A furious BBC star has accused director-general Tony Hall of going easy on Chris Evans after police revealed they are investigating him over sexual assault.
The broadcaster – a household name who asked to stay anonymous – told Heat Street of the “astonishment” BBC staff feel after Evans was allowed to escape all public censure from the Corporation, and keep his radio show.
The “kid gloves” treatment is a stark contrast to the way the BBC handled allegations against stars like Tony Blackburn, Jeremy Clarkson and Paul Gambaccini, who were promptly removed from the airwaves.
The broadcaster told Heat Street: “There is astonishment about who ends up on one side of Tony Hall’s line, and who on the other. Whichever way you look at it, Blackburn, Clarkson and Gambaccini have had rough justice. Evans and Yentob have been treated with kid gloves.”
In October 2013, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini was arrested after being accused of a sexual offence involving a teenage boy. He was ordered off air immediately and frozen out by BBC management.
Happily, for Gambaccini, the allegation was subsequently dismissed and he is now working again for the BBC.
Well you now know Paul Gambaccini is to replace me on Pick Of The Pops.Obviously I'm sad to have lost a show I loved but I wish Paul well.
— Tony Blackburn (@tonyblackburn) May 24, 2016
In March 2015 Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson punched a colleague. He referred himself to the BBC because of the assault and was immediately suspended. He was later sacked.
And in February of this year, radio host Tony Blackburn was sacked by the BBC after a 50-year career following a disagreement over whether or not he attended a meeting in 1971 about an allegation of sexual contact with a teenage girl.
Blackburn is now preparing to sue Hall over his sacking, incidentally. Watch this space…
All three were dealt with swiftly. No special favours.
Compare the fates of Gambaccini, Clarkson and Blackburn with those of Chris Evans – and shamed Kids Company backer Alan Yentob.
As Heat Street revealed on Saturday, the police are investigating allegations of an historical sexual offence involving Chris Evans, who has freely admitted in the past his penchant for indecently exposing himself. He has not been arrested but is likely to be questioned.
He has quit Top Gear…
Stepping down from Top Gear. Gave it my best shot but sometimes that's not enough. The team are beyond brilliant, I wish them all the best.
— Chris Evans (@achrisevans) July 4, 2016
However, the BBC is standing by him, allowing him to carry on presenting his Radio 2 show each morning despite his very odd behaviour.
Full steam ahead then with Radio 2, CarFest, Children In Need, 500 Words and whatever else we can dream up in the future.
— Chris Evans (@achrisevans) July 4, 2016
As for Alan Yentob, he was the chairman of trustees of the scandal-hit charity Kids’ Company. It received almost £50 million of public money and has been found to have misused vast sums of that cash in various ways – putting Yentob, as the man in charge of the money, at the centre of the ongoing Charity Commission investigation into this affair.
Not only did Yentob’s association with this rotten organisation call his reputation – and by extension the BBC’s – into question but he then used his position as a senior BBC employee in a highly suspect way.
In July 2015 he rang the offices of BBC2 show Newsnight and seemingly tried to influence the direction of the programme’s coverage of the Kids’ Company scandal.
The next day he joined Batmanghelidjh at the studios of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme when she was interviewed.
He was not invited to the interview and did not speak on air. He just ‘turned up and stood at the back of the cubicle,’ a source claimed. ‘We weren’t expecting him. It was a bit odd.’
Those present took this as a warning that Batmanghelidjh should not be given a rough time. Yentob, a senior BBC figure, effectively acted as her “muscle”.
Yet he remains on the BBC payroll, with a six-figure salary as presenter/editor of his own arts programme Imagine. He is also in charge of its seven-figure budget.
How much longer can Hall get away with it?
