Gloomy outlook for BBC weather

THE BBC is facing the loss of another screen favourite - its chief weatherman, Bill Giles.

Mr Giles, 59, who has been with the BBC for 25 years, says he is fed up with cutbacks, most notably the axeing of The Weather Show on BBC2. "I just could not understand it," he said. "It was rating well and it cost next to nothing. You do think at the back of your mind, if that's the attitude, why soldier on?"

The BBC spends just over pounds 3m a year on its weather output of more than 100 bulletins a day across the corporation and has cut budgets over the last year. BBC bosses will try to persuade Mr Giles to stay, but at the weekend he was despondent, saying: "There is so much hassle that it's no longer worth the bother. I came here to present the weather, but now I spend more time on internal politics."

If Mr Giles does decide to follow in the footsteps of the sports presenter Des Lynam and quit the corporation, candidates to succeed him will include his deputy, Helen Young, and the presenters John Kettley and Peter Cockroft.