Leave the BBC alone, Hollywood stars and TV presenters tell David Cameron

Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and Sir David Attenborough are among the star names warning David Cameron that his plans to reform the BBC will damage Britain’s global standing.

In an open letter to Downing Street, more than two dozen figures from the world of arts and entertainment claim that “a diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain”.

Joining forces to defend “a very precious institution”, the celebrities express fears that the government will turn the BBC into “a narrowly-focused market-failure broadcaster”.

_{JK Rowling is among those to sign an open letter to David Cameron (Picture: AP)}

The signatories include the author JK Rowling; actors Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Mark Rylance, Lenny Henry and Dame Judi Dench; comedians David Walliams, Miranda Hart and Michael McIntyre; screenwriters Steven Moffatt and Richard Curtis; and historian Simon Schama.

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Some of the BBC’s highest-profile – and highest-paid – presenters have lent their names to the letter, among them Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, Claudia Winkleman, Graham Norton and Chris Evans.

Prof Brian Cox, Stephen Fry, Michael Palin, Lord Bragg, Adil Ray and Jamie Oliver also appear in the list, alongside radio presenters Clara Amfo, Nick Grimshaw, Trevor Nelson, Annie Nightingale and Reggie Yates.

_{Jamie Oliver, while not a BBC name, lent his name to the letter (Picture: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)}

Sir David Attenborough, one of the BBC’s longest-serving presenters and a former controller of BBC Two, is among those to join the campaign.

“The Government and the BBC are now entering the Charter Review. We are writing to place on record at the very start of the process our concern that nothing should be done to diminish the BBC or turn it into a narrowly focused market-failure broadcaster.

“In our view, a diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain,” the letter reads.

“The BBC is a very precious organisation. Like all organisations, it has its faults but it is overwhelmingly a creative force for good.

“Britain’s creative economy is growing and enjoying unprecedented success. The BBC is at the heart of this as the global showcase for our creative industries. The BBC is trusted and loved at home by British audiences and is the envy of the world abroad.”

The letter concludes: “During the course of the Charter, we will continue to make the case for a strong BBC at the centre of British life and will be vocal in making the case for the BBC as it approaches its centenary.”

_{Claudia Winkleman was among those praising the BBC as "a very precious institution" (Picture: BBC)}

John Whittingdale, the Culture Secretary, will tomorrow set out potential reforms to the BBC. They include scrapping popular shows such as The Voice, part-privatising some production facilities and opening the door to replacing the licence fee with a household tax.

The government has already compelled the BBC to fund TV licences for the over-75s at a cost of £650 million.

The director-general, Lord Hall, came out fighting for the corporation, warning politicians and commercial rivals to back off.

_{Adil Ray, seen here in his sitcom Citizen Khan, has signed the letter (Picture: BBC)}

Government must not meddle in the BBC’s creative output or prevent it from finding “the next Strictly, the next Bake Off or the next Top Gear”, he said: “After all, the last time politicians tried to be creative, we ended up with the Millennium Dome.”

The debate over the direction of the BBC “is shaping up to be a clash between two different views of the future, because there is an alternative view that prefers a much-diminished BBC,” he told an audience at the launch of the corporation’s annual report.

In an angry response to a question about those who wish to see a smaller BBC, Lord Hall said he refused to be “dominated by commercial interests”.

“Why is it when you leave this country everyone is saying to you, as people who live here but are not from here say, ‘You have got something that’s really precious, don’t wreck it?’

“We’ve got a broadcast ecology that works. The danger is that by narrowly trying to focus the BBC down, you lose something from that broadcast ecology.

_{Clara Amfo, Radio 1 DJ, is one of the signatories (Picture: Ray Burmiston)}

"And the people who will lose are not the commercial interests and people with particular vested interests – it’s the people who pay for us, the people who love us.

“The debate is too often in terms of this interest or that interest, not in terms of the people who are, in the end, our shareholders.”

He added: “The BBC does not belong to its staff. The BBC does not belong to the government. The BBC belongs to the country.”

_{Prof Brian Cox, BBC presenter, believes "a diminished BBC would mean a diminished Britain" (Picture: REX)}

The public, he insisted, have “no appetite” for a smaller BBC and the “great majority” are happy to pay the current licence fee.

