High chair

Mark Kleinman at Sky has pretty detailed knowledge of the long list of runners and riders for BBC Chair.

We can add to Sir David Arculus (70, Bromsgrove and Oriel, Oxford) the names of..

John Makinson (62, Repton and Christ's College Cambridge) has just stood down as Chairman of Penguin Random House. University chums including Griff Rhys-Jones and Peter Bazalgette. After college he worked for Reuters and the FT, before moves to Saatchi and Pearson. He had a fairly untroubled six years as chair of the National Theatre, and four years ago married Bollywood actress Nandana Sen in New York.

Sir David Clementi (67, Winchester and Lincoln, Oxford)

Roger Parry (63, Sutton Grammar, B.Sc Geology, Bristol and M.Litt Jesus Oxford) is a serial media executive who started out as a freelance radio and tv reporter, and is currently chair of YouGov, Mobile Streams and OMG plc, and was chair of the Globe Theatre for seven years.

William Shawcross (70, Eton and University College Oxford) is currently chair of the Charity Commission, and has just extended his commitment to three days a week for no extra dosh. Post-Oxford he tried sculpture, then turned to hackery for The Sunday Times. He's written biographies of Rupert Murdoch and The Queen Mother. Married three times - Marina Warner, Michael Levin, and Olga Polizzi - his step-daughter is Alex Polizzi.

There are either six or seven candidates in total - one hopes, for Karen Bradley's sake, that at least one turns out to be a woman or BAME. Otherwise it's a white, well-to-do, Oxbridge bloke.