Race commissioner Shah in frame to chair BBC

Sky News has learnt that Samir Shah, whose current roles include serving on the Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities, is one of the names on a shortlist to replace Richard Sharp, who stepped down last spring.

Mr Shah, whose TV career began at LWT in the late 1970s, is a well-known figure in government and cultural circles, having also been a trustee of the V&A and a member of the Holocaust Commission.

The search for a successor to Mr Sharp, who resigned in April amid a row over his role in helping to facilitate a six-figure loan to Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, is not yet at an advanced stage, according to insiders.

Interviews for the post recently got under way, with more than a handful of contenders still in the frame to take one of the most prestigious posts in the British media industry.

Dr Shah initially joined the BBC in 1987 to oversee its current affairs output on TV, before going on to run its political programming from Westminster.

He left the Corporation in 1998 to run Juniper, an independent TV production company, where he remains chief executive.

Between 2007 and 2010, he sat on the BBC board as a non-executive director.

The identity of the other candidates for the BBC chairmanship are unclear, with several leading industry figures having opted not to apply for the role.

Sir Damon Buffini, the deputy chairman and chair of the BBC's commercial arm, was expected to be the frontrunner for the job, but is reported not to have thrown his hat into the ring.

Other prominent media executives, including Sir Peter Bazalgette, the former ITV chairman, have publicly ruled themselves out.

Dame Elan Closs Stephens, the acting chair, is also thought to be in the frame to take the post on a permanent basis.

The appointment of Mr Sharp's long-term successor will come at a deeply sensitive time for the BBC, which has been plunged into a series of crises this year involving current and former presenters - including the newsreader Huw Edwards and Russell Brand.

It has also been grappling with a long-running challenge over the impartiality guidelines to which it expects its broadcasters - such as the Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker - to adhere.

Those sensitivities are likely to become even more acute during the next year with a general election on the horizon.

Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, is also wrestling with longer-term questions about the Corporation's future funding model, with recent culture secretaries such as Nadine Dorries having signalled the end of the licence fee after 2027.

The Corporation has been forced to implement significant cost cuts affecting parts of its news and current affairs output, including long-running programmes such as BBC 2's Newsnight.

Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, will need to sign off on the identity of the Corporation's new head.

Saxton Bampfylde, the headhunter, is overseeing the search for the BBC chair.

A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesman and the BBC both declined to comment on Thursday.

-sky news