BBC pays police £100k to guard top shows

BBC bosses spent £100,000 of licence fee money hiring Britain’s largest police force to guard filming for shows including Bodyguard and Luther.

Figures, released to the Daily Mail after a Freedom of Information Act request, show London’s Metropolitan Police were paid £372,989 last year by TV companies for officers to protect cast, crew and the public in the capital. Some £104,593 came from the BBC and was spent on hiring 146 officers to police the filming of 110 shows.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘There are certain types of filming that the Met can require a police presence at.’

The TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘Families who pay their TV licence fee will wonder why the bill has been racked up so high.’