TO my surprise, no sooner had I decided to write about the BBC this week than the Director General resigned.

Tony Hall leaves the publicly-funded broadcaster in stormy waters, not least for perceived bias and an obsession with minority interests.

And let’s not forget the rows over equal pay, bloated salaries and TV licences for the over-75s.

The BBC has reneged on the latter following assurances after the 2015 government review.

Now only the poorest pensioners will be excused.

Has the BBC lost its way?

For me as a former BBC employee, and now politician, I feel it has, and it saddens me.

The old Reithian values, to inform and educate, have in many instances given way to banal game shows, and unrecognisable, politically-correct renditions of old classics.

Meanwhile, BBC news is under fire, interestingly, from both sides of the political divide.

On our side, there is more than enough evidence to point to appalling bias in the Brexit debate, although coverage during the referendum itself was balanced.

Now there’s talk of decriminalizing non-payment of the licence fee, which would dent the BBC’s £3.6 billion annual budget.

Unsurprisingly, this move is being fought tooth and nail.

But with prosecutions making up nine per cent of all magistrates’ cases, the resulting criminal convictions look increasingly unfair, especially as they apply whether you watch the BBC, or not.

Further, more than half of all 16 to 24-year-olds prefer paid-for, online streaming services like Netflix.

So it’s odd that the BBC has announced it will target 60 per cent of its resources at a younger audience, when most viewers are older.

Surely, they’d do better to stick to the kind of high-quality, advertisement-free, unbiased content we all remember and love.