Lord Brocket blasts the BBC after it ‘nicked his TV idea’

LORD BROCKET likes a good scrap. The peer failed to win back his ancestral Hertfordshire seat, Brocket Hall, from the clutches of the colourful German businessman Dieter Klostermann after a long-running battle .

Now he has launched a ferocious broadside against the BBC .

‘I think the BBC should be shut down, it has had its day, it is full of Commies and full of bias,’ says the former I’m A Celebrity star.

‘I’ve done a lot of telly work, but have no plans to work with them because they are not honourable.’

Brocket claims that he pitched an idea to the BBC for a documentary about Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the World War II codebreakers and a personal passion of the former King’s Hussars officer.

He says the Corporation then went ahead and made the programme, but never gave him any credit. ‘I had a bad experience over a documentary idea I gave them about Bletchley Park.

‘At first they didn’t seem interested but then they changed their minds, there were numerous meetings and emails exchanged and eventu-ally I found out the programme was shown on BBC Wales and of course it was not how I envisaged — they left so much out. They didn’t tell the whole story, and I didn’t get a mention.’

‘This isn’t about money, this was an absolute passion, those heroes at Bletchley saved our country. So I wrote to the BBC saying they had used my idea and not done it properly and I couldn’t believe it when they wrote back saying: “Who are you?”’

‘Why did the BBC do this, essentially nick my idea, and then to actually insult me saying they didn’t know what I was talking about?’

‘I’m ex-Army and I care about this country and its future — I really feel it was dishonourable. There is no doubt in my mind the days of paying a licence fee should be over sooner rather than later.’

Convicted fraudster Brocket knows all about dishonour . In 1991, he buried four sports cars at his stately pile and claimed £4.5million for their fake theft.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘Code Breakers: Bletchley Park’s Lost Heroes is an important account of an untold story. The programme was developed and produced by the team that pitched it.”