'Such a crunch is overdue. Most of the men and women who rise to the top of the BBC hierarchy are self-serving bureaucrats of meagre abilities and scant editorial judgment. Their most conspicuous skill is in securing extravagant rewards. Their most consistent characteristic is cowardice.

In recent days, a succession of former BBC panjandrums has taken to the airwaves, to assert sanctimoniously it is unthinkable that top management would interfere in editorial decisions, as is alleged to have happened in the suppression of Newsnight’s report on Jimmy Savile’s paedophilia.

Yet every presenter and producer who has worked at the sharp end of the Corporation knows this claim for a travesty. Senior executives meddle constantly, almost always to stop the broadcasting of anything that might threaten their own chauffeur-driven existences.'

Read more: The BBC is an Empire of Control Freaks and Cowards