhibition is never just about the art. A good curator produces a mise-en-scène, designed to bring the best out the artworks. And then there are the people who transport them, package them up, vacuum-clean them, and get them through customs. In the Studio (World Service, Tuesday of last week) took us backstage with the roadies of the art world, as they took a collection of paintings and sketches by Edvard Munch on tour from the United States to Germany and, finally, back home to Norway.

The paintings are “the talent”; and the great, such as Munch’s White Night, lead jet-setting lifestyles. But the greatest will not come to you: you have to go to them. The Scream exists in several versions, including prints; but none is now allowed to venture out of its home.

If you have ever wondered what happened to all those supporting actors who, having propped up long-running television shows, disappear from sight, you might check out Podcastland. There you can find any number of memorials, honouring, with endless commentary, the genius of Friends, The Sopranos, or some other cult series. Being a Larry David fan, I found myself drawn to The History of Curb Your Enthusiasm with Jeff Garlin and Susie Essman (iHeartProductions, released every Thursday). Just as you should never meet your heroes, you should never listen to them revisiting their revels, deconstructing that pageant until not a rack is left behind.