Wogan takes a swipe at 'overpaid' BBC presenters

The BBC is pandering to the dictates of overpaid presenters on whom it is wasting taxpayers' money, according to a veteran broadcaster.

Sir Terry Wogan launches the attack on his employer in a new book of essays about the television industry.

Referring to the corporation's presenters, it said the "lunatics have taken over the asylum" and that the BBC was paying huge sums to people who would prefer to work for it anyway, the Sunday Telegraph reports today.

But critics will point to Sir Terry,'s lucrative career with the BBC spanning four decades and that he is reputed to earn £800,000 for presenting his breakfast programme on Radio 2, the newspaper said.

Sir Terry, 68, writes: "You might say the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

"The culture now in television is that the presenter calls the financial and, increasingly, the creative shots."

He adds: "As for those much-trumpeted seven-figure deals, I have the suspicion that the corporation is in some cases overpaying.

"Their excuse is that if they do not offer millions, the opposition will lure the talent away with honeyed words and equally large sums.

"Frankly the BBC is often giving huge quantities of money to people who would prefer to work for the corporation anyway."

In his essay, Sir Terry admits that he is well paid by the BBC, joking that he is "worth every penny of the small fortune they deign to pay me".

Sir Terry does not name individual presenters in his essay.

Highly-paid BBC presenters include Graham Norton, who the BBC in August signed up to a new multi-million pound three-year contract. ITV reportedly tried to poach the star but was outbid by the BBC.

John Beyer, the director of Mediawatch UK, told the newspaper that some of the million-pound deals struck by BBC presenters were "excessive", adding that licence fee-payers would "agree with Terry entirely" that the money should be spent on original programmes rather than big pay deals for presenters.

In response, the BBC said: "Presenters' salaries need to be set against our audience's firm view that they expect the BBC to provide them with the best talent but not necessarily the cheapest talent.

"The success of presenters like Jonathan Ross with his new TV series and the ongoing radio show demonstrate that for millions of people he is a good investment."

Sir Terry, a Sunday Telegraph columnist, has presented TV programmes including Blankety Blank, Points Of View, his chat show, Wogan, and has fronted the BBC's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The new book, called Shooting Stars, a Collection of Essays, Musings and Rants on Talent on TV, is published on Wednesday.