Virginia Plain

The London chair of headhunters Odgers Berndston is Baroness Bottomley, now 71. As Virginia, she was the last National Heritage minister (before it was re-invented as Culture), and man-marked John Birt as Director General of the BBC. In 1995, she signed off Digital Terrestial TV, which was to give Birt his beloved News Channel, amongst other expansions. She also stood by as he moved in to subjugate the World Service.