Sir Terry Wogan believes his Radio 2 colleague Jonathan Ross may not return to the BBC after his ban.

The veteran broadcaster said he feared that Ross’s 12 week unpaid suspension for making obscene phone calls to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs could prove "terminal" for his career.

Yesterday Ross, who stands to lose £1.5m from the broadcasting blackout, announced he was stepping down as presenter of the British Comedy awards.

His Friday night BBC 1 chat show has been taken off air and last night was replaced with a re-run of the film Speed.

In a newspaper interview Wogan, whose morning show attracts the highest ratings in the country, said: “If you suspend someone of Jonathan Ross's stature without pay for three months you are diminishing not just him but also his reputation.

"What the BBC have done to Jonathan by the suspension is terminal. It is very damaging to him and I would not be surprised if he did not come back."

Ross and colleague Russell Brand left a series of explicit messages on 78-year-old Sachs’s answerphone during a pre-recorded segment on Brand’s show.

Both Brand and Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas last week resigned from the station.

Wogan has joined a string of presenters to weigh in on the scandal and resulting fall out.

Earlier today former chat show host Sir Michael Parkinson attributed Ross’s behaviour to a "fit of madness".

He told Eamonn Holmes on Radio 5 Live: “Jonathan should have more oil in his lamp frankly, more sense.

“He’s very good at his job but he’s given to fits of madness now and again and I think he had one on this occasion.”

Parkinson was less sympathetic of Brand though, adding: “He’s generously called a comedian. I can’t feel much sympathy for him.”

He said when Brand arrived at the BBC there was a feeling that "sooner or later it would put them in a very embarrassing situation".

Parkinson expressed some sympathy for Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas but added that "she was the one who invited him in" and you had to question the judgment of hiring someone who was sacked from MTV for coming to work dressed as Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks.

"The facts are he did something that was silly, obscene, tasteless and unfunny," he said. "He's generously called a comedian. I can't feel much sympathy for him. As for Jonathan, he'll come back, he'll be fine."

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