Why the BBC has a Naga problem

Telegraph

2 days ago

Naga Munchetty likes her toast made just so when she presents BBC Breakfast. 'It needed to be a little bit burnt, but not too much. And if you didn't get it right, she would never shout at you, but she would act as if it was a really stupid mistake to make,' one former subordinate, who used to be tasked with fuelling the presenter, tells me. '[Instead] she would be like, 'Oh, they can't get the toast right, they can't do anything.''
We have learnt a lot – perhaps too much – about Munchetty's morning eating habits lately. A story in The Sun at the weekend claimed that the presenter had 'kicked off at a terrified intern over how they spread Marmite on her toast' and 'moaned that her porridge was 'too hot' and the blueberry topping wasn't to her liking'.
'There was such a mad culture of fear around a very, very stupid thing,' the former subordinate says.
It is ironic that the Breakfast presenter is getting heat for her own attitude to breakfast, but such stories about Munchetty have increasingly been doing the rounds as the 50-year-old has reportedly been placed 'under review' after a string of complaints about her behaviour. All the while, there are regular reports that Munchetty has fallen out with her Breakfast boss, Richard Frediani, who himself has been accused of making some colleagues feel uncomfortable.
(A BBC spokesman says: 'While we do not comment on individual cases, we take all complaints about conduct at work extremely seriously and will not tolerate behaviour that is not in line with our values. We have robust processes in place and would encourage any staff with concerns to raise them directly with us so they can be addressed.')
A Marmite figure
Munchetty has been no stranger to criticisms of or allegations against her, which she has largely declined to address in public. She was spoken to by Radio 5 Live bosses about an off-air sex jibe that upset a colleague three years ago, The Sun reported in June, while it is also alleged that she bullied a junior staffer on Breakfast whom she accused of stealing last year. Munchetty was given another dressing-down, according to the tabloid, but no formal action was taken against her.
The no-nonsense presenter is something of a Marmite figure herself, with her steely demeanour sometimes regarded as an odd fit in the perky world of breakfast TV. 'I can imagine that she faced a lot of s----y people treating her like c--p as she was coming up and probably developed a thick skin,' says the former subordinate. 'When people go through that they react one of two ways: it's either 'I never want anyone else to go through that again' or 'You're not worth your salt if you don't go through what I went through'.'
Her on-air behaviour has also occasionally caused controversy. She was censured in 2019 for criticising Donald Trump for telling a group of non-white Democrat congresswomen to 'go back' to their 'crime-infested' countries. 'Every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where I came from, that was embedded in racism,' she said live on BBC Breakfast, before later adding that she was 'absolutely furious' about the US president's comments.
The Corporation partially upheld a complaint that her remarks had breached editorial guidelines before Tony Hall, then the director-general, intervened to reverse that decision. Some two years later, Munchetty apologised after liking 'offensive' tweets that disparaged Robert Jenrick, then the housing secretary, for being interviewed on Breakfast with a large Union Flag and a portrait of the late Queen behind him.
To some, Munchetty's direct interviewing style jars with the expected tone of breakfast TV and has occasionally made for uncomfortable viewing. It was reported this year that Breakfast bosses apologised to Geri Halliwell, the former Spice Girl, after a spiky interview by Munchetty and Charlie Stayt, her co-host. A 2018 interview she conducted with David Attenborough went viral for its toe-curling awkwardness, when the veteran naturalist was unimpressed with her attempts to ask about his conversations with members of the Royal family instead of the butterflies he had come on to discuss.
BBC under pressure
At this point, many will wonder why Munchetty appears to be under so much scrutiny, especially as the stories that cast her in a negative light are largely composed of trifling matters. But the BBC has been under huge pressure after a string of scandals involving 'talent' such as Huw Edwards, Gregg Wallace, Strictly Come Dancing's Giovanni Pernice, Russell Brand and Tim Westwood.
