A former chairman of the BBC Board of Governors reclaimed his prostitute expenses, according to an official historian working for the Corporation.
Recounting her discovery at the Hay Festival, Jean Seaton, who has been delving deep into the BBC archives - a frankly terrifying prospect for anyone - claims that the unusual expenses claim was held in a safe at the BBC's central London headquarters.
The claim relates to former BBC boss Baron Howard of Henderskelfe, who is said to have had his wicked way with a prostitute during a journey on the Orient Express.
Lord George Howard was chairman of the BBC Board of Governors in the early 1980s and it appears, even back then, the Corporation had a preference for luxurious modes of transport.
Explaining why the claim had been locked in a safe, Professor Seaton said: "It had been left by the previous secretary - who had had a nervous breakdown; people holding the BBC together have nervous breakdowns - as a warning to this secretary that she would have to deal with expenses and would have to deal with the chairman of the BBC, who in many ways had been a great defender of the BBC and fought the Tories, but just had to be managed."
In her book, Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the Nation 1974-1987, Professor Seaton said Lord Howard’s status meant the expenses claim was never reported as inappropriate.
"A great landowner, a man with a fine war record, a widower: how and where could a complaint about him be made?" she writes.
The BBC turning a blind eye to the dubious conduct of people with perceived "status". Now where have we heard that story before?!
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