10 Disgraceful Radio Controversies

10 Disgraceful Radio Controversies

Caitlin Johnson

Welcome to WatchMojoUK, and in today’s unranked list we’re looking at Britain’s most scandalous radio presenters.

Scott Mills

BBC Radio golden boy Scott Mills was let go in 2026, shocking the country. The rumour mill got going while we waited for more information, eventually learning that he was sacked after historic allegations of sexual offences involving a teenage boy came to light. The allegations dated between 1997 and 2000, and he’d already been investigated by the Met in 2018, which didn’t press charges due to insufficient evidence. The BBC is desperately trying to save face, with some claiming the corporation didn’t know about the investigation and others saying that it did. Mills himself has only said that he cooperated with the police and no charges were pressed after the investigation was closed in 2019.

Chris Evans

He was the lairy voice of Radio 1 in the 1990s, and rose to new heights of fame while also fronting “TFI Friday” for Channel 4. But can you host Radio 1 in the morning and then present live on Channel 4 in the evening? Apparently not, because in 1997, he finally fell out with the BBC for good and quit. This came after a bevy of controversies, chiefly that he was demanding to have Fridays off so that he had more time for Channel 4 – not to mention taking time off whenever he felt like it. But he’d made yet more trouble by making inappropriate jokes about Anne Frank and at one point taking his crew on an all-night bender.

Alex Belfield

This bizarre case unfolded in 2021, when BBC Radio Leeds presenter Alex Belfield was sacked and eventually convicted of stalking. Chillingly, the people he was stalking were other BBC presenters, and he was eventually charged with eight counts, but convicted of four. He went on to describe himself as an “anti-BBC journalist” – despite working for the corporation for years – and accused the investigating police officers of being paid by the BBC to fit him up. The detective he accused of this then took Belfield to court for libel, winning, forcing Belfield to apologise and pay him damages. Though he was released in 2025, he was swiftly recalled for violating his licence conditions.

Katie Hopkins

For just over a year, Hopkins was a Sunday presenter on LBC, fielding calls from the listening public while making her usual, inflammatory remarks. But it was actually a comment on Twitter, not on LBC itself, that lost her this cushy radio gig in 2017, when she unwisely decided to tweet about the tragic Manchester Arena bombing. The very next day, Hopkins suggested that a, quote, “final solution” was needed to deal with Muslim extremism. She clearly saw the error of her ways as she rapidly deleted the tweet and reposted it with the words “true solution” instead, claiming ignorance to the Nazi connotations. Her contract with LBC was immediately terminated.

Tim Westwood

It remains somewhat miraculous that Westwood, raised by a vicar in Norwich, became such an influential voice in British hip hop over the last few decades. He rose to fame working on radio stations in the late 80s, eventually moving on to Radio 1, while continuing a successful television career as the host of the UK version of “Pimp My Ride”. But it all came crashing down in the 2020s, when allegations about Westwood began to surface. In 2022, the Met opened an investigation and he was eventually charged with over a dozen counts of various offences. He pleaded not guilty in 2025 and is awaiting trial.

Chris Moyles

He’s always been known for letting bad language slip onto the airwaves, though he was popular enough that he weathered all those storms during his time on BBC Radio. In 2012, however, Moyles got into trouble for something more serious: tax avoidance. Though he tried to stop the papers from being able to report on his finances – unsuccessfully arguing that their reporting would be a violation of his human rights – we eventually found out he’d dodged £400,000 that was meant to have gone to HMRC. He did it by joining a few hundred people in a tax avoidance scheme claiming they were part of a second-hand car dealership.

Tony Blackburn

In 2016, seasoned DJ Tony Blackburn was spectacularly sacked by the BBC over perceived inconsistencies in the Jimmy Savile inquiry. It was alleged that a “Top of the Pops” audience member had made a complaint in the 70s about Blackburn and the BBC had failed to investigate. It’s still not entirely clear what was investigated and what wasn’t, but the BBC was accused of using unsubstantiated allegations against Blackburn to bury the Savile report, which was about to be released at the time. Regardless, it was a lot of fuss seemingly over nothing, as Blackburn was reinstated eight months later, leaving the BBC with egg on its face for trying to scapegoat him.

Sachsgate

Everything Russell Brand’s done while live on camera in his whole career has been disgraceful in one way or another, dating back all the way to his time on Radio 2 where he urinated into a bottle during a show. But his time at the BBC ended in 2008 after the monumental scandal known as “Sachsgate”. Brand, egged on by Jonathan Ross that day, infamously rang up actor Andrew Sachs – best known for playing Manuel in “Fawlty Towers” – and left him lewd voice messages about Brand’s relationship with Sachs’ granddaughter Georgiana Baillie. There were tens of thousands of complaints, with Brand and Radio 2 boss Lesley Douglas forced to resign.

Trees vs Concrete

What do you do when you’re live on air and someone calls you out for not understanding an extremely simple bit of biology? If you’re Mike Graham, you swiftly talk yourself into a corner, then hang up the phone. It was that tantrum-esque behaviour more than what he actually said that makes this a disgraceful moment, and something he’ll probably never live down. Graham was interviewing a carpenter and Insulate Britain activist, Cameron, about whether wood is a sustainable resource versus concrete, and ended up suggesting that you can grow concrete. He then declared he didn’t want to talk to “any of those people” and apparently ended the call.

Chris Denning

Of all the former DJs caught in the net of Operation Yewtree, Denning was convicted of more offences than any other, which is even more shocking considering his career had already ended decades ago when he was first convicted in the 70s. He worked across the BBC in the 60s, but soon became a repeat offender, in and out of prison for the rest of his life. He died in custody in 2022, after pleading guilty to forty charges of sexual offences. Other DJs in the police’s sights included Dave Lee Travis, Stuart Hall, and of course, Jimmy Savile himself, though Savile was far better known for his TV work than his early-career stint on Radio Caroline.

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