Lord Hall was backed by the head of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, who strongly criticised the government for forcing through the licence fee deal.

“Although we were involved in the whole process, it fell well short of what the public had a right to expect. It is the people’s BBC, not the politicians’,” she said.

_{Lord Hall launched a staunch defence of the BBC as he unveiled the annual report (Picture: Heathcliff O'Malley/The Telegraph)}

“And while it was legitimate for the government to make the decision it did last week, it is part of a pattern in which BBC funding decisions have been caught up in government budgets and spending reviews.”

Fairhead called for “a more formal public and potentially parliamentary scrutiny of government decisions about BBC funding” in future.

Chris Bryant, the shadow culture secretary, said the BBC was “under siege” and claimed the government’s plans could reduce it to “a national irrelevance by 2027”. Getting rid of entertainment shows would result in “posh TV at the public expense”, he said.

_{The government wants to do away with highly commercial shows such as The Voice (Picture: BBC)}

But the annual report provided ammunition for the corporation’s critics by showing it is yet to get costs under control. The wage bill approached £1 billion in the most recent financial year as headcount and talent pay rose.

Presenters’ salaries alone reached £208 million, up seven per cent from £194 million the previous year. The number of television and radio presenters in the £250,000-£500,000 salary bracket rose from 25 to 34.

The total wage bill for 2014/15 was £976.5 million, up from £955 million, with 81 senior managers now earning more than the Prime Minister.

The BBC has 18,974 full-time employees, compared with 18,674 in 2013/14. This was attributed to extra staffing for the World Cup, the Scottish referendum and the general election, and hiring digital staff “to collate the best of BBC content and social media around live events”.

The figures were introduced by Anne Bulford, director of finance and operations, who said: “I am confident we offered great value from the licence fee in 2014/15. The BBC today is leaner and better run.”

Lord Hall announced earlier this month that 1,000 jobs will go in the next £50 million efficiency drive.

_{Government meddling must not prevent the BBC from finding hits in the mould of The Great British Bake Off, Lord Hall said (Picture: BBC)}

Naming highlights of the past year’s programming, he singled out the adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Maggie Gyllenhaal drama The Honourable Woman and a live edition of EastEnders as highlights of the year’s programming.

The report also hailed the “massive audiences” maintained by Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice.

However, the report included research showing audience appreciation of the BBC’s television channels has fallen for the second year in a row, although appreciation of its radio stations remains stable.

Comedy shows on BBC One fell by a quarter, and music and arts programming was down by a fifth.

Read the letter:

The Prime Minister David Cameron

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister,

We have seen that the Government has pledged to modernise the licence fee, return funding that had been diverted to pay for broadband roll-out, and increase the licence fee in line with inflation in return for the BBC taking on the costs of Licence Fees for the over 75's.

The Government and the BBC are now entering the Charter Review. We are writing to place on record at the very start of the process our concern that nothing should be done to diminish the BBC or turn it into a narrowly focused market-failure broadcaster.

In our view, a diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain.

The BBC is a very precious institution. Like all organisations, it has its faults but it is overwhelmingly a creative force for good.

Britain's creative economy is growing and enjoying unprecedented success. The BBC is at the heart of this as the global showcase for our creative industries. The BBC is trusted and loved at home by British audiences and is the envy of the world abroad.

During the course of the Charter, we will continue to make the case for a strong BBC at the centre of British life and will be vocal in making the case for the BBC as it approaches its centenary.

Yours Sincerely

Clara Amfo

David Attenborough

Clare Balding

Melvyn Bragg

Brian Cox

Daniel Craig

Richard Curtis

Judi Dench

Chris Evans

Stephen Fry

Nick Grimshaw

Miranda Hart

Lenny Henry

Gary Lineker

Michael McIntyre

Steven Moffatt

Trevor Nelson

Annie Nightingale

Graham Norton

Jamie Oliver

Michael Palin

Adil Ray

JK Rowling

Mark Rylance

Simon Schama

David Walliams

Rachel Weisz

Claudia Winkleman

Reggie Yates