Michael Grade to sue Greg Dyke and Times

Two of British television's biggest beasts look set for a showdown in the High Court. Sir Michael Grade, the executive chairman of ITV, has issued a libel writ against the former BBC director general Greg Dyke following comments the latter made in a column published by the Times newspaper last month.

The offending item, printed on March 7 under the headline 'Grade's ITV is in a classic lose-lose situation', appeared two days after ITV announced that it was shedding 600 jobs and cutting its budget by £135m after recording a £2.7bn pre-tax loss for the financial year, and made a series of allegations about Grade's professional conduct while he was chairman of the BBC's board of governors immediately before he resigned to take over at ITV at the end of 2006.

The piece was also particularly critical of Grade's role in managing the commercial broadcaster's finances.

Shortly after the column was published, Grade's lawyers wrote to the Times accusing it of "serious defamation" and requesting that it print an apology, which has so far failed to appear. As a result, Grade (pictured) is suing the paper as well as Dyke. The online version of the article is still available on the newspaper's website, but has since been edited.

After Grade's initial letter, the newspaper's lawyer issued a statement that said: "The Times has no wish to be involved in any sort of dispute with Michael Grade. There is no bad feeling, or any history we are aware of. We very much wish to resolve this without litigation but we will also defend our position, if we feel we should."

Both Dyke and Grade resigned separately from the BBC under controversial circumstances, and have a long-held rivalry. Both have also been quick to rebuff criticism of their editorial practices in the past, so if the case does reach court it could prove incendiary.