Tough Life On Earth

Our greatest living broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough, has described senior management salaries at the BBC as "a huge embarrassment".

He recalls his time as Director of Programmes for BBC Television in 1969 - "I think my salary was £15,000 a year". In the hierarchy of those days, Director of Programmes was deputy to the Managing Director of Television, Huw Wheldon, and sat above channel controllers Paul Fox at BBC One, and Robin Scott at BBC2.

(Managing) Director of Television now is Danny Cohen, sitting above three channel controllers and a yet-to-be-appointed channel editor, for BBC4. Danny recently announced that his deputy would be Mark Linsey, who is also Controller of Entertainment. Mark's new package is £222,000.  If you use the Bank of England inflation calculator, £15,000 in 1969 would have been equivalent to £210,000 in 2012. Add a little for 2013, Sir David, and you wonder how far back embarrassment should go.