Daily & Sunday Politics

Mailtlis leaves me completely and utterly cold. None of the suggestions made have that glint in their eye and tongue in their cheek that Andrew Neil has that makes him such a good interviewer. He gets to the exact right level of being annoyed - Maitlis goes too far, some of the others like Eddie Mair or Nick Robinson don't go far enough.

If I had to suggest someone who is on a par with him, I'd say maybe Jim Naughtie, but I've only ever heard him on the radio, I'm not sure what he's like on tv.

He presents Meet the Author on the NC.

I think Simon McCoy could be a good replacement on This Week which is often lighter in tone, but I'm not sure he has the political background needed for the Daily/Sunday politics. I think that the BBC managers will want to retain a gender balance on the Daily Politics and will want to avoid sexism allegations that would be an inevitable consequence of the BBC using another male presenter on their Sunday political programmes. Therefore if Andrew is leaving both programmes I would imagine that Jo Coburn will be given first refusal on the Sunday programme with a new male presenter doing a few days midweek. If this is the case I imagine it will be someone with a somewhat lower profile or lesser current role than those mentioned above with possible candidates including Shaun Ley and possibly Mark Mardell.

Jon Sopel did it in the past if I remember rightly and he wasn't all that 'high profile' at the time.

If Gavin Estler was still with the BBC i'd have thrown his name into the hat too.

There is of course James O'Brien but he has his LBC and Newsnight cover commitments too.

Just to say that Andrew Neil is listed to present The Daily Politics this Wednesday (on the Sky EPG anyway).

I'm not sure that that clarifies anything. Presumably if he was leaving it would be at the start of the programmes summer break rather than a week or so before.

My take is that Andrew is likely to be stepping away from the Sunday show only. Remaining with the DP and This Week outlets. I'd expect that SP with Marr in place on Sundays, is a prime candidate for elimination in the cost strapped BBC. Switching the local element of the programme to the iPlayer and including content in beefed up 1830 weekday magazines would seem a way forward.

Although I can't see it being axed, I can see why Neil would drop SP ahead of the others. It doesn't have a unique selling point and lives in the shadow of Andrew Marr on Sunday's. It is generally Marr who gets the big sound bites from the big names.

The thing I admire about Andrew Neil is the fact he does so much research before interviewing his guests, which I understand involves him getting up very early to study briefings and doing all sorts of research. He can turn his hand to catching out all sorts of polticians, on all sorts of issues - and I personally like the fact he always keeps up with some somewhat obscure Scottish domestic matters, despite being a big-name interviewer.

He's been one of the very few that's ever caught out Salmond, and never got another proper interview with him for many years.

Plus there is now increased competition for soundbites from Peston on Sunday and Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

Though to be fair - that was the case in years gone by too - when there was a Sunday morning (Steve Richards did one for a while) and lunchtime political show (Andrew Rawnsley ISTR?) on ITV/GMTV - along with the Sky equivalent. ITV ditched all their Sunday political shows for a while - and Peston is kind of half-way between the two in schedule terms. They all generated sound bites.

It does have a USP - and that's the inclusion of the regional programmes. Ditch Sunday Politics and you'll need to find a new home for those too. It's just a guess but I reckon the regions enjoy a higher audience being part of the Sunday programme (and I include the predecessor The Politics Show in this) than they did when they were on their own on BBC Two.