John Humphrys has had a rough time of late. Not only has the Today programme anchor voluntarily taken three pay cuts – with his salary thought to have been cut from £649,000 to under £300,000 – he has received little credit for it. Humphrys has come under flak from all sides after a conversation in which he joked about a female colleague’s warnings over the gender pay gap at the BBC was leaked to the Sun. The comments irked Tracey Crouch – a government minister – so much that she refused appear on Today.
So Mr S is pleased to report that Humphrys has finally found a safe space. The BBC anchor was a last-minute addition to the winners’ list at today’s Oldie of the Year awards. Announcing the winners. Gyles Brandreth – the host for the afternoon – paid tribute to Humphrys, who was on the top table:
‘While we are beginning to salute people at this the 25th Oldie of the Year awards luncheon, can we, since his name has been mentioned, salute John Humphrys as our winner of the ‘joke that was misunderstood and misreported of the year’ award.
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