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The inquiry is now looking at an email from Jane French, who was then a BBC current affairs editor, on 7 January 2015 about an upcoming Inside Out programme.

In the email, she invites Mark Davies, then-communications director, for a filmed interview that would feature in the programme, setting out a summary of the issues the programme would cover and a series of questions.

Another document on screen shows that French’s email was forwarded to Williams.

In his reply, he says he “smells a rat” given the “BBC’s approach to date, the close engagement it has with JFSA, and the timing of the piece”.

Jason Beer KC asks “what was the rat that you smelled”?

He says by this he meant it looks like its organised, that he thought “something is up” and that the timing was aligned to put pressure on the Post Office.

What were you intending to say, Beer asks, and Williams says the timing seemed convenient for PO complainants.

Then another tense back and forth between Beer and Williams.

“What did you think the BBC was up to?” Beer asks finally.

“It looked like it was building up to a media broadcast, something along those lines, that would have advanced the postmasters complaints,” Williams says.