The BBC’s youngest ever national news presenter called it quits, claiming she was told by a manager that she was ‘terrible’

One BBC Breakfast star claims she was left in tears after being told off by bosses and “locked in a room” by her manager. Fern Britton started out on the BBC’s newly launched Breakfast Time programme when she was only in her mid-twenties, back in 1983. Hosted by Selina Scott and Frank Bough, the show would later evolve into the BBC Breakfast we know today.

At the time, Fern was the youngest ever national news presenter, brought in to fill Selina’s shoes if she was off. But she admitted to The Telegraph that she “didn’t feel the accolades” after the treatment she received from bosses.

Fern claimed: “One day a manager said, ‘You are terrible. Do another hour and do it better’. I was shaking and no-one said a thing. Afterwards I was called into an office, the door was locked and I was shouted at again.

“I was crying. I wasn’t allowed out until I’d reapplied my make-up. Before long I decided, ‘Right, I’m off!’”

She has previously spoken about her relationship with Bough – who died in 2020 – on the show, claiming he propositioned her and was “difficult” to work with. She said on the Postcards from Midlife podcast: “He didn’t like me at all, really. He wasn’t exactly the friendly uncle that he made out.”

During lunch, she said, “Frank was sitting next to me and he leant back in his chair, looked at me and said, ‘Well, I wonder how long it’ll be before I’m having an affair with you – because I do have a very big c**k’. Anyway, he hated me by the end.

“He really disliked me and I had a rather rough time on that programme.”

Fern previously told Bella magazine that she was “bullied” at work in the 80s, explaining: “I was on a programme where a man bullied me and I didn’t even realise until a few years later.

“I was listening to the radio and they were talking about bullying at work. When I listened to it, I suddenly started crying and thought, ‘That happened to me’.”