Tim Davie has resigned as the BBC’s director-general after five years in the role.

The chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness has also resigned.

It comes as the corporation is expected to apologise on Monday following concerns about impartiality, including how a speech by US President Donald Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama.

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The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of the US president’s speech on 6 January 2021 to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell” in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.

Mr Davie sent a message to staff on Sunday afternoon, saying it was “entirely” his decision to quit.

Admitting the BBC “is not perfect”, he said: “We must always be open, transparent and accountable.”

“While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.

“Overall, the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

Ms Turness told staff the “ongoing controversy” around the edition of Panorama “has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love.

“The buck stops with me – and I took the decision to offer my resignation to the director-general last night.

“In public life, leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down. While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”

BBC Chair, Samir Shah called it “a very difficult day”, thanking Ms Turness and crediting her with having “transformed” the corporation’s news output.

Mr Trump said Mr Davie and Ms Turness were “very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a presidential election”. In a post on Truth Social, he called it “a terrible thing for democracy!”

Mr Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, posted a triumphant two-word reaction on X, using the drinking term “shot” to describe reports that the US president was “going to war with fake news”, referring to the BBC programme, and describing Mr Davie’s resignation as a “chaser” – a drink taken after the shot to soften the taste of the alcohol.

In an interview published on Friday, she had described the BBC as “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine”.

Farage: ‘BBC’s last chance’

In a message posted on social media, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy thanked Mr Davie for leading the BBC through a period of “significant change”.

She called the organisation “one of our most important national institutions”, adding that “now, more than ever, the need for trusted news and high-quality programming is essential to our democratic and cultural life, and our place in the world”.

Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said it was “right that Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have finally taken responsibility and resigned from the BBC”.

She said: “The culture at the BBC has not yet changed. BBC Arabic must be brought under urgent control. The BBC’s US and Middle East coverage needs a full overhaul.”

Ms Badenoch said it “should not expect the public to keep funding it through a compulsory licence fee unless it can finally demonstrate true impartiality”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Sunday’s resignations “must be an opportunity for the BBC to turn a new leaf, rebuild trust and not give in to the likes of [Reform UK leader] Nigel Farage who want to destroy it”.

Mr Farage said the pair’s resignations must be “the start of wholesale change” at the BBC.

He urged the ministers to appoint “somebody with a record of coming in and turning companies and their cultures around”, preferably someone “from the private sector who has run a forward-facing business and understands PR”.

Mr Farage said: “This is the BBC’s last chance. If they don’t get this right, there will be vast numbers of people refusing to pay the licence fee.”

As well as the Panorama show on Mr Trump, the BBC has also been accused of failing to maintain its neutrality in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and over trans issues.

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The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) called for an independent inquiry into potential bias at the BBC, saying “growing bias” had been evident for “many years across a wide array of issues”.

The group claimed that, under Mr Davie and Ms Turness, the BBC had “often served as a mouthpiece for Hamas” and “gaslit” its audience “by claiming to be a bastion of ethics and truthful journalism”.

Marcus Ryder, a former executive producer of current affairs at the BBC, called the resignations “really sad”, adding that “it shows the pressure and ethical climate that the BBC is operating in, that this edit can actually bring down the director- general”.

Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom, thanked Mr Davie, saying he had led the organisation “at a time of great change and challenge”.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that a memo by a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee raised the issue, as well as other concerns about impartiality, in the summer.

Dealing with controversies

Mr Davie took the role in 2020, replacing Tony Hall.

During his time in charge of the broadcaster, he has dealt with a number of high-profile controversies within the corporation.

They include a row over former Match of the Day host Gary Lineker’s sharing of his political views, top presenter Huw Edwards being convicted of making indecent images of children, and the BBC’s broadcasting of Bob Vylan’s controversial Glastonbury performance.

There were also controversies surrounding some of its top shows, such as MasterChef and its former presenter, Gregg Wallace, as well as Strictly Come Dancing.

Mr Davie, who had a career in marketing and finance before joining the BBC’s marketing team in 2005, was previously acting director-general from November 2012 until April 2013.

He said his departure will not be immediate and that he is “working through” timings to ensure an “orderly transition” over the coming months.

A person familiar with the situation said Davie’s decision had left the BBC board stunned by the move.

Former Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter Quentin Willson has died.

The Leicester-born car dealer and motoring journalist joined the BBC show in 1991, appearing alongside the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and James May, until the original format was cancelled 10 years later.

He then moved to Channel 5 to join its rival motoring show, Fifth Gear, and did not rejoin when Top Gear relaunched in 2002.

The 68-year-old died on Saturday following a short battle with lung cancer, his family said.

In a statement, they described him as a “true national treasure” who “brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms”.

The broadcaster created and presented both Britain’s Worst Drivers and The Car’s The Star.

He went on to perform on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, where he continues to hold the lowest score in the show’s history.

He was also an avid “consumer champion”, having advocated for a number of campaigns, including helping to freeze fuel duty with his FairFuel campaign.

He recently worked “tirelessly” to make electric vehicles affordable through his FairCharge campaign, his family said.

The statement continued: “Long before it was fashionable, he championed the GM EV1 and the promise of electric cars, proving he was always ahead of the curve.

“Much-loved husband to Michaela, devoted father to Mercedes, Max and Mini, and cherished grandfather to Saskia, Xander and Roxana.

“Quentin will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who knew him personally and professionally.

“The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach.”

Davina McCall has revealed she has had breast cancer, nearly a year after she had surgery to remove a brain tumour.

The TV presenter revealed the diagnosis in a video posted to her Instagram on Saturday, saying she was “very angry” when she found out, but now is in a “much more positive place” after undergoing surgery to remove the tumour three weeks ago.

“I found a lump a few weeks ago. It came and went but then I was working on The Masked Singer and Lorraine, the TV show, and Lorraine Kelly had put signs on the backs of all the doors saying ‘check your breasts’ and every time I went for a wee, I did that,” she said.

“It was still there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought ‘I’m going to get that looked at’. I had a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago.”

McCall, 58, said the “lump” was “very, very small” and was discovered early.

“I am so relieved to have had it removed and to know that it hasn’t spread. My lymph nodes were clear, I didn’t have any removed, and all I’m going to do now is have five days of radiotherapy in January as kind of an insurance policy,” she explained.

The former Big Brother presenter thanked her medical team, family and fiance for their support, before adding: “It’s been a lot. I was very angry when I found out, but I let go of that, and I feel in a much more positive place now.

“I think my message is: get checked if you’re worried. Check yourself regularly. If you are due a mammogram, then get it done.

“I have dense breasts and I had a mammogram in August, and I was postponing the ultrasound; I just couldn’t find time to do it. Don’t do that. Get the ultrasound.”

Her breast cancer diagnosis came nearly a year after McCall revealed that she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.

She said in a video posted in November last year that chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.

McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.

She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, and currently presents ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.

In recent years, McCall has spoken regularly on women’s health and the effects of menopause in a bid to break taboos around the subject. Her 2022 book, Menopausing, won book of the year at the British Book Awards.

The same year, McCall fronted the Channel 4 documentary Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause, and told the BBC that perimenopausal symptoms caused her difficulties multi-tasking and she considered that she had a brain tumour or Alzheimer’s disease at the time.

In 2023, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting.

The presenter has previously raised money for Cancer Research UK by running the Race For Life in honour of her late sister, Caroline Baday, who died from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 50.

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Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.

She lives with her fiance, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and presents a weekly lifestyle podcast with him, called Making The Cut.