The trouble with Chris

The recent disclosure of BBC stars pay has put Chris Evans under microscope again. It was revealed that Evans was paid £2.2 mil. There was his brief reign as Top Gear host last year. But the most intriguing chapter in his relationship with the Beeb came when he became host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. When then host Steve Wright in 1995 resigned the job when he became unhappy with the direction the station had taken under the stewardship of Matthew Bannister which saw many of Wright colleagues being sacked or resigning. All this change saw declining ratings for the station Bannister and the BBC's head of music production Trevor Dann needed a godsend and Dann thought it came after a conversation with one of Evan's associates that suggested that he would be interested in hosting the Breakfast show. However after Evans signed the deal to host the show, Dann found out that Evans had come with firm ideas. The main sticking point was that the show would be produced by Evans's own production which would put it outside the control of Dann. However Evans's various demands for Bannister that he refused to give Evans Friday off so he could his TV chat show TFI Friday for Channel 4, this prove too much for Bannister who refused the request. Evans then quit in 1997. Evans then returned to BBC to work for Radio 2 in 2005 taking over the Breakfast Show from the late Terry Wogan. Chris Evans will always be someone to ruffle feathers.

For more on the Radio 1 situation you can watch a documentary called Blood on the Carpet on Youtube.