There was now no demand from audiences for individual presenters to “tell it like it is”, a senior BBC editor said

The BBC no longer wants TV shows in which white, middle-aged men stand up and explain things, according to one of the corporation’s senior executives.

Old-fashioned programmes that feature individual presenters imparting their knowledge of a subject to viewers are too “static” and no longer excite audiences, Cassian Harrison, editor of BBC Four, told the Edinburgh Television Festival yesterday

He said controllers of other channels, including BBC Two, had also taken against the outdated presenting format. “There’s a mode of programming that involves a presenter, usually white, middle-aged and male, standing on a hill and ‘telling you like it is’. We all recognise the era of that has passed.

“What we’re looking for is different ways to shift a form. Different ways we can bring