Lloyd, who helmed the likes of Blackadder, Not The Nine O'Clock News and QI, accused the corporation of making programmes "by committee" to avoid causing offence.
From Willow, where the race clock starts ticking, mushers and their dog teams will begin making their way through unforgiving wilderness toward the finish line in the old frontier town of Nome on Alaska's western coast.
While the United States has little choice but to accept and work with a more complex -- and probably more sluggish -- decision-making structure in post-election Pakistan, the problem for Washington and it allies is that the clock is ticking on the terrorist threat.