Don’t give cash to BBC, Esther tells pensioners

DESPITE her long and fruitful career with the BBC, Dame Esther Rantzen has become the first veteran presenter to hit out at its controversial money-raising scheme to plug an impending £ 650 million funding shortfall.

The Corporation divided opinion earlier this week when it announced it could rely on a roster of so-called ‘silver celebrities’ — including Lord Bragg, Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Michael Parkinson — to persuade pensioners to pay their TV licence voluntarily after the Government announced it will no longer subsidise free TV licences for over-75 year olds. However, outspoken charity founder Rantzen, who is 75, argues the money would be better spent elsewhere.

‘It’s a new concept, isn’t it? That the BBC is some sort of charity that we’re going to donate to. I love the BBC, but I’ve never thought of it in that way — as a charity,’ she tells me.

Rantzen, who presented That’s Life! from 1973 until 1994, started at the BBC in 1965 as a researcher. Twenty years later she turned her focus to charity work and created the children’s counselling service ChildLine in 1986, followed by The Silver Line — a helpline for older people — in 2013. She adds: ‘I don’t mind donating the equivalent of a TV licence fee to a good cause, such as Cancer Research, the Silver Line, or ChildLine, but is the BBC saving anyone’s life? I’m grateful to the BBC, but I just don’t think of it as a charity.’ The Government has met the cost of licences for over-75s since 2001, transferring the money to the BBC annually. But Chancellor George Osborne announced last July that the BBC’s responsibility for the free licences will be phased in from 2018-19. In return, the Government agreed the Beeb could ask for voluntary payments from those receiving free licences.