We need to talk about the first female BBC director general

Kirsty Wark spotlights a topic being debated in industry circles

Always a trailblazer, Kirsty Wark has foregrounded a conversation that’s been swirling around TV for a few months: who could be the first female BBC director general?

Speaking at a press conference to announce that she will deservedly receive the Bafta TV fellowship this year, Wark said she wants to see a woman in the corporation’s key role “very soon”, adding that. “it’s time for there to be more women in the most senior positions”.

Since news emerged of ‘senior executive’ succession-planning at a BBC board meeting late last year there has been speculation over when BBC director general Tim Davie might depart.

Following the news earlier in February of the departure of BBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore to Sony-owned producer Left Bank Pictures, the whispers have grown louder that the next DG will be a woman as for the first time the majority of the contenders are female.

In addition to Moore, brilliantly there are plenty of other women contenders who are being talked about. They include Apple TV Europe boss and BFI and Hay Festival chair Jay Hunt, Netflix UK content chief Anne Mensah, Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon, All3Media CEO Jane Turton and BBC News and current affairs CEO Deborah Turness.

According to Broadcast, Wark said she could think of at least three women who would make “brilliant DGs”, including Bafta chief executive Jane Millichip.

Some of them are considering the role I’ve been told over the past few weeks (for which they are all obviously eminently qualified) and have been quietly raising their profile and testing the water, but know the pressures and perils the high-profile job brings.

This is something Davie knows, having born the brunt of abusive messages following stories about the corporation’s news output during the Isreal/Gaza war and presenter-led scandals such as the Huw Edwards one.

When Davie decides to go - and, if it is soon, then after securing the future of the BBC beyond its royal charter expiring at the end of 2027 would make sense - will also have a bearing. Who knows what each of the candidates will be doing then and what kind of corporation will emerge the other side of charter renewal?

Coincidentally Wark’s words come as the person who should have been the first female BBC director general, Caroline Thomson, has just come back to assist the corporation as one of its non-executive directors.

Thomson knew the BBC inside out when she was its chief operating officer and her experience included the negotiation of the BBC’s charter and two licence fee settlements.

Many people thought she should’ve got the top job when she was up for it in 2012 but instead it went to the well-regarded but less-experienced George Entwistle, who lasted just 54 days before resigning after Newsnight wrongly implicated Lord McAlpine, a former senior Tory politician, in a story about paedophilia.

Thomson went on to successfully lead Digital UK and become English National Ballet’s deputy chair instead, among other achievements.

She brings wisdom gained both inside and outside the BBC and it would be a fitting coda if during her tenure as a non-executive director the BBC heeds Wark’s advice to be ‘more adventurous’ and finally appoints a female director general.