Arts chief hits back after Bragg and Dimbleby say BBC has lost its will'

The BBC's head of arts has hit back at criticism from broadcasting stalwarts David Dimbleby and Melvyn Bragg over the corporation's commitment to culture programming, saying she and her team were "incredibly" committed to defending the arts.

- Nadia Khomami

Suzy Klein, the BBC's head of arts and classical music TV, told the Guardian the broadcaster's new slate of programmes spoke for itself. Her comments came after Dimbleby said he believed the BBC had "lost its will" and nobody there had "any appetite" for art, while Bragg said no one at the BBC had "the guts to fight back" and he did not care if he never worked there again.

"I massively respect David and Melvyn. I worked as Melvyn's researcher on Start the Week," Klein said. "But I would push back very strongly against [those accusations]. There's an incredibly strong and passionate commitment to the arts at the BBC, and myself and my team are defending that every single day of the week."

The former producer and broadcaster said it was difficult to doubt this "when we do 28,000 hours of arts and culture content in a year, and almost 30 million people have watched our output in the past 12 months which is nearly half the population of the UK. It's hard to say we're not making arts shows when you look at our programme."