FORMER Eastenders star Danniella Westbrook said she’s so fed up with the BBC she hasn’t bothered renewing her TV licence.

The actress – who played Sam Mitchell on Albert Square – said the current standard of programming puts her off tuning in.

Danniella, 48, slammed the BBC for being "out of touch" and she said the way they’d handled the Jimmy Savile scandal had also changed her views on an organisation which she once adored working for. 

“To be perfectly honest I don't pay a TV licence, so I don't watch the BBC. Long, long gone are the days of Only Fools and Horses and great comedy and great drama that they made," Danniella told GB News.

"For me, personally, I find their morning breakfast show very stuffy.

"It just doesn't appeal to me, I find myself flipping to other channels that have more and different opinions on them. They're very one-sided."

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The TV star also hit out at the famous organisation for failing to cater to working-class people. 

Speaking to Mark Dolan, Dannniella continued: “It doesn't really work for the working classes I don't think.

"Also, I don't really tend to associate or agree with a channel that advocates a person like Jimmy Savile over young people and actors and people coming up through the ranks that suffered at the hands of this abuser. I can't condone it, I'm sorry.”

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It is thought Savile sexually abused up to 1,000 young girls and police reckon he was one of the country's most prolific sex offenders.

At the height of his fame, Savile attracted audiences of 20 million and he was knighted for his charity work in 1990.

But following his death in 2011, aged 84, an ITV documentary revealed he had used his roles at various organisations – including hospitals, prisons and the BBC – as a cover to abuse hundreds of children.

Danniella also went on to speak about the culture change within the BBC and how she has seen a huge change in demographics within the organisation. 

“If I was still there, this would have been my 32nd year at the Beeb. I’m BBC homegrown and proud of it, to be perfectly honest.

"I've seen a huge change there. A huge, huge change there in the demographics and back in the late 80s, early 90s, it was a very fun and free place to work and it was very good and very fair.

“But I think nowadays it’s a lot more stuffy and it is what it is. But there are a lot more channels on TV now, thank goodness, for people like me to work on. I just don't think they cater for the working class, even in their dramas and soap operas. 

“The storylines and things they run, I think that's shown."

"We don't get things like Only Fools and Horses and things like the great things we used to have. It just doesn’t make TV like that anymore.”

Revealing how she has never watched EastEnders, she added: “I've never watched EastEnders,  to be honest I’m a Corrie fan.”

It comes after Danniella comes after she made a TV comeback in an interview with Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary on This Morning.

Telling the hosts she's "happy to be alive", Danniella – who has famously battled cocaine addiction – said: "I'm working through lots of stuff still, but putting the drugs down was hard, but keeping the ego down too.

"It's a really hard balance but for me. I found a fantastic therapist, she said you need to deal with this and this and this, and own your crap and I said 'no'.

"She said 'you need to,' and Idid a lot of inner child work, spiritual therapy.

"For me at 8 and 9 years old, coming into the studio here, into this building, is hard for me because of growing up here in the industry.

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"But I worked on that stuff and it's behind me.

"I go to loads of meeting, I have a sponsor and the 12 step process. I check in every day."

Danniella, who is thought to have blown £250k on drugs in the past, previously told how she is now learning how to “face her fears” when it comes to her addiction issues.

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