The BBC’s creativity is at risk from ‘Orwellian’ levels of bureaucracy, and ‘mind-numbingly unnecessary’ layers of management, one of its former bosses has claimed.

Tom Archer, who was one of the broadcaster's most senior programme makers, said the BBC is stuffed with ‘office-dwellers’, who instill a ‘destructive climate of frustration and fear’ among the people who produce its content.

‘The result is a regime characterised at its worst by self-serving, wasteful and mind-numbingly unnecessary supervision, which undermines the creative independence and confidence of the programme makers who actually make the shows we love,’ he said.

Tom Archer (left), who was one of the BBC's most senior programme makers, said that Danny Cohen (right), the BBC’s outgoing director of television, was one of the chief figures responsible for an overload of managers

‘The bureaucratic over-management of the creative process has reached Orwellian proportions and there is currently a destructive climate of frustration and fear in television production.’

Mr Archer was head of the BBC's factual production operation until his departure in September 2012.

His comments are likely to heap fresh pressure on the BBC over the number of managers it has on its books.

BBC director general Lord Tony Hall has spent years pledging to cut back on the number of senior managers at the corporation – but has failed to make the headway he promised.

In the last financial year, the BBC reduced the number of mid-level managers, only to add 31 senior managers on six-figure salaries.

It now has at least 74 bosses who earn £160,000 or higher - more than Mr Cameron’s salary of £142,500.

In a damning letter to the Guardian, Mr Archer said that Danny Cohen, the BBC’s outgoing director of television, was one of the chief figures responsible for this overload of managers.

‘Danny may be a TV great, but he did not make programmes, In fact, his command and control commissioning system has probably made it harder to create great television.

‘I simply do not believe that Bake Off, Wolf Hall or Call the Midwife were anything other than excellent as a result of the creativity of those who made them, not because of the way they were managed,’ he said.

Mr Archer claimed the BBC’s creativity is at risk from ‘Orwellian’ levels of bureaucracy, and ‘mind-numbingly unnecessary’ layers of management. The corporation now has at least 74 bosses who earn £160,000 or higher

‘Everything we enjoy at the top of the industry, but by the teams of people who actually make the programmes: the make-up artists, electricians, researchers, sound-recordists, camera operators, actors, runners, set-designers, directors [and] writers.

‘At the BBC Danny enforced his belief that what these people needed were more and more layers of management in the form of commissioners to micro-manage them.’

Mr Cohen resigned earlier this month, with no job to go to, saying that he had received a number of job offers and wanted to consider them in a ‘transparent’ way.

His departure followed a string of controversies, including the secret orchestration of the so-called ‘luvvies' letter’, lobbying Prime Minister David Cameron to protect the BBC.

However, certain parts of the press made little or no mention of this as they announced his departure. Instead they lavished praise on the executive, crediting him with some of the BBC’s most popular programmes, including Great British Bake Off and Wolf Hall.

Mr Archer said in his letter that the praise was misplaced.

Last year, the Corporation’s overall wage bill also rose by £21.5million, as its head count rose by 327 to 18,974.

However, the BBC argues that it has still made savings because some of the senior managers are handling jobs that were once done by multiple members of staff.