In recent weeks, the BBC has been rocked by fresh allegations surrounding the disgraced TV presenter Huw Edwards.
Edwards, who appeared in court at the end of July, was charged with – and pleaded guilty to – making indecent images of children. It’s the nadir of a fall from grace that started last year, when reports started circulating that a BBC presenter (later confirmed to be Edwards) had paid for sexually explicit photographs of a young person.
The BBC has since defended its treatment of Edwards and its “fair and judicious” handling of the scandal, but it’s far from the only one to have hit the beleaguered corporation in recent years.
From Edwards to the infamous Martin Bashir Panorama interview, these are some of the most damaging.
Huw Edwards
Best known for presenting the News at Ten, Edwards was a trusted face at the BBC – so much so that he was the person who broke the news of the Queen’s death in September 2022.
However, things quickly started to unravel after reports started circulating in July 2023 about an unnamed BBC presenter who had paid for sexually explicit photographs of a young person. Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, later confirmed that this was her husband, saying he was suffering from “serious mental health issues” and had been admitted to hospital.
After a protracted period of leave from the company, Edwards finally resigned from the BBC in April this year, bringing an end to his 40-year career with the broadcaster. However, it was revealed in July that the BBC had been aware of the fact that Edwards had been arrested and bailed in November, but had chosen not to share the information.
"We were very shocked. No-one knew about the specifics of what we heard over the last few days, which have been deeply disturbing," the BBC’s Director General Tim Davie said last week.
"When it comes to the decision we made in November, we were obviously faced with a difficult decision, and we considered it very carefully. [Any] difficult decisions [were made] in a fair and judicious manner.”
Despite that, it appears that the BBC continued to pay Edwards his £475,000- £479,999 yearly salary up (with a pay rise of £40,000 in the 2023/24 tax year) until the point of his resignation, something Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has asked the BBC if they can recoup.
Russell Brand
Disgraced comedian Russell Brand hit the headlines in 2023 after a joint investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches alleged that he had raped, sexually assaulted and emotionally abused several women over a seven year period.
The comedian strenuously denied the allegations, saying his relationships were “always consensual”, but one detail that did come to light was the fact that he allegedly used BBC cars to drive teenage girls (one aged just 16) to his house.
In addition, he was accused of undressing while working in the studio as a presenter on BBC Radio 6, as well as making sexual remarks on air about a newsreader – which he later implied he had been told by BBC management to apologise for.
The BBC later went onto say they had received five separate complaints about Brand’s behaviour while he worked at the corporation between 2006 and 2008, and launched an urgent review into the comedian’s behaviour, as well as whether any managers knew about or acted on the allegations.
The corporation then faced complaints from viewers about what some saw as “graphic” coverage of the allegations, which it defended, saying that its reporting was “proportionate, offering fair and sensitive analysis of the issues at hand”.
The BBC gender pay gap
In July 2017, the corporation published its list of the highest-earning presenters on its books. It was revealed that Radio DJ Chris Evans made a shocking £2.2-2.5 million in the 2016/17 financial year, while the best paid woman, Claudia Winkleman, made a fraction of that: £450-500,000.
In addition to that, all of the top seven earners were male, and after Director General Tony Hall said there was “more to do” on diversity and gender, a review was launched.
A week later, some of the corporations best-loved female presenters, including Clare Balding, Victoria Derbyshire and Emily Maitlis, signed an open letter asking the BBC to “act now” on the gender pay gap.
Things escalated after the BBC’s China editor Carrie Gracie quit her job after finding out her male counterparts were getting paid 50 per cent more than her; in an open letter, she lambasted the BBC’s "secretive and illegal pay culture.” A day later, Winifred Robinson, who had been due to host a radio programme about gender pay, was told she could not, after tweeting her support for Gracie.
After a chat between radio presenters John Humphrys and Jon Sopel was leaked – in which Humphrys allegedly asked Sopel how much money Sopel was prepared to “hand over” to keep Gracie as editor – six male presenters, included them, agreed to take pay cuts. Eventually, the BBC apologised to Gracie and back paid her for the discrepancy in wages.
Martin Bashir and the Panorama Interview
BBC journalist Martin Bashir’s infamous 1995 BBC Panorama interview with Princess Diana came under the spotlight again in 2021 after an internal review of the incident.
At the time, it was a huge scoop for the corporation, and featured the Princess speaking about her affairs, fractious relationship with Prince (now King) Charles and her mental health issues.
However, the means by which Bashir secured the interview were dubious: in 1996, it was revealed that he had forged fake bank statements that showed newspaper payments being made to a member of Earl Spencer (Diana’s brother)’s staff in an attempt to get Diana to agree to the interview.
A following 1996 BBC review (conducted by Tony Hall, who would later go onto become the BBC’s Director General) cleared BBC News, Bashir and Panorama of all wrongdoing. However, a following 2021 review by a senior judge, Lord Dyson, found that Bashir had used deception to gain the Princess’s trust and then lied to the BBC about it.
Bashir "lied and maintained the lie until he realised that it was no longer sustainable,” the report said. “This was most reprehensible behaviour which casts considerable doubt on his credibility generally".
The report went onto criticise the BBC for not treating Bashir’s account with the appropriate amount of scepticism, not interviewing Earl Spencer as a key witness, and even for covering up facts about how Bashir secured the interview. "Without justification, the BBC fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark,” it concluded.
Jimmy Savile
Today, the name Jimmy Savile is a byword for evil. In 2011, the children’s presenter died and was lauded as a national hero, beloved for presenting TV shows like Jim’ll Fix It and Top of the Pops.
That all came crashing down a year later, when ITV ran a programme revealing that Savile had been a serial sexual offender, using his position to prey on hundreds of young children and women. He targeted inmates at Broadmoor and patients of Stoke Mandeville hospital, both of which were targets of his ‘charity’ work.
As more evidence kept coming to light, the BBC faced tough questions over how much they had known about Savile’s behaviour but chosen not to share. There were numerous police investigations into Savile over the years, including ones in 2007 and 2008 that were ultimately dropped due to lack of evidence.
After his death, a six-week BBC Newsnight investigation exposing Savile’s crimes, created by journalists Meirion Jones and Liz MacKean, was dropped in favour of a show lauding his achievements.
When the ITV investigation on the same subject came out a year later, leading Newsnight editor Peter Rippon defended his decision, writing that "we had not established any institutional failure and I judged it weakened the story from a Newsnight perspective. I took the decision not to publish.” He added it was "totally untrue” that taking the show off-air was part of a BBC coverup. He later stepped aside.
However, MacKean later told The Observer that when the story broke, "the BBC tried to smear my reputation. They said they had banned the film because Meirion and I had produced shoddy journalism. I stayed to fight them, but I knew they would make me leave in the end. Managers would look through me as if I wasn't there. I went because I knew I was never going to appear on screen again.”
In 2012, the BBC ultimately announced two inquiries about the sex abuse claims, looking at why the investigation was shelved, the culture of the BBC during the years Savile worked there and wider allegations of sexual harassment at the corporation.
This led to huge changes in BBC management, while the resulting Pollard review, published in late 2012, found that the BBC had “proved completely incapable of dealing" with the issue and said "leadership and organisation seemed to be in short supply".
