The BBC is wasting taxpayers money by pandering to the dictates of overpaid presenters, according to one of its highest paid radio hosts.
Sir Terry Wogan launches the attack on his employer in a new book of essays about the television industry, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Referring to the corporation's presenters, he said the "lunatics have taken over the asylum'' and that the BBC was paying huge sums to people who would prefer to work for it anyway.
Sir Terry wrote: "You might say the lunatics have taken over the asylum. The culture now in television is that the presenter calls the financial and,
increasingly, the creative shots. As for those much-trumpeted seven-figure deals, I have the suspicion that the corporation is in some cases overpaying."
In his essay, Sir Terry admits that he is very well paid by the BBC, joking that he is "worth every penny of the small fortune they deign to pay me'', the newspaper said.
Sir Terry does not name individual presenters in his essay.
The new book, called Shooting Stars, a Collection of Essays, Musings and Rants on Talent on TV, is published on Wednesday.