The parliamentary probe into the collapse of BHS began this week and already the characters, rather than the issues, are taking centre stage.

With so much at stake for former employees and pension-savers, this simply cannot be allowed to happen.

Sir Philip Green has called for the resignation of parliamentary committee chair Frank Field, who is heading the BHS hearing.

The Arcadia tycoon made the demand after Field, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said he would recommend Green be stripped of his knighthood if he did not agree to pay £571m – the full amount of the BHS pensions shortfall.

To add fuel to the fire, Field has appointed the former Marks & Spencer chairman Lord Myners to assist in the investigation.

Acrimonious past  

While Myners has spearheaded investigations into the governance of the Co-op and Nisa in the past, he and Green also have history. As chairman of M&S from 2004 to 2006, Myners played a leading role in fending off Green’s £9bn attempted bid for the high-street retailer more than a decade ago.

The two men have continued to have an acrimonious relationship.

It is one that has come to the boil again in recent weeks over calls Myners made for Green’s ownership of BHS to be investigated.

Myners has a great track record, but questions are already being asked about whether he can put aside years of ill-feeling and conduct this probe in the dispassionate manner it requires.

Parliamentary committees are not a court of law. Yet the media attention they attract means they should play an important role in uncovering the truth behind the issues being investigated.

Media circus

But that media attention, when mixed with the kinds of personalities included here, runs the risk of turning proceedings into a pantomime. And you only need to look back at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that investigated the Murdochs to see how quickly they can turn into a farce.

Green, Dominic Chappell and others may yet have a case to answer for the way they have conducted themselves. And there are, undoubtedly, questions that need answers, from what guarantees were put in place to protect the pension fund to how a dealmaker of Green’s skill seemingly misread the viability of BHS under Retail Acquisitions.

Yet, whatever the outcome of the committee’s findings, Green will, quite rightly, be able to call foul and point out that he faced an impossible task in making his case to investigators with embedded prejudices about his innocence.

The fate of a British high street icon such as BHS and those whose pensions are at risk or have lost their jobs deserve an investigation, the integrity of which is unquestionable.