Munchetty, obviously, has not been accused of anything as serious as those men, but the Corporation's bosses appear determined to stamp out anything that could be considered bad behaviour at work.
'We just have to make sure that the BBC is a modern organisation,' Samir Shah, the chairman, said in March. 'People who work for it feel able to voice their concerns, if they have any, and that they will be dealt with, and that no one in the BBC is untouchable.'
Last month, Shah emphasised that there was still work to be done on that front. 'There are still places where powerful individuals – on and off-screen – can abuse that power to make life for their colleagues unbearable.'
Since joining the BBC 17 years ago, Munchetty has become one of its highest-profile, and best-paid, current affairs presenters. She received a £10,000 pay rise last year and is tied for 11th on the BBC's high pay list, with a salary of up to £360,000.
It is a far cry from her childhood growing up in Streatham, south London. Her Indian mother, Muthu, and Mauritian father, David, moved to Britain in the 1970s and worked as nurses while they brought up Munchetty and her younger sister, Mimi.
She attended Graveney School, a state secondary school in nearby Tooting – which also produced her fellow BBC presenter Amol Rajan – before studying English at Leeds University, then getting a diploma in newspaper journalism at City University, London.
Following stints working on the business sections of London's Evening Standard and The Observer, she moved into broadcasting with Reuters Financial Television, CNBC Europe, Channel 4 News and Bloomberg. She joined the BBC when Working Lunch was revamped in 2008, and within six years she had worked her way up to becoming a permanent fixture on the Breakfast sofa.
Munchetty is renowned as being a hard worker, with a three-hour Radio 5 Live show from London every Monday to Wednesday, then fronting Breakfast in Salford from Thursday to Saturday. 'That's probably too much,' says a fellow BBC presenter. 'It feels like a big, big stretch.' This year she also published a book, It's Probably Nothing: Critical Conversations on the Women's Health Crisis (and How to Thrive Despite It), after her own experience of decades of gynaecological pain.
She relaxes by playing golf – she revealed in an April interview that she plays off a handicap of 6.4 – and lives in Hertfordshire with her husband, broadcasting executive James Haggar, and their two Siamese cats.
'Toxic' work environment
It will not have helped Munchetty that Breakfast itself is currently under siege. Frediani, the programme's editor who joined from ITN in 2019, was accused of presiding over an 'intimidating and bullying' culture on the show, which led to him taking an 'extended period of leave' in June. Frediani has variously been described as 'a tyrant', 'a bruiser' and 'aggressive'. One insider, however, calls Frediani a perfectionist who 'wants the programme to be the best and for people to do the best job… He's old-school.' Jon Kay and Sally Nugent, the other frontline presenters, are said to get on with Frediani.
Yet it was said that his relationships with Munchetty and Stayt had broken down, and it was reported last week that he no longer directly manages his highly paid stars. There have also been rumours that Munchetty and Stayt, who sit next to one another on the Breakfast sofa three days a week, have fallen out.
Couple that with the programme's tumbling audience figures and you have the recipe for a potential existential crisis. 'It's not without its achievements, but it's not central to the nation,' says the BBC presenter. 'Maybe that's what breeds this crazed self-hatred.'
The former Breakfast staffer says: 'People who work in Salford say 'I wouldn't take a job at Breakfast if you paid me twice as much as they're offering' because it's so toxic.'
A briefing war has since erupted in the tabloids, with stories emerging that cast Munchetty, Frediani or both in a negative light. In an interview with The Guardian last month, Munchetty said that 'self-flagellation' was the trait she most deplored in herself. Strikingly, 'bullying' was the one she disliked most in others.
Now in her 50s, and having been a fixture on Breakfast for more than a decade, might this be the time for Munchetty to move on? She was said to be in talks with Sky News, to become Kay Burley's permanent replacement on the breakfast show, and commercial radio broadcaster LBC, but they have not come to anything. Amid all the stories engulfing Breakfast, it feels like something has to give.