Selina Scott says working on BBC's Breakfast Time was like a 'war zone'

Selina Scott says presenting the BBC's 'Breakfast Time’ was like working in a "war zone".

The 71-year-old broadcaster “politely declined” taking part with 40th anniversary celebrations of the BBC’s landmark morning offering - which debuted in 1983 and was later rebranded as ‘BBC Breakfast’- due to feeling like a “combatant in a war zone” when she sat on “the hideous red sofa” amid friction with her colleagues and a close encounter with the late Jimmy Savile, whose targeting of young vulnerable women came to light after his death in 2011.

She wrote in a column in the Daily Mail newspaper: “I politely declined [to take part in the 'BBC Breakfast' celebrations]. This despite the fact that I had launched the BBC’s ‘Breakfast Time’ in 1983 as the lead female anchor and became the face of the programme for three years.

“I said no because I prefer to look forward rather than back, but also because so much of my time on the hideous red leather sofa made me feel I was a combatant in a war zone.”

Selina - who joined the programme from the ‘News At Ten’ on ITN aged 31 - admits she didn't get on with her co-host Frank Bough who she branded "Machiavellian".

She added: “Looking back, I think Frank had an insecurity which dictated much of his attitude towards me. I must have appeared to him young and carefree, with my whole future ahead of me. He - regarded as a consummate television professional, who had made a serious gamble by moving from 'Grandstand', BBC’s flagship sports programme, to the fluffy, unknown world of breakfast TV in his 50s - didn’t know how long his career had to run.”

She also opened up about an uncomfortable interview with Savile, writing: "It wasn’t just Frank who took liberties. Jimmy Savile saw his appearance on the show as an ideal opportunity to play the eccentric, and I knew from the off that I was in for a rough ride.

“For more than two hours, he acted like a lovesick teenager as I tried to interview him. No matter how hard I tried to deflect his smutty innuendos, he kept coming back with more ‘wink wink, nudge nudge’ suggestions."