Prince William prepares to take on more royal duties The old warhorse has clocked up 50 years at the corporation and knows it inside out, and, as he told Humphrys, he has put in for the top job once before, and twice - "God help me" - for the chairmanship. Although he is on the payroll until he is 77 - he secured a five-year deal from the corporation in 2011 - he laughed charmingly when I inquired if he was interested in succeeding George Entwistle. "Oh, I am too old," he insisted. The BBC, interestingly, declined to be drawn on whether there is an upper age limit "set in stone" for the job. Burnet's bedfellow Few, if any, editors will admit to sleeping with their staff in the current climate in broadcasting, but Sir David Nicholas, the former editor-in-chief at ITN, admitted he did so on one occasion. He found himself with Sir Alastair Burnet in Long Island in 1969 when they were covering the first moon landing and the only hotel with a vacancy could offer them a single bed. Sir David recalled how, years later, Sir Alastair told him: "I'm the only newscaster who's ever slept with the editor." Sir David was talking at the memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields for the much-loved newscaster, who died in July, aged 84.