Warhorse Neil steps into Paxo’s election shoes

THE question on everyone’s lips at the BBC? “Who will replace Jeremy?” No, not Clarkson but Paxman. When the Newsnight stalwart left last year there were hopes that the Beeb would take the opportunity to recruit a woman to take over his highly-prized election coverage slot now that Paxo is hanging out with Kay Burley on Channel 4. But it seems BBC central c asting i s n’t stretching far enough outside the box for some people.

Instead of a female heavyweight such as Emily Maitlis, Martha Kearney or Mishal Husain, for instance, the BBC has chosen Daily Politics presenter Andrew Neil for the c ruc ial elec tion-night broadcast. Could Neil’s selection be seen as indicative of a bigger problem at the Beeb?

“Yet again — s t r ai ght to another grizzled old white man,” groans a W1A insider, while our man in Westminster worries about the political implications of the post.

“Labour people are a bit funny about Nei l , ” t hey t ol d us t hi s morning. “Paxman might have recently come out as a one-nation Tory but Neil is chairman of The Spectator. He’s unapologetically

WITH BBC Films marking 25 years in the business last week, actor and director Kenneth Branagh was feeling nostalgic, recalling his first job with the Corporation in the Eighties. “I’m Irish, so it was appropriate that I went to work in BBC Northern Ireland,” he recalled, misty-eyed. “There was this bloke there called Danny Boyle as a drama producer. Wonder what happened to him? Anyway, we were commissioned to make a trio of dramas, which, being Irish, turned out to be four.”