Showbiz

Everyone is making the same joke about the BBC saving money on a female Doctor Who

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The BBC today released a list of some of their highest earning presenters and on-air talent.

Radio 2 broadcaster and former host of Top Gear Chris Evans was revealed to be the highest earning employee on the BBC's books, raking in between £2.2m and £2.25. This is more than four times higher than the corporation's highest earning woman Claudia Winkleman, who is on between £450,000 and £499,999.

Other salaries that displayed a heightened wage page gap included Match of the Day host Gary Lineker, who earned between £1.75m and £1,799,999, and the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg who earned between £200,000 and £249,999.

Gender has been a hot topic concerning the BBC over the past few days following the announcement that Doctor Who lead Peter Capaldi will be replaced by Jodie Whittaker - the first woman to play the title role in the programme's history.

In the face of worrying wage inequality between male and female employees at the BBC, people on Twitter still managed to find the opportunity to poke fun at the situation.

A number of other people took the opportunity to make some more important points, like for example whether the new Doctor Who will be on similar money to the last Doctor Who...

It would certainly be a positive sign of gender equality.

Speaking about the disparity between pay, the BBC's director-general Tony Hall said:

 Is this where we want to be?  No.

[But] are we pushing further and faster than any other broadcaster?  Most certainly.  We’ve set a clear target for 2020: we want all our lead and presenting roles to be equally divided between men and women.

It’s already having an impact.  If you look at those on the list who we have hired or promoted in the last three years, 60 per cent are women and nearly a fifth come from a BAME background.

Meeting our goal on this is going to have a profound impact not just on the BBC, but the whole media industry.  It’s going to change the market for talent in this country.

More: The weirdest and most wonderful reactions to the first female Doctor Who​

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