Former BBC Trust chair Sir Michael Lyons,has said the corporation had done the right thing not renewing Jeremy Clarkson’s contract and described it as a “problem that had been looming for some time”.
Lyons said what the BBC did in one part of the world reverberated around the globe and commercial impulses – Top Gear is one of the BBC’s most valuable shows – had to give way to other considerations.
“[BBC director general] Tony Hall has managed it very well,” he told a City University event on the future of the BBC on Thursday.
“In my view this is a problem that has been looming for some time.
“I put myself firmly beside those who believe that this would be a rather odd moment in the history of the BBC and the United Kingdom to overlook gross bullying when we are still uncovering the cost that we paid as a nation for turning a blind eye to various forms of bullying in the past.”
Lyons said there was a “great strand running through” the issue of the huge amount of revenue that Top Gear generates for the BBC, estimated to be about £50m a year.
“How could you possibly do anything that would deny yourself this great tranche of income from the programme in question, Top Gear? Sometimes you have to make hard sacrifices … sometimes you simply have to make that choice,” he said.
“There are some who take the view that actually the BBC should, that it doesn’t matter what it does overseas, that it doesn’t have to worry unduly about issues of trust and the brand as long as it brings in income.
“My view is it is a very small world, and if you behave differently in India or China or the United States it reflects immediately on your standing within and for the United Kingdom.”
He said the trust now had a “stronger framework” around the commercial side of the BBC and said there were fewer “misgivings” among producers about the influence of commercial considerations on programme choices.
