IF a week is a long time in politics, a month is an era for troubled bosses at BBC Scotland.

Last month, the head of Radio Scotland for 12 years announced he was quitting, days after a longer-serving colleague was given the new job of “multi-platform commissioning editor”. In plain language, that title basically means God. Henceforth, one person decides which ideas from BBC and independent producers get the go-ahead and which get binned across every medium -- TV, radio and online.

Until a few days ago, that man was Ewan Angus. He’s been in charge of TV commissioning and scheduling at BBC Scotland for the past 20 years, bringing us Still Game, The Scheme, River City, Limmy’s Show and (let’s not be huffy) A History of Scotland. But since BBC Scotland has also registered the lowest viewer satisfaction rates in the UK, there are obviously question marks over his track record too. Nevertheless, Angus bagged the ultimate commissioning job at BBC Scotland last month.

At the time, I wrote a column suggesting it was a very bad idea to put one man in charge of so much and called on BBC Scotland to quit its old-fashioned “Person at the Top” default and consider instead the “joint commissioning team” approach deployed very successfully at diverse wee BBC Alba.

Now I’m not saying anyone at Pacific Quay was paying the blindest bit of attention, but earlier this week Ewan Angus – that single top commissioning BBC executive – announced that he too is quitting the BBC and his brand new all-singing, all-dancing job.

Why?

Well, the official line is that Angus has resigned for personal reasons. No-one I’ve spoken to is aware of family issues behind his decision to go – but of course that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

The unofficial line though is clear and consistent. Producers report that since his appointment, Angus had done very little to tackle the massive commissioning job that lies ahead, so departments are stuck in limbo, not knowing what will be expected of them when the new channel (let’s called it BBCScot2) probably gets Ofcom approval in September next year.

In many ways, Aunty is as stuck as the Westminster Government with Brexit -- both are trying to deliver the impossible. In Theresa May’s case she brought it on herself -- but BBC Scotland was given the task of constructing a new channel complete with the poisoned chalice of a one-hour news programme at 9pm -- a time-slot that’s filled with top entertainment offerings on every rival channel.

Maybe that will work – or maybe sceptical BBC director general Tony Hall has saddled the Scottish channel with such a hard-to-deliver news slot that the whole channel will underperform, struggle to become a viewing habit and end up facing the axe 5-10 years down the line. That’s the sceptic’s point of view and I sincerely hope it’s wrong. But the devil in every bit of news about BBC Scotland expansion is always in the detail.

So perhaps as Ewan Angus started to contemplate the level of detail and the epic, perhaps unachievable nature of what’s expected, he simply decided to pass the parcel.

Perhaps. But should these internal BBC problems worry folk beyond Pacific Quay?

Yes they should – for two big reasons.

Firstly, Scotland desperately needs freshness and diversity in programming and one person cannot deliver a genuine diversity of programmes across almost 2000 hours of broadcasting.

To do justice to that wonderful, creative task, a sole commissioner would have to be a veritable renaissance man or woman -- versed in Scots, Gaelic with maybe a swatch of Urdu, familiar with all sports not just football, keen to overcome accusations of indyref bias and eager to reflect Scotland’s pro-EU referendum result with programmes celebrating Scotland’s European links and resident EU nationals. He or she would have a thorough knowledge of recent and contemporary Scottish culture from every airt of Scotland and a good sense of what’s relevant in Europe and beyond.

That’s a gey tough call for one human being, especially when morale at BBC Scotland is at an all-time low.

A long-serving member of staff told me: “The daily schedules are pretty poor, tired, using the same old ideas, formats, and people, over and over again. Where are the bold ideas? The programmes that capture modern Scotland and the rest of the world?”

Well quite.

Scots must see themselves reflected in Aunty’s programmes and learn about other parts of this “multiform, infinite Scotland” – as Hugh MacDiarmid once described this country. Otherwise – never mind indyref bias -- what’s the point of the licence fee?

At present, Scotland’s incredible diversity is too often regarded as a problem -- an aberration from a monoglot, central-belt, white, No-voting male default.

But such cultural uniformity is a myth in Scotland, just as it is in every country surrounding us. Norway is a united and successful nation state with two official languages and 18 official dialects. We shouldn’t be afraid that we lessen Scotland’s claims as a nation by revelling in its gloriously diverse heritage.

BBC Scotland can use this unexpected hiatus to create a commissioning structure that builds in diversity – especially since the old priority of producing programmes for network transmission has finally been replaced with a new priority of making home-grown programmes in Scotland for Scotland. The second reason viewers and listeners should be concerned is the deliverability of the new channel as scheduled in just 13 months time.

In a surprisingly restrained letter to all staff, BBC Scotland director Donalda MacKinnon, who was appointed in December, wrote: “I’m particularly sorry Ewan will be leaving at this time as we plan the development of new services for our audiences but these plans are already well under way and will continue under a new head of multi-platform commissioning along with the rest of the team.”

But it’s not clear that plans ARE well under way. Insiders suggest Angus’s non-appearance at a summer BBCScot2 planning meeting with director general Tony Hall was the last straw – and that afterwards he was given the choice of jumping before he was pushed.

Now there’s no doubt the departure of two big beasts at BBC Scotland means short-term chaos, but it also brings an opportunity to do things differently – as long as managers act boldly now.

Searching for a new single multi-platform commissioning editor may be as forlorn a task as it is undesirable. Candidates who failed to get the top job five brief weeks back will be feeling scunnered now – and the incumbent’s untimely departure simply reinforces the perception that his job was o’er daunting. So perhaps it’s time for a fightback by MacKinnon.

She could ditch the idea of a single commissioning editor and adopt BBC Alba’s preferred way of working via a joint commissioning team. At the Gaelic station, four people share commissioning decisions, and bring their own varied cultural backgrounds, preferences, knowledge and experience to the task. That way ideas from a wider range of people reach the brainstorming stage and commissioners champion ideas they really support.

BBC Scotland could also challenge London’s edict that the new channel’s hour-long news must start at 9pm and argue instead for a 10pm slot or, better still, re-open the vexed question of the Scottish Six.

One hour of integrated news at 6pm would offer a genuine alterative to the BBC’s peak-time network offering, get the new channel off with a bang and make sense for the rest of its schedule – though admittedly continuing to deliver Reporting Scotland simultaneously on BBC1 would be tricky and the whole idea evidently riles the heck out of the director general.

Downsides aplenty.

But possibilities too.

Let’s hope the new woman at the helm of BBC Scotland has the courage to grasp them.