Alison Sharman, ITV's director of daytime and factual, has ruled herself out of the running for the director of programmes job at Five.

Five managing director of content Lisa Opie is searching for a replacement for Jay Hunt, who was appointed the new controller of BBC One in December, and will be taking up the post in the Spring.

Today, Sharman told The Guardian: "I am not interested and I am not going for it. I am very happy here at ITV. I have got a great job. I wasn't interested in going for the BBC One job and I won't go for the Five job."

ITV2 controller Zai Bennett and RDF Television's director of family entertainment Nigel Pickard are rumoured to be leading candidates for the role at Five.