I noticed on ITT a typical day for Chris Hollins and the guy gets chauffeured to the BBC studio and gigs.

Who exactly is paying the petrol bill for this??!!!

WHy can't they use their own car or use the bus?!

I think that you will find that most tv companies arrange transport for guests - Chris is not a BBC employee by the way.

He's a BBC Breakfast presenter.

Oops!

I got him muddled with the other bad male dancer.

Here is some info regarding transport costs

"The BBC's bill for transporting guests to TV and radio studios in taxis has rocketed to £1.5million.

The huge sum is up 53 per cent in just three years, when the licence fee-payer forked out £980,000 on cabs for contributors."

Chauffeurs are cheaper than taxis when taken as a whole. The BBC needs to be responsible for getting onscreen guests and talent to the studio because they are responsible for the output.

I can just see Bruce saying on Saturday "Jade and Ian won't be dancing this week as Jade missed her bus."

Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that any of the performers are employees of the corporation. They will be independent contractors on different contracts one of the terms of which will include transport. This would include Chris Hollins who will have one contract with BBC Breakfast, another with SCD and any number of others with BBC and others.

I expect most BBC employees are required to make and pay their own way into work.

I have been the beneficiary of a BBC car before, and had a chat with the driver, who explained that it was much cheaper to have a permanent fleet of cars on-site than to lease to a cab company or similar.

Apparently on the Weakest Link Anne Robinson used to get picked up at 3 to get to the studios for 6. She used to sleep all the way down

Because he has to leave home at something like 4am to get to work on time. There isn't public transport at that time of night - or very little - and the BBC might be concerned about him driving safely when he's tired. Besides, he uses the time usefully, to review the day's papers before he gets into work so that he doesn't need to get up even earlier in order to do that after he gets into work.

Source?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz0UkSb1jPx

What's the point - it's the Daily Mail. Anything they have to say on the BBC is not worth the paper it's printed on.

In your opinion but not in mine. I know that it's all the rage to slag off the Mail but in this case their figures are accurate.

I don't think they are always chauffeured to the TV centre. When I went to see Will Young on the Paul O'Grady Show a few years back, he arrived in his old Audi!

You sound certain, so I'm sorry to be pedantic, but have you another source to back that up? The Daily Mail's standard of reporting is frequently inaccurate and usually biased, on most issues. That said, those who slag the Mail off because they think it's flavour of the month should be treated with equal contempt.

However when read dispassionately and critically (in the academic sense of the word) it is clear that the paper's level of prejudice and consistent one-sided agenda on certain issues means it can't be used as a credible source of statistical data.

I'm sure there are plenty of other people doing jobs such as doctors and nurses that are tired whilst driving to work.

I would love for my place of work to supply a car and a driver for me but I would not expect the licence fee payer to pay for the costs.

I can understand paying to escort guests but not regular presenters or actors for example.

I'm sure the EE cast come in their own cars for example so it should be the same for them all.

It is not a 'BBC' thing, it is a showbiz thing. People in the showbiz world are collected by car to be taken to their destination all the time. Some might use their own transport or drivers, but I guess it is a perk of being famous or not even famous, as if you are on a show more often that not 'they' send a car for you. You can hardly expect the BBC to say we can't send a car for you as that's not good use of the license payers' money!

I did laugh when a driver went to pick up Jo Wood for her first meeting with Brendan and the driver thought he was picking up a 'mystery' passenger, when in fact he was picking up a passenger called 'Miss Tree' - Jo's pre-series secret code name!

Maybe HE pays for it? Maybe the BBC pays for those trips that are undertaken as part of his work and away from his normal place of work (just as you or I would if we had to go somewhere on company business)? Maybe car parking being as it is, he considers it a better bet? Maybe with the times that he has to be at places, and the districts he has to go to and the things that he has to carry with him, public transport is out of the question? Maybe he does not have a car?

A lot of "maybes" because in truth, none of us knows the details of his contracts, working arrangements and transport requirements.

On a side note, I have seen other celebs/dancers in their own cars at times.

It's all very well to get at the BBC for chauffeuring people to and from programmes, but it's standard practice in the business. All programme makers want to make sure that their performers/stars get to filming on time. I'm sure that everyone on Eastenders, Coronation Street, etc etc, will be transported to and from the studio. There are various obvious reasons for this I'd have thought. While it is possible to use your own car, it is obviously time well spent if you can learn lines or do research for a daily news programme during the journey. The thought of the cast of the various soaps having to run the gamut of the general public every day on the bus, train or tube, being pestered by people on subjects from storylines to what the other actors are like in real life, is quite ridiculous. Finally and I suspect for the programme makers most importantly, the cost of filming being delayed due to the late arrival of a cast member far outweighs the cost of the transport. Things like this are an easy target for some MP wanting to draw attention to himself, but much less easily reconciled in real life.

I think they can agree to make their own arrangements.

It's totally normal, my boyfriend used to work in TV and the actors were driven to set every day. Incidentally I can tell you that robson Green's driver is called Sid and has been with him for years.

Ha!

I have worked for the BBC and this is the only posting on here that bears any resemblance to the truth.

Staff who work well outside nomal hours are entitled to claim for taxis. I was stuck at Elstree after 11pm one night and getting home by taxi was my only option. As you say, Chris will work whilst being driven to work. How is that a waste of public money?

The whole 'BBC staff milking the public purse dry' is just a tired old 'conspiracy' story from the Daily Heil designed to wind up their middle England readers with neither brains nor common sense ... :yawn:

I am heartily sick of the anti-Daily Mail posts.

This is the Strictly Come Dancing Thread.

And I am old enough and well-educated enough to choose what I read and what I make of it thank you.

I have noticed that some presenters have drivers others do not. There doesn't seem to be any benchmark as to who gets one and who doesn't.

Perhaps it depends on whether they have to get to the studio very early, or leave very late, however Phillip Schofield, although he works for ITV, does seem to get driven everywhere whether he's on This Morning, The Cube, Dancing on Ice so perhaps it's written into his contract.

I thought guests normally make their own way to the studio, hence the 'stuck in traffic' reason for not turning up.


Interesting to know what the criteria is for have a car laid on, perhaps it is part of the expenses and subsistence and they have a choice of remuneration?

Why do BBC employees have chauffeurs?

To attract stars, you need to treat them right.
You put banana skins in their way and guess what- you get monkeys.