Birt: 'I was demonised'

Lord Birt became the BBC's director general in 1992.

The former director general of the BBC, Lord John Birt, has claimed he was "demonised" for his attempts to reform the public service broadcast company.

Lord Birt, who stood down as director general two years ago and now works as an unpaid strategy advisor to the government, said his reforms were responsible for creating a more creative and efficient BBC.

Click here to watch the full interview

This was an organisation on the ropes in the 1980s, in significant difficulties

Lord Birt

"This organisation went through an enormous amount of change under my leadership and that change was associated with me, and yes I did become demonised," he told Tim Sebastian for BBC HARDtalk.

"We ended up with a much stronger BBC creatively and infinitely stronger BBC journalistically, with many more services, and an organisation which was no longer bloated and inefficient."

Internal market

During his time at the BBC, Lord Birt was responsible for attempting to drive down costs by introducing an internal market to give programme-makers the option of using either BBC resources, like studios and camera crews, or buying in from outside.

He also insisted on more analysis in the news and began recruiting more correspondents with specialist knowledge.

However his reforms led to accusations that the BBC was "dumbing down".

He was also criticised for not doing enough to prevent the BBC losing high profile sporting events - like Formula One racing - to commercial broadcasters.

"On the ropes"

Despite criticism, Lord Birt insisted his reforms helped to protect the future of the BBC.

Greg Dyke succeeded Lord Birt as director general

"This was an organisation on the ropes in the 1980s, in significant difficulties, and when I left it in 2000 it was a very strong organisation, the most effective public service broadcaster in the world," he said.

Lord Birt joined the BBC from London Weekend Television in 1987 and became the BBC's director general in 1992.

He was succeeded in January 2000 by Greg Dyke.

Despite the fact he has no regrets about the direction in which he took the corporation during his eight-year spell, Lord Birt claimed that the personal price for his work was "high".

This interview can be watched in full on Friday 25 October on BBC World and BBC News 24 at the following times:

BBC News 24 (times shown in BST) 0430, repeated 2230

BBC World (times shown in GMT) 0330, repeated 0830, 1130, 1530, 1830, 2330

BBC Four
A Profile on John Birt will also be shown on BBC Four, Monday 28th October at 21:00 BST.