The BBC should close down a channel to preserve funding for current affairs, according to John Sweeney, the Panorama presenter. His intervention, at the Edinburgh Television Festival, comes as the row over cutbacks at the broadcaster deepened.

Mr Sweeney, notorious for his red-faced rant at a Scientology spokesman, was one of several speakers to attack the corporation. They have followed the lead of Jeremy Paxman, who gave warning that Newsnight would become “unsustainable” if planned cuts were forced through.

Mr Sweeney said: “It would be better to close down BBC Three or BBC Four than cut current affairs again. It is bad for the soul.”

Closing BBC Three, the youth and entertainment service dependent on repeats of EastEnders and other programmes, would save almost £100 million each year. BBC Four produces its acclaimed arts and culture output on less than half that figure.

Mr Sweeney said that current affairs shows on the BBC were already “a pale shadow” of their former selves. There were empty desks and too many people on short-term contracts, he said. He added: “Trust and quality cost money.”

Lionel Shriver, the Orange Prize-winning author, condemned all British broadcasters for patronising audiences. The best-selling writer of We Need to Talk about Kevin said that the public “deserve better than How to Look Good Naked and How Clean Is Your House?”.

Meanwhile, a leading documentary maker revealed a letter, sent to him by Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, which read: “If you feed rats half rations, they work better.” Tom Roberts, the filmmaker leading a campaign to save Storyville, which faces a cut of almost half its £2 million budget, said: “The point is, when the rats are starving anyway and you take away their food, they die.”

The BBC also faced internal criticism over its coverage of environmen-tal issues. Planet Relief, a day of action designed to “save the planet”, starring figures such as Ricky Gervais, is planned for next year. Peter Horrocks, head of BBC Television News, said: “We should be giving people information, not leading them or prophesying.” Peter Barron, editor of Newsnight, said that the BBC should not campaign on climate change.

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