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Paxman: I loathe aspects of BBC and Radio One should go

BBC broadcaster says although he is deeply attached to the corporation it has become 'smug' and he can't understand why it continues to support Radio One

Jeremy Paxman says although he is deeply attached to the BBC, it had become 'smug' and he can't understand why it continues to support Radio One Credit: Photo: Rex

Jeremy Paxman has said he "loathes" aspects of the BBC as he described an organisation "preoccupied with the conditions of its senior staff" and admitted he cannot understand why the corporation supports Radio One.

The BBC broadcaster said although he loves the BBC "in many ways", it had become "smug" and focused on expanding up unnecessary avenues.

He told The Guardian: "It [the BBC] is smug. I love the BBC in many ways, but at the same time it has made me loathe aspects of it, and that’s a very odd state of affairs.

"When I see people being given £1m merely for walking out of the door, when I see £100m being blown on that DMI [digital media initiative] thing, a stupid technical initiative like that, I start wondering: how much longer are we going to test the public's patience?”

It comes months after the BBC was severely criticised over the executive pay-offs scandal, which saw a £1 million settlement given to Mark Byford, the former deputy director general, and a £390,000 pay-off awarded to Sharon Baylay, the former director of marketing.

Paxman said the corporation had become "preoccupied with the conditions of its senior staff, at the expense of a strategic vision”.

The corporation also wasted £98 million of licence fee payers money after a failed IT project had to be scrapped, with almost no results, after five years of development.

Paxman admitted he thinks Radio One is unnecessary, saying there is "a pile of stuff on the BBC I can't stand".

"My idea of hell is going down in one of the lifts in that ghastly new building [New Broadcasting House] in a lift which has Radio One Extra plumbed into it," he said.

"I don’t quite understand why the BBC does Radio One Extra, I don’t really understand why it does Radio One.

"Clearly, you can meet those needs commercially … the BBC has got an unfortunate history of never seeing an area of broadcasting, or increasingly a web presence, without feeling the need to get into it itself.”