BBC Radio 4 presenter Nigel Rees reveals he quit the corporation after 46 years because of its ‘patronising’ focus on diversity
- Nigel Reeves who had presented Quote…Unquote left the BBC show last month
- He had been presenting the panel game on Radio 4 since January 1976
- He said he felt under pressure by the BBC’s ‘priority’ to invite diverse guests
- ‘We had prescriptions to have diverse groups and disabled guests,’ he said
Radio 4 presenter Nigel Rees has revealed he quit the BBC after 46 years because he felt pressured by the corporation’s focus on diversity.
The 77-year-old, who had presented the Quote… Unquote panel game since January 1976, left the show last month.
He said he felt put under pressure by the BBC’s ‘priority’ to invite diverse guests – even if they were not always the most suitable speakers.
‘We had prescriptions to have diverse groups and disabled guests,’ he said.
‘I went along with it because I had to. It came from upstairs and it seemed to be a general priority.’
He added that he felt it was ‘patronising’, not least to the people who might have felt they were only on the show as they were ‘ticking a box’.
‘I am not willing to go on having my choices interfered with in order to tick boxes in the name of diversity and representation,’ he told The Sunday Times.
Radio 4 presenter Nigel Rees has revealed he quit the BBC after 46 years because he felt pressured by the corporation’s focus on diversity
Mr Rees created the show and presented 57 series. It sees a panel of celebrities share their favourite quotations and quizzed on origins of others.
He said he recruited most guests through his contacts, having hosted more than 500 including Sir David Attenborough and Dame Judi Dench.
But from the 56th series in 2020 he said the BBC began to make ‘impositions’ as to who he should have on and felt his choices were questioned over fears of offending audiences.
He cited how in a planned segment where guests were asked to identify lyrics he was ‘pressured to remove lines’ from Noel Coward’s 1932 song Mad Dogs and Englishmen.
The lines were: ‘In Bengal/ to move at all/ is seldom if ever done.’
Mr Rees said: ‘I was told that it “reflected colonial attitudes” and so the woke police leant heavily on me to choose something else. This misses the whole point of the song, that it is the English colonials who are being mocked, not the natives.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We want our output to be representative of the UK and we want contributors on our comedy shows to be wonderfully engaging and funny. These two ambitions are not mutually exclusive and it would be highly condescending to suggest otherwise.’
Mr Rees said he felt put under pressure by the BBC’s ‘priority’ to invite diverse guests – even if they were not always the most suitable speakers. Pictured, Broadcasting House, in London
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