‘Scary’ children’s channel left BBC presenters in tears

‘Have you ever known a dressing room with so many tears as we used to experience?’

THE BBC’s children’s channel was so “aggressive and catty” it reduced staff to tears, former presenters have said.

CBBC has been criticised for being an overly “competitive” workplace by former presenter Jake Humphrey, and branded “too scary” by his former colleague Fearne Cotton.

Humphrey, 43, who joined the BBC channel in 2001, said that the work environment frequently left competing presenters in tears.

He said: “Everyone was young, everybody wanted to be the next big thing.

“Have you ever known a dressing room with so many tears as we used to experience? Five minutes later you’re standing on the telly, ‘Hey, welcome, good afternoon’.”

Speaking to Humphrey on a joint episode of their respective podcasts, Cotton, 40, said the situation was “mad”, adding: “I used to stay out of it, it was too scary for me.”

Humphrey, now a BT Sport presenter, saw the struggles of colleagues at first hand after joining CBBC as the host of Rule the School, and later Against All Odds. Cotton, who became widely known as a Radio 1 presenter and host of Top of the Pops, worked on CBBC shows including Eureka TV and Finger Tips. Humphrey believes that the desire for success among aspiring presenters helped create an upsetting environment at CBBC.

Speaking on the joint episode of his podcast, The High Performance Podcast, and Cotton’s Happy Place, he said: “The reason for that is not because the people weren’t good or brilliant people, it’s because we all existed in a world where at that time we believed our success in our careers determined us as people.”

CBBC has helped launch the careers of numerous presenters, including Phillip Schofield and Zoë Ball, since its inception in 1985.

During the time when Humphrey and Cotton observed colleagues in tears, future stars were beginning their careers in television.

Presenter Stephen Mulherne worked on CBBC in the early 2000s, including alongside Cotton on Finger Tips. BBC presenter and radio DJ Reggie Yates hosted the Sunday morning programme Smile with Cotton from 2002 to 2004.

The BBC has not commented on the claims of former CBBC presenters.