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Tommy Vance was one of the “guilty ones” accused of plugging records in return for prostitutes in a 1970s BBC scandal, bosses confirmed today.

The Friday Night Rock Show legend and another person at the Beeb were dubbed “king of the orgies” by the accuser, who claimed to be a BBC radio producer.

They were among five named in an anonymous letter to a newspaper that exposed the claims – four of whom the BBC refuses to name as they are still alive.

The accuser told the News of the World after it exposed the sex-for-airplay “payola” scandal: “I am a BBC producer [radio] and not amused by the way you’ve smeared myself [and] my colleagues. I suggest you hit some guilty ones.” He named five people including “Tommy Vance and [name redacted] who are king of the orgies”.

The claims were published by the paper in 1971 but with names blacked out. The Beeb obtained a copy of the letter, on BBC notepaper, during an internal probe.

(Image: PA)

A heavily censored report on the inquiry, led by QC Brian Neill, was released 40 years later after the Jimmy Savile scandal broke in 2012. Savile had refused to co-operate.

Among other findings, the report denied there was any regular “immorality” in Top of the Pops dressing rooms, but admitted “there may have been isolated instances”.

The BBC yesterday named Vance, who died in 2005, as one of those accused after a Freedom of Information request.

One of Savile’s victims claims his abuser used to talk of a BBC pal called Tommy.

Former Broadmoor patient Alizon Pink – attacked by Savile at the hospital aged 17, now 63 and called Stephen George after gender reassignment – fears another BBC cover-up. He said: “It’s time for the BBC to name names.”

(Image: PA)

But Tommy’s best pal, fellow DJ Dave Cash, 73, branded the claims “absurd”.

He said: “I’d never say we were church-going baptists, but there was never any payola involved. Tommy was never short of a young lady.”

Vance was married with two kids and died aged 63 of a stroke. Son Daniel, 34, said of the claims: “It’s not the person I knew. He was very straight, wanted things done properly. That’s the truth.”

Tommy’s agent Jon Roseman called the claims “insane”, adding: “He was a crazy guy but I loved him to bits. I think the person who made this accusation had their own agenda.” The BBC said: “Over 100 interviews were conducted over the course of the inquiry, at least 15 by Mr Neill. He concluded the evidence before him fell ‘a very long way short’ of ­justifying the allegations.”

Savile’s name was not redacted, it insisted. A spokesman refused further comment “as the events were over 40 years ago”.

Vance, real name Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston, joined Radio 1 in 1967. He hosted Top of the Pops and introduced Live Aid acts in 1985.