Less than a week after the Governors' visitation and the Harbour Office dinner, the local Controller of the BBC, Revd Colin Morris, asked if he could call to see me at Stormont. Morris was an exotic in terms of BBC management; a minister of religion who had spent considerable time in Africa (where he had become a friend of Kenneth Kaunda) and who had initially risen through the hierarchy of religious broadcasting. An Englishman, a powerful preacher and eloquent broadcaster in his own right, he had earned real respect within the BBC locally and nationally and within the wider Northern Ireland community.

When we met it became clear that the purpose of his visit was to begin the process of identifying a new National Governor for Northern Ireland in succession to Dr James Kincade, who was due to retire later that year. I was a little surprised by this approach, since BBC Governors were chosen by the government (prior to appointment by the Queen in Council) rather than the Corporation. My limited experience of earlier appointments was that the Northern Ireland Office would offer some suggestions at the invitation of the responsible department, the Home Office. In turn it was natural that a key figure in framing NIO advice would be its Second Permanent Under Secretary, the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, who could draw on years of experience of local events and personalities.