Ron Kirby’s diatribe against the BBC might be credible if he had cited the Woman’s Hour item about the Lionesses correctly.

Whatever the American slang word “woke” might mean (if anything); the BBC does not formally propose calling the ladies’ football team the “Lions”. The programme mentioned that notion, which had come from several directions, in an item celebrating the team; and read several emails from men and women pointing out the idea’s fallacy, that there is already a male “Lions” team, and even that the real lionesses, not the lions, do the hunting.

Mr Kirby might ponder though that the words “actress”, “authoress” and “comedienne” seem long lost, and without BBC help.

The TV Licence is a ridiculously cheap subscription for a huge breadth, variety and quality of TV and radio programmes no commercial subscription station can match - but there are still those wanting it all for nothing, or who want it destroyed.

The low-range commercial stations presumably pay much more though, as the BBC has lost excellent presenters to them, but are allowed to keep that secret.

Nigel Graham

Weymouth