The Londoner: Greg Dyke gets ready for a screen test

Greg Dyke, the former BBC director-general, is to take over from director Mike Leigh as the new chairman of the London Film School. Leigh leaves the role this week after 18 years and Dyke will take over next month as part of changes that include the LFS move from Covent Garden to a new home in London City Island.

This will be Dyke’s first major public job since he left the Football Association in 2016 without seeking re-election for another term. He told me this morning: “Anything’s easier than being chairman of the FA because chairman of the FA turned out to be a pretty tough job. When I look back now I think it was a degree of arrogance on my part taking the job. It was a long three years.”

The move isn’t just a fresh start for him but also the LFS, which wants to involve more students in its work.

And these cultural centres aren’t as out of the way as they might seem: Crossrail will link nearby Canary Wharf to central London from next year. Although he’ll be sharing a building with English National Ballet, Dyke confessed that he was “not a great fan of ballet – I’m much more a theatre, film and television man”.

Dyke said he was looking forward to working with students again after being Chancellor of York University. At the FA his charge for change met trenchant opposition from within the organisation and he stood down before his possible re-election.

But outgoing chair Leigh, who made Vera Drake, which won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and Secrets and Lies, and attended LFS, backed Dyke to succeed: “What a long way we’ve come since I became LFS chairman back in 2000, and how exciting and exhilarating it is for me, as I move on, to know that I have the most perfect successor imaginable! Dyke’s unique and formidable skills are exactly what we need.”

A TALE of two Gemmas: actresses Gemma Arterton and Gemma Chan hit the town for the opening of the new Self-Portrait store in Mayfair. Later tuk-tuks transported guests to an afterparty at the old Central St Martins building in Holborn. James Righton, the Klaxons keyboardist and Keira Knightley’s husband, DJ’d before MIA slammed the stage in a surprise appearance. Chan is heading to Hollywood for a new superhero film. “I’ve had to start kick-boxing training. I’ve tried my suit. It is restrictive to move in.”

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Also last night, Daniel Kramer, English National Opera’s artistic director, hosted drinks in the royal box before last night’s La Traviata. “I don’t care if you illegally take pictures,” he dared. “I grew up on Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour and Michael Jackson’s Beat It video: I am tired of apologising for coming from a different generation!” Bravo!

A senior source at Sky News tells me that the gender pay gap for on-air staff stands as an impressive two per cent. A Sky representative denies that figure, but confirmed it was less than the BBC’s 6.8 per cent.

"Both the mean and median gaps within this employing entity are below our average and when we look at only our employees who work on-screen, these gaps reduce even further", a spokesperson says.

Sky already published figures showing the pay gap in its broadcasting division was 5.2 per cent, compared to ITN’s 19.6 per cent. While the BBC is still handwringing over whether Jon Sopel’s role as north America editor was worth more than Carrie Gracie’s in China, Sky’s figures surely prove more can be done.

The boss of De La Rue, the British company passed over for the blue passport printing contract, said yesterday that the Prime Minister ought to “come to my factory and explain to my dedicated workforce why they think this is a sensible decision to offshore the manufacture of a British icon”.