Angry telly stars hit back at Dorries dig
LEADING Welsh TV presenters have hit back at Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries after she labelled the BBC as “biased” and claimed it was staffed by people “whose mum and dad worked there”.
Among those who took to Twitter to respond to her outspoken comments during the Conservative conference were BBC News at Ten anchor Huw Edwards and presenter Gabby Logan.
Dorries had said: “We’re having a discussion about how the BBC can become more representative of the people who pay the licence fee, and how it can be more accessible to people from all backgrounds, not just people whose mum and dad worked there.”
Retweeting a Guardian report on her comments, Huw pointed out that he had received a state education and did not attend Oxford or Cambridge.
Huw – who was brought up in Llangennech and attended Llanelli Grammar School – shared a black and white photo of himself as a boy with his family, and quipped: “I know one spectacularly successful @BBCNEWS presenter whose parents were never on the BBC’S books and who made it ‘despite’ his state and non-oxbridge education. Fancy that!” followed by a Welsh flag and hands clasped emoji.
Former gymnast and now presenter Gabby also tweeted about the blunt statement from the Culture Sectary highlighting that her dad, Terry Yorath, a Welsh international footballer and later Swansea City and Wales manager, had workingclass Cardiff roots.
She tweeted: “My Mum was a beautician in Leeds and my Dad was a council estate kid from Cardiff who was decent at kicking a ball.
“I was the first person on either side of the family to go to university. Nice job, Nadine.”
Other Welsh BBC stars such as Gethin Jones, presenter of Morning Live, and Wyre Davies, a BBC Wales and BBC News presenter, have also tweeted out against the claims.
Both stated their parents’ professions – in Gethin’s case teachers – neither of whom was working for the BBC, and Wyre also said this was the case for many of his colleagues.