He's 'pompous and deluded'. But did he knife Rod Liddle?

Rod Liddle has accused the BBC's veteran presenter David Dimbleby of having a hand in his removal from the editorship of the flagship Today programme.

He identified Dimbleby as the person who comes closest to fitting the description of an "unutterably pompous, deluded, superannuated grey-haired tele- vision presenter" who reputedly rang BBC executives demanding Liddle be sacked.

Liddle was forced out of his post as editor of the Radio 4 programme after making disparaging comments in a news- paper column about the Countryside Alliance and its pro-hunting Liberty and Livelihood march.

Speaking at a private meeting in London, in front of an audience of about 120 of his fellow professionals, Liddle alleged that Dimbleby – or someone answering his description – was in the back of a chauffeur-driven limousine looking through the day's press cuttings, brought to him by a junior BBC employee, when he spotted the newspaper article which effectively ended Liddle's stewardship of the Today programme.

Dimbleby is alleged to have "spluttered" to his driver and the BBC employee that he intended to have Liddle "sacked" – and to have used his mobile phone there and then to put the threat into effect.

The allegation was emphatically denied by the BBC yesterday. A spokeswoman said: "Yes, Rod may have named David, but it's absolutely ludicrous. It is not the case, and never has been. What would David have to gain by doing that?"

The BBC's denial left open the possibility that Liddle may have got the wrong name and that some other prominent figure may have acted in the way attributed to Dimbleby.

Liddle's stint as the longest-serving editor of Today came to an end in September, when executives told him that he must choose between his BBC post and a weekly column he contributed to The Guardian. In his column on 25 September, he had attacked the main pro-hunting pressure group, the Countryside Alliance, suggesting that their activities served to remind people why they voted Labour in 1997.

His comments alarmed BBC executives, who feared it would open the Today programme to an accusation of bias. Their suspicions were confirmed by a leader article in The Daily Telegraph accusing Liddle of "blatant bias, animus and even party allegiance".

In a subsequent Guardian column, Liddle also implied that his employers had been influenced by angry telephone calls from an unnamed television presenter, whom he described as "unutterably pompous, deluded, superannuated [and] grey-haired." Liddle had not previously identified Dimbleby, but named him at a meeting on Thursday organised by the Radio Academy and chaired by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari.

Ferrari said: "I read back to him his own comments, and asked him whether this was David Dimbleby. He confirmed it. I then asked him about the word 'deluded', but did not get a very clear answer."

Liddle's remarks are an insight into the large egos and intense personal feuds in the world of broadcasting. During the same discussion, he praised the current BBC director general, Greg Dyke, but was noticeably less warm about his predecessor, John Birt.

He was also full of praise for one of Today's two star interviewers, John Humphrys, but not for his colleague, James Naughtie. One questioner asked Liddle, if he were up a tree with Humphrys and Naughtie on the ground surrounded by wolves, and room enough only to pull one of them to safety, which one he would save.

He replied: "John, without question, because Jim would be able to ingratiate himself with the wolves."

One member of his audience said: "He was very embarrassed at being reminded that he had said that Radio 5 Live presenters had the IQ of a squid, now that he is working with 5 Live."