Chris Evans cries in court over radio team's split

The broadcaster Chris Evans wiped away a tear at the High Court yesterday when he described the break-up of the "fairytale" team that had appeared with him on his Virgin Radio breakfast show.

In the witness box, Mr Evans said he had decided to act to improve the show because two of the team ­ John Revell and Holly Samos ­ had not been performing well. But he had been upset because the team had been together for six years and had been "through hell and high water together".

He said: "We were friends. We'd been through marriages, births and deaths, literally. It had been a fairytale. But we had to address the situation."

Mr Evans faltered and appeared to wipe away a tear but rejected the offer of a break from the judge, Mr Justice Lightman. Mr Evans was giving evidence on the second day of the action he has brought against SMG, the company he sold Virgin Radio to in 1999 but which then dismissed him.

He is claiming a breach of contract and wants the five million shares worth £8.6m owed to him as the third payment of his deal with SMG. The company is counter-suing for breach of contract, claiming he refused to accept the authority of the station's new management; that his behaviour brought Virgin Radio into disrepute, and that he missed broadcasts after going on a drinking spree.

The broadcaster, who made £70m when SMG bought Virgin Radio from him, has been accused by SMG of "overbearing arrogance". Yesterday he agreed he was capable of acting with a "bitter and self-centred display of arrogance".

Geoffrey Vos QC, for SMG, said Mr Evans had gone on an all-night drinking binge after the team had split up, when he was seen in various pubs and later at a lap-dancing club. The broadcaster said: "I can't remember it, it must have been good." He rejected the suggestion that his absence from work the next day was because he was too drunk and hungover, saying that he had taken the day off because he had been "emotionally shattered" by the affair.

Earlier Mr Vos said to Mr Evans: "You do everything to the nth degree: you work hard, play hard and when you get drunk you get rip-roaringly drunk." Mr Evans replied: "Yes but I had a drink yesterday and didn't get drunk", although he added later: "I have been drunk thousands of times and turned up thousands of times for radio shows."

He told the court he felt that the arrival of a "scary'' new controller for the station, Paul Jackson, would act as a catalyst for changes he had felt were needed to revive his programme. He said: "I was caught between trying to please the team and trying to please Virgin Radio." He denied that he had made changes without consulting the station.

Mr Evans confessed he never read the contract he had signed with Virgin Radio and was only aware of his obligations to behave as a "first-class" radio presenter in the most general terms. He also said he did not know precisely how much he was paid, which the court was told was £1.75m a year. "I would not have been surprised if the cheques had been made to a firm in the Outer Hebrides. I had no idea where the cheques went or which account they went into."

He rejected suggestions that his contract had bound him to play the music stipulated by the station's management. He added: "When the show was fine, I broke all the rules and nobody said a word."

The hearing continues.