Marky Mark

As November approaches and Danny Cohen departs, it looks like Mark Linsey will be the BBC's interim tv taste-maker for a while.

He has a BA in Performing Arts, Arts Administration from Leicester Polytechnic, and met and befriended Dale Winton at Radio Trent when working on a dissertation on commercial radio. He got his first job at Trent, as "station dogsbody", and has remained close to Dale ever since (Dale is godfather to his three boys, and there have been a number of family holidays together.) He moved from Nottingham to Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton, and then got unpaid work on the Pamela Armstrong show on BBC2, produced at Pebble Mill, which ran through 1986 and 1987.

Some programmes from his production portfolio: Pets Win Prizes and Simon Mayo's Confessions at the BBC; Beat The Crusher, with Freddie Starr and Melinda Messenger, while with Tiger Aspect, which ran for 10 shows in 1998. He started the conversation with Chris Evans that led to him taking over Top Gear.

He remembers two failed pitches to Jay Hunt when she took over BBC1 - a Lee Mack quiz show which was to be called Evolution, and a programme featuring synchronised swimming. He enjoyed watching Total Wipeout (which he commissioned) with his sons; he lives in a semi-detached villa in a leafy avenue in Sevenoaks with wife Sarah, who teaches yoga.