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Sue Barker has made a dig at the BBC after the corporation axed her from A Question of Sport, before the show was eventually cancelled altogether.
The popular broadcaster and former tennis player was the host of the sports trivia programme from 1997 until 2021. In September 2020, it was announced that she and team captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell would be leaving the programme.
Renamed Question of Sport, the show was subsequently presented by Paddy McGuinness, with team captains Sam Quek and Ugo Monye. However, despite being the world’s longest-running sports quiz show, it was axed completely in 2023 after losing hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Barker revealed that she was forbidden to use the name of the programme, as well as any terminology related to it during the current Sue, Matt & Phil Live! The Reunion Tour. She did not mention terms such as the picture or one-minute round during the duration of the event, and did not mention the BBC or the show at all.
Speaking on Sunday (2 March) at the Hammersmith Eventim in London, the presenter poked fun at the restriction as she said: “Welcome to…” before mumbling an illegible word, according to the Daily Mail.
“We’re not allowed to use any of the names of the rounds, but in actual fact, they’re all exactly the same. So let’s go and play a quiz,” she said in front of a sold-out audience.
“It’s lovely to be back, before I got sacked, basically,” she added, prompting boos from the crowd.
She spoke out about her departure in 2022, calling her former employer’s handling of the situation “insulting”.
“I was sent a statement that the BBC wanted me to approve immediately, saying the three of us had decided to step aside,” Barker wrote in an extract shared with Mail Online.
“They hadn’t bothered to get a quote from me. Why hadn’t they reacted to our request earlier? Why had we been shown so little respect?”
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According to Barker, all three show anchors refused to sign the document, but were still expected to say they were leaving “for the good of the show”.
“I was astounded,” she wrote. “Was that because I was too old or not good enough? Either way, it was insulting. Did they actually expect me to sack myself?
“I told the BBC to own their decision and declare publicly that they wanted to refresh the show; I wasn’t going to lie to make it easier for them.”
Later, she claims that they then tried to keep her in her hosting role, but the handling of the situation had left her unwilling to stay.
