BBC director general admits ‘overdoing it’ with helicopter coverage of Sir Cliff Richard raid

BBC bosses "overdid it" when they used a helicopter to film the search of Sir Cliff Richard's home, the corporation's director general admitted today.

Tony Hall told MPs he still backs the right of journalists to report on suspects being investigated by police.

But he said the BBC went too far when it flew a helicopter over Sir Cliff's home while it was being raided by officers probing claims he had carried out a sex attack.

The corporation has had to pay more than £1.5million after it was found to have breached the privacy of the singer who was never arrested or charged with a crime.

Speaking to the Commons culture committee today, Lord Hall repeated his apology to Sir Cliff.

He said: "My own view is we overdid it, I think the helicopter was overdoing it.

"My own judgement, and judgement on hindsight is always a very fine thing, is it was something to report, but down the bulletin."

The BBC chief insisted there had been "a lot of soul-searching" inside the organisation over the case.

Lord Hall said he had tried to approach Sir Cliff privately to sort out the dispute without resorting to the legal system.

He told MPs: "We approached Sir Cliff's lawyers, and indeed I approached Sir Cliff on a couple of occasions, suggesting, 'Could we sit down and sort this out without going through the courts?'

"But sadly the message came back we don't want to talk."

He stood up for the principle of reporting on police operations, saying: "We felt the principle of people knowing about this raid was more important in this case than the privacy.

"You don't want a point at which people's houses are being raided and no one knows about it."

Lord Hall also revealed the BBC is considering cutting free licence fees for viewers over 75.

He said: "The concession, as it's currently formulated, comes to an end in June 2020... We, the board, have got to decide what to replace it with.

"We have got to be mindful. We know that those over 65 or over 75 consume many, many more BBC services than others."

The BBC has already paid out £1.5million in compensation and legal costs after Sir Cliff successfully took them to court for invading his privacy over the raid in 2014.

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