Snubbed Barbican boss turns over new maple leaf

* In August, Sir John Tusa steps down as chief executive of London's Barbican after 12 years. Although it remains one of the world's ugliest theatres - a notable achievement - he and the artistic director Graham Sheffield have in that time transformed the place into an artistic centre of international renown.

Sheffield applied to succeed Sir John, and there was enormous support and expectation among the staff that he should do so, but the job surprisingly went to the affable Proms supremo Nicholas Kenyon. Both are widely admired and Kenyon possesses impeccable musical credentials. He lacks, however, the breadth of experience (dance, theatre) that Sheffield offers, and Sheffield is looking beyond life at the Barbican.

I hear that he has already accepted an outside consultancy post in Canada, part-time, with Toronto's Luminato arts festival. He will remain at the Barbican for the time being, fulfilling his north American duties "in conjunction" with his current role while he considers his future. His experience, and the strong opinions Kenyon will bring to the centre's artistic direction, suggest pastures new.

Of his new job, Sheffield remarks, pointedly perhaps, given the turn that events have taken: "I would like to think it has something to do with the international recognition that we have brought to the Barbican in the last 10 years." His new appointment marks a proud change from us Brits poaching foreigners to run our arts. Cheers to that!

* After last week fronting the "Nibbies" book awards with his wife, Judy, Richard Madeley is stepping back from square-box duties to construct his own "truthful, painful" tome about fathers and sons.

And through a handy piece of nepotism, he has lightened his workload by employing a certain Jack Madeley, 20, to write the final chapter.

"The book is about how the sins of the father are not necessarily visited upon the son," Madeley Snr tells me. It will span a century, beginning with his grandfather, who had a difficult relationship with Madeley's father, who died young. "My son, Jack, is going to write the epilogue."

Madeley began scribbling on Monday. "My publishers want 700,000 words before Christmas and they have paid me some of the advance already, so I need to get on with it. I want all the help I can get."

* With the likes of Bryan Ferry and Eric Clapton on its books, the Countryside Alliance is never short of geriatric rockers to perform at its lucrative fundraisers.

Next month, it looks to boost its coffers with a swanky "picnic concert" (£75 a head, BBQ, deli, Pimm's bars) at Berkshire's Highclere Castle, featuring Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker - think "A Whiter Shade of Pale".

By way of riposte, the Alliance's nemesis, the League Against Cruel Sports, is quick off the mark to brand Brooker a hypocrite. Says a spokesman: "Just a few years ago [1990], he sang a ditty ["Come Turn It All"] to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.

"Is he so old and senile that he can't remember which side of the fence he's on?" Charming.

* I do hope that staff at Conservative HQ aren't letting the party's new watery-green image turn their brains to cabbage.

I'm told that the amiable chief of staff to party chairman Francis Maude, James "Crocodile Jim" McGrath, is going to admirably daft lengths to flaunt his environmental credentials.

He has taken to picking up old golf tees around his local course, The Drift, East Horsley, to avoid forking out for a new packet in the pro shop. Fellow players have reportedly begun referring to him as "Swampy".

"Jim decided that it's not environmentally friendly to keep buying new packets," says a fairway rival.

"I, on the other hand, reckon he is just tight-fisted."

* Doctor Who writer-producer Russell T Davies has previously used his show to take a thinly veiled swipe at Tony Blair over the invasion of Iraq. In the latest series, there's another cheeky pop at New Labour.

The 19 May episode, "Human Nature", in which the good Doctor gives up his Time Lord powers to lead the life of a schoolteacher in a pre-First World War boarding school, Earth is invaded by an army of blood-sucking mutant scarecrows called Jack Straws.

A spokesman for Straw, who at the time of transmission will be masterminding Gordon Brown's leadership takeover, grumpily refused to say if his boss would watch the episode. As for the plot, I am reliably informed that after a long battle, the Jack Straws are forced to beat a retreat. Whether they were then, in the aftermath of the invasion, willing to admit live on national television that "mistakes were made" is less clear.

pandora@independent.co.uk