Will Alison Sharman 'do a Thompson'?

Monkey has learnt from bitter experience that when a television executive rules himself out of a job, it can sometimes mean the opposite. In fact, industry observers have even coined a phrase for it - "doing a Thompson" - after the former Channel 4 chief executive ruled himself out as a candidate for the BBC director general role - shortly before he was appointed to the job. The phrase was later adapted to "doing a Jay Hunt" after the Channel Five executive did the same thing with the BBC1 job last month. ITV director of factual and daytime Alison Sharman assures Monkey's colleagues that she means it when she says she is "not interested" and "not going for" the Five director of programmes job, replacing Hunt. Having seen other TV colleagues get their fingers burnt, Monkey would really like to think she means it.