[1] Douglas was overseen by Grace Wyndham Goldie, the Assistant Head of Talks,[2] and became "the princess of Panorama, the right hand of the producer in the gallery, and in the office, the wiper of noses, the stroker of egos, the calmer of the frightened and corrector of the inept.
[2] Douglas also worked as a director, producer and researcher for the programmes Gallery and 24 Hours,[6] and impressed enough to be given the responsibility of covering the proceedings of party conferences for the BBC in 1972.
[1][4] This entailed working several hours in Blackpool, Brighton and Bournemouth and caused multiple rows between irate politicians about the coverage; Douglas was able to calm their concerns.
[7] A 1984 Panorama programme called Maggie's Militant Tendency was approved by Douglas and said some Conservative Party Members of Parliament (MP) had links to far-right groups, causing uproar.
[4] After Michael Checkland succeeded Milne as the Director-General in 1987, he retained Douglas' services,[1] and promoted her to the Chief Political Adviser,[6] which made her the first woman to hold the position.
[1] The Labour Party complained to Douglas that the change of colour scheme in the BBC News studio to blue broke the corporation's impartiality guidelines.
[4] Jean Seaton in the book Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the Nation, 1974–1987 wrote Douglas had earned the respect of all sides of the British political spectrum.