Dyke makes a play for C5 slot

There was only one subject of discussion after the annual Marketing Society dinner last week. Why did Greg Dyke, chairman and chief executive of Pearson Television – a Channel 5 shareholder – turn his after-dinner speech into a sales pitch for the new channel?

One suggestion was that having lulled the audience with a collection of anecdotes and Roland Rat jokes, his evangelical fervour for the new channel took over. But there is another, more Machiavellian view – that the final third of the speech was penned by sales director Nick Milligan.

Sadly, Milligan denies that he had a hand in the speech, which leaves the Diary with the only conclusion possible – that Dyke was auditioning for the Channel 5 job.