Have YOU got a story? Email tips@dailymail.co.uk
]]]]>]]>
Scott Mills’ own production team were not warned about his dramatic sacking by the BBC.
The Radio 2 star was dramatically fired yesterday over allegations about his personal conduct over an ‘historic relationship’.
Mills, who had taken over the breakfast slot from Zoe Ball last year, hosted yesterday’s show as normal, signing off at 930 by saying ‘Back tomorrow.’
But shortly afterwards, an all-round email from Lorna Clarke, director of music at the BBC, dropped the bombshell news of his dismissal.
Until that moment his team who had had no idea what was coming and had worked on the Monday breakfast show normally.
News of his dismissal was not briefed to his production team, thought to include long time collaborators Patrick Thomas and Ben Stones, before the Clarke email.
A BBC source told the Daily Mail today: ‘Mills’ own team only found out the same way that everyone else did so you can imagine the shock they experienced.’
The all-round email from Lorna Clarke, director of music at the BBC, dropped the bombshell news of the 53-year-old DJ’s dismissal.
The email said: ‘I wanted to personally let you know that Scott Mills has left the Breakfast Show, and the BBC. I know that this news will be sudden and unexpected and therefore must come as a shock.
‘Not least as so many of us have worked with Scott over a great many years, across a broad range of our programmes on Radio 1, Radio 5 Live, Radio 2 and TV. I felt it was important to share this news with you at the earliest opportunity.’
I felt it was important to share this news with you at the earliest opportunity.’
She said it would ‘come as a shock to our audience and loyal breakfast show listeners too’ as she promised to update everyone with ‘more information on plans for the show when I’m able to’.
She added: ‘While I appreciate many of you will have questions, I hope you can understand that I am not going to be saying anything further now.’
Gary Davies opened the Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Tuesday morning with no mention of his sacked colleague.
The Radio 2 Breakfast Show host was hauled off air last Tuesday, and his contract was then terminated after a ‘tense meeting’ with BBC bosses over his ‘personal conduct’.
Experienced DJ Davies, 68, has stepped in to host the show since Mills’ departure last week and is scheduled to host for at least the next week as the broadcaster scrambles to find a permanent replacement.
Davies was introduced on Tuesday morning’s show with his own Breakfast Show jingle, asking listeners to message in with what ‘you have already accomplished so far this morning?’ before heading straight to a string of songs.
There was also no mention of Mills in the 7am news bulletin but the 7:30am update led with the headline that Mills was investigated in a 2026 police probe into ‘serious sexual offences’ against a teenage boy.
Davies later read out a message from one fan praising his Breakfast Show stint, which read: ‘Top Of The Pop in the eighties was my favourite era and now you’re waking me up in the morning, what could be better?’
The DJ littered the first thirty minutes of his show with plugs for Radio 2’s Eurovision coverage, an awkward moment as Mills is one of the BBC’s long-standing Eurovision commentators.
Listeners were bemused by the BBC’s failure to address Mills’ exit, with one posting on X: ‘Radio 2 going for the Basil Fawlty approach this morning. Don’t mention the war! Curious item missing from the news bulletins.’
‘Gary Davies desperately playing records non-stop. No discussion between any presenters.’
Radio 2’s Sounds of the 80s presenter Davies has previously provided holiday cover for other Radio 2 DJs and temporarily took over Pick Of The Pops following the 2024 death of Steve Wright.
One of the Corporation’s highest-paid stars, who earned up to £360,000 a year, Mills’s departure has caused ‘absolute chaos’ at Radio 2, insiders told the Daily Mail, with colleagues ‘in shock’ and bosses scrambling to find a replacement.
A source explained how Mills was called in for a meeting after an allegation was made against him last Tuesday.
‘He was taken off air from Radio 2 the following day and his contract was terminated at the weekend. It was a very fast process between the complaint being raised and Scott leaving. It happened in less than five days,’ the insider has told The Sun.
A source close to Mills said: ‘Scott was told about the allegation in a meeting with senior staff present. He was tense.
‘He has completely shut down now and no one can get hold of him. No calls, no messages — nothing. The people who know him are blindsided by all of this.’
Last night, the Daily Mirror reported the decision to fire Mills came after a 2016 police investigation into ‘serious sexual offences’ against a teenage boy.
It claimed the DJ was questioned at the time but the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence. The newspaper alleged his sacking related to the same individual.
The teenage boy may have been inspired to speak out due to the new Huw Edwards docu-drama, it is being rumoured within the corporation.
Mills joined BBC Radio 1 in 1998 from Heart 106.2, where he started in 1995 after working in local radio in Hampshire, Bristol and Manchester. He left the BBC after 28 years yesterday.
The BBC is refusing to say why he was sacked other than that it was related to his ‘personal conduct’. The corporation is now under pressure to explain what they knew about Mills’ brush with police and when.
Two sources have said that within the BBC it is being claimed that the complainant may have gone to the corporation due to the huge publicity surrounding Martin Clunes as Huw Edwards in Power: The Downfall Of Huw Edwards, which aired on Channel 5 last week.
One BBC executive in London told the Daily Mail today that there’s a real belief amongst bosses at the corporation that the timing of Mills’ sacking and the Edwards drama was ‘not a coincidence’.
‘The Huw Edwards drama showed that there could be a reckoning’, they said.
Another senior broadcaster at the BBC added that this claim that the Edwards drama was the ‘spark’ is swirling around Broadcasting House.
The BBC declined to comment on the claims.
Mills is the latest in a string of stars to lose their jobs at the scandal-ridden BBC. His ousting follows the exit of news anchor Huw Edwards, along with MasterChef pair Gregg Wallace and John Torode, in the past two years.
It is believed the unceremonious firing, announced with a curt public statement yesterday morning, was one of the last acts of director-general Tim Davie, who wanted to ‘clear the decks’ before leaving his post on Thursday.
Mr Davie, who himself resigned after it emerged that footage of a speech made by US President Donald Trump had been edited and spliced together in an episode of Panorama, wanted one last roll of the dice, an insider said.
But he will be leaving interim director-general Rhodri Talfan Davies, and permanent replacement Matt Brittin, with a major headache as the race is on to find a replacement for Mills or risk losing listeners.
The biggest breakfast show in the country currently brings in a weekly audience of some 6.5million, after listeners lost under Mills’s predecessor Zoe Ball returned.
Mills’s team are said to be taking legal advice in the wake of his sacking.
Last night, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘In December 2016, the Met began an investigation following a referral from another police force. The investigation related to allegations of serious sexual offences against a teenage boy. These were reported to taken place between 1997 and 2000.
‘As part of these inquiries, a man who was in his 40s at the time of the interview, was questioned by police under caution in July 2018.
‘A full file of evidence was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, who determined the evidential threshold had not been met to bring charges. Following this advice, the investigation was closed in May 2019.’
A representative for Mills declined to comment when approached by the Daily Mail.
In a statement, the BBC said: ‘While we do not comment on matters relating to individuals, we can confirm Scott Mills is no longer contracted to work with the BBC.’
Mills’s final show aired last Tuesday – following his presenting stint on BBC’s Comic Relief the previous Friday – and he signed off by telling listeners: ‘See you tomorrow.’ Just six days later, Mills was gone from the job.