After Sir Crispin Davis saw sense (or was made to) and withdrew his candidature for ITV chairman, there should be no excuse for the beleaguered broadcaster's board to push on and appoint Sir Michael Bishop. He knows the industry as a former chair of C4, he's got a good track record, the City likes him and he wants the job.

Oh, and he's a Tory and they appear to be the future. But this is ITV, and its directors show an alarming propensity for prevaricating (they could have knocked the talks with Tony Ball on the head a lot sooner than they did). So it's disheartening to hear that other names might be in the frame, such as Sir Christopher Bland, Sir Christopher Gent and Martin Broughton. Can't they get a move on and give it to Bishop?

* WHAT of Sir Michael Bishop's former stamping ground, British Midland? Now called bmi, Heathrow's second-largest airline was taken over earlier this year by Lufthansa and its Germanisation is moving apace. Its chief executive Nigel Turner has been removed replaced by one Wolfgang Prock-Schauer (actually a scion of Austria). Turner is moving upstairs to become deputy chairman.

Let's get theatrical for Sir Stuart

SIR Stuart Rose once said: “[Business] is like theatre.

You have to put on a great performance every day.” Well bosses like Rose and budding Roses will get a chance to put that to the test next month in the Director's Cut at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Running from 27-29 November, business leaders and entrepreneurs will be able to experiment, practise and hone their leadership skills by directing professionally trained West End actors in a performance of an eight-minute excerpt from a famous play or a film, including Romeo and Juliet, Pulp Fiction, Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Street Car Named Desire and Educating Rita.

The climax sees them putting on a play on the final night in front of a live audience. It's the idea of a corporate training firm, The Leadership Theatre, which uses psychology and theatre to get the best out of managers.

Its people have worked with GlaxoSmithKline, Sony, BP, Shell, the Ministry of Defence, NHS, government of Dubai, Cranfield School of Management and The Bar Association — but so far, not Rose's M&S.

Gassing around with E.On

E.ON has scrapped plans to build a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent. It says that, with falling energy consumption over the next few years, the country does not need the new plant. This obviously has nothing to do with the huge environmentalist backlash which was threatening to label E.On as a green pariah. So if we do not need Kingsnorth's electricity, why is E.On taking huge taxpayer subsidies to erect 300 wind turbines in the Thames estuary, and is still committed to building a new gas-fired power station at High Marnham in the Midlands?

* IS Condé Nast's cost-cutting going deeper? According to New York paper The Daily News, a chunk of the US glossy magazine producer's legion of foot soldiers at the Paris fashion shows have been holed up in hotel rooms with a “dizzying” number of “budget-related conference calls and team meetings” to attend to, rather than taking notes on the runway. It's so bad that even Vogue editor Anna Wintour hasn't “been spotted since Dior on Friday”.

* IN The Spectator, Ferdinand Mount recounts his school days and how fellow pupils were not averse to a little ahem, gamesmanship. Among them was the boy who “hid in the bushes near the finish of the school steeplechase and pranced out ahead of the panting, muddy pack to finish an easy surprise winner”. This enterprising miscreant went on to become a “big cheese in the City”. Who is he? A clues is that Ferdie
was at Eton from 1952-1957. Suggestions please.

* ON PAGE 56 of The Independent, footballer Andy Cole writes in his column: “Why I won't be paying to log on for England.” He's talking about England's game against Ukraine tomorrow, which is not being shown live on television. “Let's face it, England's match in Ukraine is being screened solely on the internet because it's no longer important. If it had any meaning, a broadcaster would have paid. It's not a game I would have stayed in to watch anyway... I certainly wouldn't spend £4.99 or more to see it on the web.” Directly opposite Cole's words, on page 57, there is a “reader offer” to watch Ukraine v England on the web for £9.99 if paid in advance or £11.99 on the day of the match...