Clothes Show star: I've quit paying licence fee

FORMER BBC star Jeff Banks has threatened legal action against his ex-employer after revealing he is being bombarded with “threatening” letters after binning his TV licence.

- BY RICHARD ASHMORE

Jeff, 82, presented the BBC's flagship fashion programme, The Clothes Show, and later The Clothes Show Live, from 1986 until the early 2000s.

But yesterday, the fashion designer said the BBC - once a “brilliant organ-isation” - would now have its creator John Reith “turning in his grave”.

He said he received a letter in August acknowledging he no longer wanted to have a TV licence, which currently costs £174.50 a year. Jeff added: “Since then, I've had five threatening letters sent to me insisting that if I don't get a licence I could actually be fined up to £1,000.