Jon speaks out over Now Show axe

Jon Holmes has spoken out about being axed from the Now Show - after the BBC’s move became front-page news.

The comedian and broadcaster last week revealed he was dumped from the show after 18 years, along with musical comic Mitch Benn, as Radio 4 bosses strive to make the station more diverse.

And today The Mail on Sunday picks up on the news previously reported on Chortle, with the front page splash headline: ‘BBC sacked me for being a white man’.

Holmes - who tweeted to say that he did not use those exact words - also writes a first-hand account of his dismissal for the newspaper, revealing that a BBC executive told him: ‘I’m afraid for the next series, we’re not inviting you back. We’re recasting it with more women and diversity.’

He said there were no ‘sour grapes’ over his sacking, and that he wouldn’t be pleading for his job back, but questioned the value of positive discrimination

’Call me crazy but what if, regardless of skin colour, or anything else, the best candidate gets the job?’, he wrote: ‘I’m not even asking for mine back. That’s not the point. I just wonder, what with all the pressure about being seen to “get it right”, we’re actually getting it a bit wrong?

‘If we are now openly giving jobs to people based on the colour of their skin, surely that is only emphasising just the kind of social division that the equality that I was brought up to embrace strives to eliminate?

‘What if just the best human got the job, irrespective of anything? I know it’s a big ask and yes we’ll have to agree to draw a line under much that has gone on before, but what if we’re all just people, judged on merit?’

Holmes, who continues to present a weekday programme on commercial station TalkRadio, said that even the executive who originally masterminded BBC’s diversity programme offered her condolences.

The unnamed woman told him: ‘‘I’m so sorry. ‘We just wanted to represent everyone fairly. It was never about sacking people who already do the job and simply replacing them to tick a box. This isn’t what we meant to happen at all.’

Last week, a spokesman for The Now Show said: ‘We'd like to thank both Jon Holmes and Mitch Benn for their excellent and memorable contributions to The Now Show over the past years, but our comedy shows are constantly evolving and it is time to create opportunities for new regulars as the show returns this autumn.

‘We haven't decided on the new talent yet but any decisions will be based on merit and made with the show in mind.’

Published: 1 Oct 2016