Oh dear - the favourites for BBC1 top job!

It looks likely another woman will take control of BBC1 - unfortunately it's not my choice of ex-BBC 2 chief Jane Root - but the favourites for the job don't exactly fill me with confidence for the future.

Jane Tranter is 5-4 favourite. She's the BBC controller of drama commissioning - however I'd hardly say BBC drama is going through a golden age. We're heading into March and I don't think theres been one landmark drama series on BBC1 - all we've seen is the return of Dalziel and Pascoe!

However, BBC sources suggest she may not apply - so what about the second favourite?

Alison Sharman (4-1). The bad news is she's the BBC Daytime controller - so I think the morning schedules speak for themselves. Property show, Property Show, Property show, Bargain Antique Show, Bargain Antique show. The daytime schedule also fails to remain the same for more than one week!

Sophie Turner-Laing, deputy managing director of Sky Networks is placed at 8-1 - and at the BBC was controller of acquisitions and for a brief time Acting Director of Television. However, leaving Sky would mean a large pay-cut (that suggests Heggessey actually gets paid!)

On the male front C4's Director of Programmes Kevin Lygo is widely tipped. Channel 4 is back on track now as my terrestrial station of choice - and it's suggests he will remain with the station to see his programmes make it on to screen. It's also suggested he will return to the BBC at a later date - but in a more senior role, possibly director of television.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1424678,00.html

You can't really compare the scheduling and commissioning for a small section of airtime with scheduling and commissioning a whole channel.

There might be all property and antique shows on at daytime, but that is beause these are dyatime type shows - the person responsible isn't going to fill the whole schedule with them

What is it with the BBC and female controllers - they're useless at the job! Mind you, that's not fair. Jane Root did an excellent job at BBC2 for a long time.

whether someone is female or male does not make them a good or bad controller. The fact is though Joe, that female controllers are probably more PC than men. If a man got the job there's no guarantee that he would be better than a woman and vice versa. I think the BBC should seriosly look at the next controller. They should stipulate tighter control over them and insist on quality programming within a structured timescale like a probationary period. after all, BBC1 is not a small time cable channel. It is probably the UK's most important channel so the right choice is imperative. Lorraine didn't do everything bad. she did have some good ideas, it's just she had a few wacky ones too!

I'm confused - can you name one of these good idea please?

There have only ever been 2. So what you're saying is that female comtrollers, are useless......except half of them

Spooks and State of Play were both excellent, distinctive British drama, and both were commissioned under Lorraine's watch AIUI. Sure she got £100m extra from Greg to beef up the BBC One line-up, but do people really have no memories of the Reality TV hell that was BBC One under Peter Salmon?

Maybe some of the posters here don't remember BBC One under Peter Salmon, Alan Yentob, Jonathan Powell etc.

While she hasn't had any success in introducing a new popular sitcom onto the channel other than the patchy My Family, she has stuck by comedy and tried to find a winning format. It's a shame that sitcom writers today are all so smutty and can't write decent, populist comedy without being crude. That's where the problem lies. She has also had good ideas in trying fame Academy and Test the Nation. Fame Academy was an excellent format delivered badly. if on ITV it would have been a huge success, Test the Nation is a popular and fun show, perhaps in need of retiring now though! She has been brave in commissioning the Whistleblower programmes and programmes such as Dirty War. It is a shame she can't come up with a commission for a regular current affairs series such as Inside Story and has to rely heavily on Panarama specials and such like. The One Life strand is also excellent. There have been some excellent drama commissions such as 2003's Canterbury Tales and last year's Hustle. her wacky ideas (idents aside) are the Text Night, her persistence in using Ian Wright, her refusal to accept that National Lottery shows just don't really work, her destruction of Saturday night, her continuing obsession with repeating Only Fools and Horses when there is a vast back catalogue of classic BBC comedy, All About Me because of it's so obvious PC tendency, her obsession with PC in general, her failure to come up with anything significant for the Wednesday Wasteland, no movies ever shown in primetime other than Christmas and Bank Holidays (i wonder what she comes up with for Easter. I know there's football on Easter Saturday) and her seeming to like Cops Robbers and Videotape that seems to be shown in any vacant slot that would otherwise be taken up with OFAH.

Simply wrong.

"Cherished" and "Dad" have both aired in the last week, receiving more critical acclaim than ITV's drama portfolio ('whodunnit tonight?') combined.

Look out for "Faith"- a landmark drama about the miners' strike tomorrow night. If you put your fingers in your ears and shout "I hate the BBC" repeatedly, it's not surprising you come up with such ludicrous statements.

Also look out for the two-part "Supervolcano"- delayed due to the tsunami tragedy. This promises to be one of the most remarkable dramas ever seen on British TV.

These are all one-off dramas though. The way it's going the BBC won't screen an actual SERIES until after Easter - when the Winter schedule used to be full of landmark series.

Yes I am also looking forward to Supervolcano. It reminded me to include on Lorraine's lists of triumphs the superb dram "Pyramid" and of course the very powerful "Pompeii". Plus there's been the superb drama documentary series "Son of God" which in my opinion should be released on DVD. There's also been the return of Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Red Cap, Cutting It, Being April, Born and Bred, and of course the superb Sherlock Holmes drama at Christmas and last years excellent Carries War. ITV have excellent drama series too at present, but they do still rely heavily on cop dramas. Don't forget though, that the biggest hit of the Spring this year could yet be a BBC1 programme. Dr Who!. I think the BBC maintain its high versatility and variety mix but in fairness, as with every other TV era, a change of controller is needed to prevent the schedules from becoming stale.

I would argue that obsession with drama SERIES are destroying drama television on stations such as ITV....they're constantly looking for that killer series they commission round the year and turn into an effective soap.

The BBC have been showing "Sea of Souls" and "Down to Earth" together with "Dalziel and Pascoe"- so you are factually wrong. It's refreshing that BBC One ISN'T "doing an ITV" and pretty much just having dramas and soaps in primetime. BBC One has a public service remit that includes areas such as factual programming and comedy- areas I believe have improved strongly under Heggassey.

Their dramas are also clearly different- they're not ALL muder mysteries or Ross Kemp derived. Other upcoming BBC One dramas include "Archangel", "Fingersmith", "Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee", "Doctor Who" and "The Murder Room". One "whodunnit" in that list.