Scott Mills, the Radio 2 breakfast show presenter, has been summarily sacked by the BBC over an unspecified failure of “personal conduct,” in a decision taken with unusual speed during the final days of Tim Davie’s tenure as director general.
The announcement came on Monday, with Mills having told listeners on Tuesday last week that he would return to the breakfast show the following day. Instead, Gary Davies covered for the rest of the week, and the BBC has not provided details of the alleged misconduct.
Such abrupt departures are rare at the BBC. While Jeremy Clarkson and Gary Lineker were effectively sacked from their shows, the language used was more sanitised. Usually, presenters are suspended pending investigation, as with Wynne Evans and Kaye Adams, whose contracts were recently cancelled over disputed misconduct claims.
The speed of the decision suggests the BBC legal department took a rapid view on terminating Mills’s contract, which was worth about £355,000, making him the 11th best-recompensed on-air star. The move may be intended to isolate this as the last controversy of Davie’s regime, which ends on 2 April, before interim DG Rhodri Talfan Davies takes over.
Mills, who turned 53 on Saturday, had been with the BBC since 1998, starting on Radio 1 breakfast and moving through various slots before taking over the Radio 2 breakfast show in January 2025. He also presented Top of the Pops and the national lottery draw, and competed on Strictly Come Dancing.
