The BBC has agreed not to screen an interview with George Michael after the pop star complained that an admission that he refuses to take an HIV test was “too personal”.

BBC bosses bowed to pressure from the gay singer to pull the interview, given to Stephen Fry for a BBC Two documentary about HIV in Britain.

The capitulation raised new concerns about the influence of celebrities over BBC editorial decisions. A recent report criticised the BBC for pandering to celebrities in its coverage of public policy issues.

Programme-makers had leaked details of the revealing interview Michael gave for the two-part programme, Stephen Fry: HIV And Me. Fry asks why HIV has “fallen off the radar” even though 70,000 people live with the virus in Britain today.

Ross Wilson, producer, said: “George says he does not believe in tests. He says he finds the wait for results too harrowing and that he hasn’t had a test since at least 2004 due to his fears it might be positive.” Fry challenged Michael’s reluctance during the interview. He argues that more than a third of those infected do not know they carry the virus, even though HIV tests take 15 minutes.

Fry took an HIV test on camera, which proved negative. But there are three times as many HIV-positive Britons now compared with ten years ago, according to the film.

Michael, 44, asked the BBC to remove the interview, citing sensitivities over his former partner, Anselmo Feleppa, who died of an Aids-related illness in 1995. A spokesman for Michael said: “On reflection, he felt it was too close and too personal a journey. It was too personal for Anselmo’s family to revisit.”

The programme has been reedited and given a new transmission date next month. The singer said that he planned to form a civil partnership with his partner, Kenny Goss.

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