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The first series shocked viewers with its high volume of explicit sex scenes. And season two of controversial BBC drama Versailles is set to continue in the same vein - with a massive 30 X-rated scenes featuring across ten new episodes. The jaw-dropping scenes include the King's mistress stripping off completely as she seduces Louis XIV, as well as courtiers enjoying a mass orgy.

A BBC Radio presenter has been sacked following a 'racist' call to a taxi firm, in which she requested a 'non-Asian' driver. Sam Mason told the operator that 'a guy with a turban would freak her daughter out'   insisting they send an English driver instead.The ex-glamour girl, 40, called the firm to order a taxi for her 14-year-old daughter off-air, while presenting her BBC Bristol radio show.After the operator branded her request 'racist', Mason insisted, claiming it wasn't the first time she had made the request.She said: 'A guy with a turban is going to freak her out. She's...

FOR YEARS David Bellamy was one of the best known faces on TV. A respected botanist and the author of 35 books, he had presented around 400 programmes over the years and was appreciated by audiences for his boundless enthusiasm. Yet for more than 10 years he has been out of the limelight, shunned by bosses at the BBC where he made his name, as well as fellow scientists and environmentalists. His crime? Bellamy says he doesn’t believe in man-made global warming. Here he reveals why – and the price he has paid for not toeing the orthodox line on...

These stills are from a BBC comedy called "Time Trumpet" (big hat tip - Steve J). The show features a satirical "Terrorism Awards" show with nominees including a "lone gunman" who shoots Tony Blair in the head as he sleeps with his wife; a 9/11-style video of terrorists crashing an airliner into the Houses of Parliament; and a Tel Aviv suicide bombing. We have the video at Hot Air. Watch and listen as the audience laughs at the images. Also notice the two "presenters" in the satirical awards show.

BBC rules on impartiality were broken during a report on the Ten O'Clock News, the corporation's governors said. The complaint surrounded Guto Harri's report about the night's edition of Question Time, a month before the General Election last year. Governors said rules were broken when Harri said the then Conservative leader was booed, but did not mention the same thing had happened to Tony Blair. The omission breached BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality, they ruled. Interviews However, they also said that overall the report gave a "fair and balanced" account of the event, and did not uphold the broader...

BBC 'must improve coverage of EU' The BBC must make its coverage of Europe "more demonstrably impartial", an independent inquiry has said. The report, commissioned by the BBC governors, found no evidence of deliberate bias in BBC reporting. But it said there was a "widespread perception" of "certain forms of cultural and unintentional bias" which had to be corrected. BBC News has set up a working group to examine the report in detail and to draw up its response to the findings. 'Urgent action' The governors said in a statement: "We are pleased that the panel found no evidence of...

Channel 4 is planning an hour-long documentary on the predilection of BBC presenters for taking cocaine, in what is already being described as a classic piece of broadcasting hypocrisy. Frank Bough, Angus Deayton and Johnnie Walker are among the high-profile BBC presenters whose drug-related downfalls will be charted in the programme, to be called Snorting Coke with the BBC. In it Channel 4 will take a critical look at the way the broadcaster has dealt with high-profile employees who are caught using the drug. "We thought it would be interesting to look at the well-known characters who have suffered drug...

US pulls out of Saudi Arabia The United States has said that virtually all its troops, except some training personnel, are to be pulled out of Saudi Arabia. The decision was confirmed by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a joint news conference with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan. Both men stressed that there were no differences between their countries and their co-operation would continue. Ever since the 1991 Gulf war, the US has had about 5,000 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia - a figure that rose to 10,000 during the recent conflict in Iraq. The BBC's Middle East analyst...

Blair ... fury at report Picture: REUTERS PM rages at Beeb war slurBy DAVID WOODINGTONY Blair blitzed the BBC on Friday over its twisted coverage of the Iraq war. The PM was furious after a newsman claimed terror in Baghdad is worse than under Saddam. War reporter Andrew Gilligan said on Radio 4’s Today programme: “Baghdad’s people are passing their first days of liberty in a greater fear than they’ve ever before known. RELATED STORIES Sun Says “The old fear of the regime was habitual, low-level. This fear is sharp and immediate.” Mr Blair was furious at a War...