Eccentric astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has claimed that TV is worse today because the BBC is run by women.

The presenter of The Sky At Night, who lives in Selsey, near Chichester, also belittled female newsreaders in an interview with Radio Times, describing them as "these jokey women".

Sir Patrick, 84, criticised the BBC for showing interesting programmes very late at night, especially the 650th edition of The Sky At Night, which was put out at 2am.

He said: "The trouble is that the BBC now is run by women and it shows: soap operas, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays. You wouldn't have had that in the golden days.

"I would like to see two independent wavelengths - one controlled by women, and one for us, controlled by men. I think it may eventually happen."

The TV veteran also said he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than appear on Celebrity Big Brother and he compared the soap opera EastEnders to diarrhoea.

When asked about his television "guilty pleasure", he said: "I used to watch Doctor Who and Star Trek, but they went PC - making women commanders, that kind of thing. I stopped watching."

Sir Patrick has presented The Sky At Night since April 1957, making him the longest-serving television presenter.

The xylophone-playing cricket enthusiast was knighted and appointed as a member of the Royal Society in 2001.

His interview in the next edition of Radio Times is part of the magazine's Great British TV survey, which asks TV celebrities for their thoughts on the current state of British television.

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