The first thing I learn from Tony Hall as he slides into the banquette adjacent to me is that he doesn’t really do lunch. “I am more of a breakfast person,” announces the director-general of the BBC briskly. “Life tends to carry on through lunchtime. There’s too much on, so it is normally just a sandwich or something.”

He squints through the window. “There’s actually a very good sandwich place over there; Italian guy who makes fantastic prosciutto sandwiches. Or there’s a place where you get nice salads and stuff.”

For one alarming moment, I think Hall is about to yank me out of my seat and hustle me across the road to his preferred greasy spoon and I instinctively clutch at my napkin. But, no, today he seems to have resigned himself to the FT’s rules of engagement.