BBC man Shennan has a raft of issues in his new role as controller.

Editorial Paul Williams

BBC BOSSES MUST HAVE FIGURED that leaving a few days' gap between Jonathan Ross's return to TV and radio and announcing the new controller of Radio Two/6 Music would allow a line to be neatly drawn under the recent troubled past before getting on with the future.

However, such hopes were obviously dashed by the banner tabloid headlines following Ross's first post-Sachsgate Radio Two show, when an exchange with producer Andy Davies - one that before the scandal would have simply passed by without reference - prompted yet more calls for the star to be sacked.

The scrutiny Ross is now coming under with almost every word he utters does sadly feel like his continued presence on the station is becoming unfeasible and, as such, it will be one of the first big issues new controller Bob Shennan will have to contend with when he takes up his new post later this month.

Given all that has happened within the walls of Radio Two of late, it is hardly surprising that the Beeb has opted for a safe pair of hands in Shennan to succeed Lesley Douglas.

He is a BBC man through and through, and has, from his time at 5 Live, a number of years running one of the Corporation's national radio stations already under his belt. His appointment might not have got the adrenalin pumping as the much-speculated return of Matthew Bannister would have, but it is the right choice at the right time. What Radio Two needs now is stability, not someone who is going to radically change what remains the UK's most popular station.

The fact he has no experience in music radio, as some have observed, should not be an issue. Jim Moir arrived at Western House with a background in TV light entertainment. But, as his association with the likes of Bruce Forsyth and Ken Dodd had ...