The white smoke is coming soon

So it's not going to be James Purnell after all. (That's my crystal ball being flogged on eBay then.)

The four contenders to succeed Lord Hall as BBC director-general are two BBC insiders, head of BBC studios Tim Davie and director of content Charlotte Moore, and two non-BBC outsiders, former Telegraph editor/Dow Jones chief executive Will Lewis and the UK boss of Amazon Doug Gurr. 

They've all been interviewed this week and an announcement could come today. (How exciting!)

Tim's apparently the top tip among those supposedly in the know, though I'm sure many also expect it to Charlotte on diversity/identity politics ground. 

Are they the safe choices? 

I ask because today's Times places Mr Gurr front-and-centre and throws the spotlight on his "inflammatory" warnings about a no-deal Brexit - something which will inevitably get heads shaking among the pro-Brexit chunk of the population. 

As, just as inevitably, would the appointment of Mr Lewis, who has "Conservative connections". The Times says that his appointment "would ease tensions with No 10" - something that's unlikely to go down well with left-wingers in the media and on social media (or at Newsnight) especially as he's been with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for the past decade. (I admire him for his key role in breaking the MPs expenses scandal, so that's probably the kiss-of-death for him). 

We'll soon know.