The BBC has been accused of having a "total sense of humour failure" after banning its political editor, Nick Robinson, and other senior journalists such as Huw Edwards and George Alagiah from taking part in one of the corporation's own entertainment television programmes.

The extraordinary situation, which has caused a major split among BBC management figures, comes ahead of tomorrow's filming of the new BBC Two news-based game show series, The Bubble, which is aimed at a high-brow audience and is due to make its debut at 10pm on Friday. BBC News is refusing to co-operate with the light-hearted entertainment programme for fear that it could undermine the reputation of its journalism. "They saw the words 'fake clips' and hit the panic button. They are treating the audience like idiots," said a source close to the row.

The format for The Bubble – which has been successful in several other countries – involves three comedians being cut off from the news for several days in a country house with no access to any media and then being asked to distinguish between authentic and fake news items. Both ITV News and Sky News have been happy to co-operate with the series and supply it with news footage. The only BBC footage to appear will be archive material, even though the series is supposed to reflect stories of the week.

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Obvbviously, news is a serious business and although is is often laden with puns, quips and is often barely-bridled propaganda, it cannot be funny in a humourless organism, who in past incarnation would have relished the opportunity to make fools of themselves... Here is seems that our own Q&A is shifting towards a fully fledged "Bubble" in which quips, smart-arsing and repartee are more prized than reality..