This from the Guardian, March 11, written by Matt Wells:

The broadcaster David Dimbleby has been told he is on the shortlist for the post of BBC chairman, vacant since the resignation of Gavyn Davies in the devastating fall-out from the Hutton report.

Officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are sifting through applications from 79 people and are expected to pare the list down to about a dozen in the next week.

It is understood that Dimbleby, the presenter of BBC1's Question Time and a former owner of local newspapers in London, has been told informally that his name will go forward for the £81,320-a-year position. Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, has the final say on the appointment.

One of the first tasks of the new chairman will be to appoint a successor to the former director general, Greg Dyke, who quit the day after the Hutton report was published. The two leading candidates are thought to be the acting director general, Mark Byford, and the chief executive of Channel 4, Mark Thompson.

Dimbleby, 65, would be a popular chairman internally at the BBC, where morale is still low after the departures of Mr Davies and Mr Dyke. His father, Sir Richard Dimbleby, was one of the most revered broadcasters in the corporation's history.

He was viewed as a serious contender in 2001, when Sir Christopher Bland left to chair BT, although the job went to Mr Davies. Dimbleby also applied for the position of director general in 1986.

Richard Ayre, a former controller of editorial policy at the BBC, said: "David is about the only person employed by the BBC who could conceivably be chairman. In many ways he's the ideal candidate for Tessa Jowell, in terms of reassuring the public that the BBC is free from political influence but still under scrutiny from a tough inquisitor."

Chris Patten, the former Tory chairman, has ruled himself out of the job, but says in a Guardian interview today that the successful candidate needs to be robust: "It does need to be somebody who will stop apologising for the BBC."

He says he is flattered to be linked to the job. "I don't want to be neutered for the next five years," he says. "I want to come back from Brussels and actually get stuck into one or two debates. One thing which is obvious is you can't be chairman of the BBC and sound off on things."

In the interview he says he doesn't think either the chairman Gavyn Davies or chief executive Greg Dyke should have resigned. "The BBC matters frankly a lot more to the nation's health than Alastair Campbell."

Others linked to the job include Michael Grade, the former chief executive of Channel 4, who is known to have applied for the position. Mr Grade, 61, a former BBC1 controller, is currently executive chairman of Pinewood/Shepperton studios and non-executive chairman of lottery operator Camelot. Michael Portillo, the MP for Kensington and Chelsea, has declined to deny that he has applied; Lord Burns, the former Treasury permanent secretary and currently chairman of Abbey National, has also avoided questions on the issue.

Two days before the closing date for applications, Lord Burns was asked by Eddie Mair on Radio 4's PM programme whether he would be interested in the job. He said: "I think I have enough to do without worrying about that." In an unbroadcast portion, Mair repeated the question, and Lord Burns said he would not have agreed to the interview if he knew he would be asked about the subject.