Jeremy Vine thought his computer had a virus when he read Scott Mils had been sacked from BBC Radio 2 because there hadn’t been a formal announcement to staff.
Jeremy Vine thought his computer had a virus when he read Scott Mils had been sacked from BBC Radio 2.
The 60-year-old presenter was preparing for his own afternoon show on the station last month when he discovered the Breakfast Show host had been abruptly axed, and because there hadn’t been a formal announcement to BBC staff at the time, he was convinced something was wrong with his laptop or he’d been caught out by “spoof news”.
He recalled to the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I went down to have a cup of coffee before my show and the time, I remember this exactly, was 11.43am.
“I had this Chromebook which is quite new and when I opened it, it said ‘Scott Mills Sacked’ and I thought, that’s really annoying because obviously there’s a virus in the laptop. Or it’s spoof news. It looked like a stupid AI thing, you know?
“And then I hit the keys a few times and it turned out to be true. I went back upstairs and my editor had gone as white as a sheet.”
Jeremy admitted Scott’s firing – which later emerged was linked to allegations of a historic sexual offence – has been “draining and upsetting” for everyone at Radio 2.
He said: “The place is in shock and grief. It’s a really big thing to happen because the breakfast show is half of any radio station, and because he was a very popular bloke.”
The Eggheads star reached out to Scott but has not heard back from him.
He said: “I didn’t know him as well as some others but I did very much like him and got on very well with him. I did message him just to say, ‘I hold you in the highest regard and I wish you all the best.’ At the time I didn’t know all the facts. I still don’t.”
The allegation, understood to relate to a period between 1997 and 2000, was investigated by police and later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Scott confirmed he was interviewed under caution in 2018 and that a file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, which concluded the threshold for charges had not been met and the investigation was closed in 2019.
The BBC has since acknowledged it was aware of the investigation from 2017 but allowed Scott to remain on air until his contract – reported to be worth £360,000 annually – was terminated within days of a complaint last month.
Jeremy questioned whether Tim Davie, the outgoing BBC director-general was keen to deal with the issue for his successor Matt Brittin.
He said: “It might be why it was all done so quickly, I just don’t know…
“It seems like [the BBC] has all the information now and for some reason they didn’t have it earlier. Why not? That must be where the questions go… I don’t know whether there was a miscommunication inside the BBC or whether Scott held something back.
“But, just to add the balancing thought here: the police went over it, the CPS decided there was no case. You’d understand if Scott thought that was it, it’s been dealt with and investigated and it’s over.”
Jeremy also hit out at disgraced former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards, who pleaded guilty in 2024 to making indecent images of children.
He said: “I’m not drawing comparisons with Huw Edwards, but Huw was not a popular person. Scott was very well-liked.
“None of that is to defend what may or may not have happened, I only know the same as you…
“[Edwards] was a very private and unknowable quantity and I think he was dealing with a lot of depression and anger, and the anger came out through malign gossip. He didn’t really have a good word to say about anyone.
“With Huw, his great skill was to bully upwards. He’s the only person I’ve ever seen who didn’t bully underlings, he bullied his bosses.”
Jeremy Vine thought Scott Mills sacking news was a computer virus
