As I sipped a spiced ginger tea before the start of the working day, I extracted what interest I could from seeing Greg Dyke pass the cafe window.
He is currently the chairman of children’s television company HiT Entertainment, which owns and distributes children’s television series such as Barney & Friends, Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends, Pingu, Fireman Sam and Angelina Ballerina.
Mr Dyke, a Fellow of the British Film Institute, is also one of the original panel members on The Pledge, the discussion programme broadcast on Sky News.
He is most notable for his tenure as Director-General of the BBC from January 2000 until 29 January 2004, and from 2013 to 2016 was chairman of the Football Association. Following a board meeting, the FA officially backed Gianni Infantino’s successful campaign for the FIFA presidency. Greg Dyke described the Swiss-Italian as an impressive candidate and said:
“The last thing FIFA needed was another president bringing a pile of suspicious baggage into the job.”
True, Mr Dyke was laden with a certain amount of business baggage this morning, but none of it appeared suspicious (or even suspect).