MasterChef: BBC has put money over morals by airing latest MasterChef series - Christa Ackroyd

Sadly, I am sure millions will have tuned in, that’s if it goes out at all, if only to see if they can spot anything. They won’t of course. It will have been edited and edited again.

Even a hint of blokey behaviour will have long since ended up on the cutting room floor. Which of course is where the entire programme should have landed.

I am of course talking about MasterChef.

MasterChef is a programme that won’t change the world, but it can certainly add to the confusion about the kind of world we live in, when arguably sexist behaviour is excused, or at least ignored.

This was the one time the BBC, which has faced criticism in the past about failing to act and gender inequality, could show it has learned a valuable lesson and that sorry doesn’t cut it any more.

MasterChef is made for entertainment, but it is no longer entertaining for very obvious reasons to a whole host of people, mostly women, who have suffered inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.

So why is the BBC seemingly intent in rubbing our noses in it ?

I am well aware that given my past history this may seem like bashing the BBC. Let me be clear I don’t have to inflict any pain on them, they are becoming expert at doing that themselves.

Let us recap. The latest series of MasterChef will begin broadcasting this week with the two presenters deemed by the BBC to be unfit to hire.

That is their decision in a nutshell. And if that isn’t madness I don’t know what is.

Why would you give a platform to two people you yourselves have publicly concluded should not have a platform on your channel?

We know MasterChef is not made by the BBC. It is made for the BBC. But as such they have the right to broadcast it, or not as the case should be.

No amount of money lost is worth the damage, in my view, they have once again brought upon themselves. And saying sorry, it was a tough decision, isn’t good enough in my book.

Yes there will be disappointed contestants, especially the winner. But that is solvable and quite frankly no excuse. Yes, it will cost them money to shelve it, but shelve it they should have done.

To say we will still broadcast it is nothing more than sheer hypocrisy and more importantly, putting money over morals.

Not forgetting it is our money they have spent in the first place as licence fee payers. In a nutshell the BBC has made a very public decision to sack the show’s presenters.

They have upheld a lengthy (and no doubt costly) investigation into the behaviour of Greg Wallace and found him guilty of behaviour which falls far short of the mark of acceptability on a number of occasions, in fact on 40 occasions.

More recently they have ended the contract of John Torode for a claim he used a racist term. I am not going to debate the decision, let us for the sake of argument say they were right.

So how on earth can they still broadcast the programme? Are they scared of being seen to waste public money?

Or are they just dithering, which is exactly what they did with the initial complaints regarding Wallace, until they could dither no longer ?

Only a few months ago the BBC was forced to apologise for broadcasting a documentary, again from a third party, on the issues in Gaza without checking that in fact it was authored by the son of a Hamas leader. It was deleted from our view and taken off BBC iPlayer.

While, of course, I am not comparing a cooking programme to the complex and horrific situation in the Middle East, the principle remains the same.

And now the BBC has confirmed another investigation has been launched into alleged cocaine taking by two stars on Strictly Come Dancing.

Of course in these situations there is always someone who has to call it out.

Which ironically is the very title behind a campaign launched by the BBC back in April to encourage the reporting of bad behaviour in the workplace. It’s a big push.

There is merchandise scattered by the coffee machines, mugs with QR codes presumably sending the user to HR and lanyards all bearing the slogan, or so I am told.

Which is great and positive until you undo all those good intentions by appearing to condone bad behaviour in your decision to broadcast a programme presented by two people you have got rid of for, in your eyes, bad behaviour.

To show MasterChef is a mistake. You can’t condemn on the one hand and then condone with another, and then offer to edit out the contestant who has had the guts to ask for it not to be shown at all. That is not addressing the problem.

Sarah Shafi is a friend of mine. She is a great Leeds lass not afraid to voice her views. After her filming of the very series due to air this week we talked at great length about Greg Wallace.

She always said she would speak out when and if the time came. She and many others like her believe that time is now.

But it is exhausting being seemingly a lone voice against a mighty organisation. I want her know she is not alone.

When Sarah asked for the series to be cancelled she was offered the chance to be edited out – in other words let’s get rid of the offended rather than those deemed to be the offenders.

It is an insult to an intelligent woman prepared to put her head above the parapet and guess what, ‘call it out’ as the BBC is now asking its own staff to do.

I know not what the BBC will do. I have given up second guessing them as they continue to shoot themselves in the foot time and time again.

Instead of editing out a contestant, edit out the presenters for heavens sake and if that is too difficult, as I suspect it will be, reshoot the whole series again with the same contestants if they don’t want to disappoint them.

But stop disappointing us the viewer, in particular we the female viewer. They may of course change their minds and scrap the series, bow to public pressure and say on reflection they were wrong.

But they shouldn’t have to wait until they hit the headlines again. The BBC forgets too often they are public servants.

Their very ethos is based on fairness, equality and balance. Oh yes they can have the reviews and the independent investigations.

They can say they are sorry to Sarah and others, including the unions who have also spoken out over this latest debacle. But I suspect is is beginning to fall on deaf ears.

There is one question the BBC needs to answer in my book. When will they realise actions speak louder than words?

Or to put it another way louder than a slogan on a coffee cup.