Familiar with broadcasting issues after three decades at the BBC.A Birt-ist, therefore close to Tony Blair. Odds: 4/1Richard Lambert, 59 Former editor of The Financial Times, working there for 35 years. No broadcasting experience, but analysed the BBC News 24 for Government review. Friends in high places include Chancellor Gordon Brown and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. Odds: 5/2Baroness Young, 55 Former vice chairman of the BBC, so knows the ropes Lack of party alignment could help her. Odds: 5/1Lord Grade, 61 Known as “pornographer in chief” as head of Channel 4, now executive chairman of film studio Pinewood-Shepperton. If the chairmanship goes to, say, Mr Dimbleby, one of 79 people who have applied, it may count against Ms Abramsky, as both share a news background.

The Government data we know – this week it is the turn of the retailers themselves to speak up. But rather than worries they are too close to the Government, the reverse appears to be true.Although the channels of communication with Downing Street are hugely important, there is a feeling that to prove the BBC’s independence and distance the new chairman should be a distinctly non-Labour figure.Patricia Hodge, 57 Chief executive of axed TV regulator the Independent Television Commission, which was replaced by Ofcom. But a view within the BBC is that the Murdoch press “will opt for the candidate who will continue the reassessment process for the longest”.The complexion of the chairman will have a direct bearing on the appointment of the DG – leading candidates for which are expected to include the BBC’s director of radio, Jenny Abramsky, its director of television, Jana Bennett, the acting director general, Mark Byford, and the chief executive of Channel 4, Mark Thompson.There is a view that there must be something of a balancing act to ensure the Chairman and Director General are not cut from the same cloth. The appointment of a chairman will, as it did with Gavyn Davies, raise fears of New Labour cronyism. In which case Ms Bennett might fare better, thanks to her pedigree in programme-making and commissioning for TV.Ms Abramsky may have a better chance were Lord Burns, who was appointed last year as a Government advisor on the BBC’s charter renewal – to get the chairmanship.

The successful candidate will also be a key player in negotiations for charter renewal in 2006.There is also work to be done in convincing viewers of the central plank of BBC funding, the licence fee. A recent report commissioned by the BBC for a Panorama debate found that only a third of the public thought it was the best way to fund the broadcaster.An editorial in The Times has backed Mr Lambert saying he is “best qualified to steer the BBC through choppy waters”. “But to have a chairman like Lambert who knows so little about the BBC could mean the soul-searching goes on for ever.”Also shortlisted are the Question Time host David Dimbleby, the former Channel 4 boss Lord Grade, and the ex-Independent Television Commission chief executive Patricia Hodgson.Baroness Young of Old Scone, a former vice chairman of the BBC and Lord Watson of Richmond, once a presenter for The Money Programme and Panorama, are others to be interviewed, and Lord Burns, the chairman of the Abbey bank, may be added.The four-days-a-week role of chairman is seen as rather mysterious in terms of day-to-day duties, but the ostensible responsibility is to lead the Board of Governors, planning strategy and acting in the public interest to ensure the BBC is publicly accountable. But already leaks have begun to emerge.One name which is causing most anxiety among BBC staff is that of former Financial Times editor Richard Lambert, who conducted a review into BBC News 24. The feeling is that although he has a good grasp of newspapers and News 24, he does not have the overarching knowledge of the BBC which would immediately draw a line under the Hutton fallout.”There was a period of soul-searching in the wake of Hutton,” said one senior BBC figure. people.”What does the future hold for this extraordinary man? Will he have more plastic surgery? Will he write his long-awaited memoirs? Will he become more and more ridiculous, more and more of an act? He himself predicts that he will become more and more productive.

His staff say that Kennedy worked in his office until 8pm on Tuesday, went straight home and was taken ill in the night. He went to his office in the morning to see his parliamentary engagements through, but realised that he was too ill to risk putting in a public appearance, which would necessarily have lasted at least two hours.Despite the cumulative damage from incidents like these, Charles Kennedy’s problems now do not bear comparison with those that beset Iain Duncan Smith a year ago. ITN said that there had been no complaint from the Liberal Democrats.During the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference in Bournemouth three years ago, Kennedy was booked for a live interview with Andrew Neil The interview was cancelled at short notice. Even when the programme offered to send a camera crew to Kennedy’s hotel room, his staff still insisted that he was not available.