Forget about Bake Off. Love Island is so passé. And who still worries about ejections from the Big Brother house? As the autumn approaches, there is only one contest worth watching — at least in the City. The would-be contenders are lining up, checking their CVs, polishing their public images and rehearsing answers for those tricky interview questions. They’re all after one thing: the top job in the Square Mile.

Next June, Mark Carney, the Canadian who has been governor of the Bank of England since 2013, will step down. The Treasury says, coyly, that the process of appointing a successor will start “in due course”. However, it is expected the job will be advertised within the next few weeks. And bookies have already taken