Radio boss: BBC posh boys think they’re born to rule

The BBC’s radio chief has criticised the culture of ‘posh young men’ with a ‘ massive sense of entitlement’ at the corporation.

helen Boaden, who announced last month that she will retire in March after 34 years at the BBC, said there was a ‘born-to-rule’ mentality among senior male staff.

And she added that some of her male colleagues had been ‘baffled as to what you did with a woman boss’.

Miss Boaden said: ‘I see a lot of young men who have a massive sense of entitlement and it drives me bloody bonkers.

‘They’re usually posh young men, they’re normally quite attractive, and they don’t deserve it most of the time.

‘I see the born-to-rule, very entitled people in the BBC, there’s not many of them and they’re mainly near the top, and I’m glad I’m not like them.’

having served as director of BBC radio since 2013, Miss Boaden, 60, will be replaced by ex-Labour minister James Purnell.

The former grammar school pupil said she experienced a ‘culture shock’ when she first started at the corporation in 1983.

‘There was a lot of underlying pomposity that I found very difficult,’ she said.

‘I remember someone at Radio Leeds saying “I’m not really sure you’re BBC. What he meant ... was that you were too irreverent.’

Miss Boaden also described her former Panorama colleagues as men ‘who hated management’ and had ‘all been to boarding school and were slightly baffled as to what you did with a woman boss’.

Last night a BBC spokesman said: ‘helen was talking about challenges facing women in many workplaces. We’re proud that more than four out of ten people in leadership grades at the BBC are women and we’re helping even more reach senior jobs.’