Samir Shah, a former BBC head of current affairs who now runs an independent production company, said this had led to a "world of deracinated coloured people flickering across our screens - to the irritation of many viewers and the embarrassment of the very people such actions are meant to appease".
Shah spoke at the Royal Television Society: "The difficult truth I want you to accept is this: the equal opportunity policies we have followed over the last 30 years simply have not worked.
"Despite 30 years of trying, the upper reaches of our industry, the positions of real creative power in British broadcasting, are still controlled by a metropolitan, largely liberal, white, middle-class, cultural elite - and, until recently, largely male and largely Oxbridge."
Hmm, some might say that that "elite" didn't do too bad a job and actually made programmes that people wanted to watch - unlike much of the rubbish churned out today by sundry Tamsins and Justins.
