The ones they didn’t list

DRAWING A BLANC Top Gear team with Matt, right GRAHAM Norton, Matt LeBlanc and other top earners avoided revealing their full pay packets – thanks to alternative BBC production deals.

The annual report showed chatshow host Norton, 54, gets up to £900,000 from the licence fee.

But his full earnings, believed to be up to £2.5million a year, didn’t have to be declared because most are paid via a production company.

Bake Off stars Mary Berry, 82, and Sue Perkins, 47, and Question Time host David Dimbleby, 78, are not on the list for similar reasons. Mary and Sue were paid via a production company, as were Poldark and Call The Midwife stars.

Top Gear’s Matt LeBlanc, 49, was not on the payroll because he is understood to be paid by commercial arm BBC Worldwide.

The BBC has made production unit BBC Studios a commercial company, which won’t have to reveal pay deals and bosses will have the option to avoid revealing top salaries using this in future.

BBC Director-General Tony Hall would not comment yesterday.