WHEN ELISABETH Murdoch, chairwoman of television producers Shine Group, delivers the annual MacTaggart Memorial lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival today, she will become the first woman since 1995 to deliver what is regarded in the British television industry as a prestigious keynote address, as well as a reliable headline-grabber.

The last woman to make it to the lecture podium (despite the fact that several women have chaired the festival over that time) was Janet Street-Porter, who used the platform to lament the “grey, boring men in suits running TV”.

In the upper echelons of the television industry, it certainly seems that women are more commonly seen than heard – there have been just three female MacTaggart lecturers since the festival began in 1976.

It’s just a shame that 17 years since Street-Porter, pretty much all news editors want to glean from Murdoch is some clue as to her reportedly difficult post-hacking business relationship with the men in her life – brother James and father Rupert.