Director-General of the BBC Lord Hall wants to hear more Liverpool accents on the BBC.
Speaking at the Culture, Media and Sport committee today he was worried about the corporation’s “metropolitan bias” and failing to reflect the rest of Britain.
Lord Hall told MPs that he wants to see more regional accents on the corporation’s programmes and have more programming on life outside London.
Asked if the BBC has a “snobbery” against regional accents, Lord Hall said: “I think it doesn’t matter what people sound like in terms of their accents. I happen to think Merseyside accents are great, I would like to hear more.
“It is an important point that we reflect the diversity of the UK outside London. I do worry about this. We have to guard against the metropolitan bias.”
Also during a one and a half-hour long session before the committee today Lord Patten, the head of the BBC Trust, attempted to downplay the scale of pay-offs given to executives.
The committee heard that the corporation made a total of £3.8 million worth of pay-offs which were beyond their contractual entitlement. The pay-offs caused outrage and led to calls for a police inquiry.
Revelations about the relocation packages paid to staff moving to Salford also caused furore last week.
