IT'S not only BBC celebrities who earn obscene sums, (Letters) Jay Hunt, labelled Chief Creative Officer, who retires from Channel 4 in September having reaped an annual salary of over half a million pounds, apparently informed the media last year that she was pulling 'Deal or No Deal' because of a fall in viewing figures from four million initially to 300,000 latterly.

Strange! Though the show was insane and silly it was nevertheless entertaining and enjoyable escapism and if anything its format had improved over the years.

I asked Channel 4 how viewing figures were compiled, was there an Orwellian mechanism in each telly which spied on what viewers were watching at any given time?

At last they confided they took a straw poll of what a limited number of viewers watched then extrapolated this on a nationwide basis.

Not a very reliable mechanism given what we know when forecasting the outcome of elections.

Still I suppose we have to thank Ms Hunt for such creative gems as 'The Undetectables' and 'First Dates'.

I doubt, however, too many actually watched these voyeuristic programmes.

It would be interesting to know, before she accepts her final pay cheque, if she had a hand in commissioning the dreadful 'Cheap, Cheap, Cheap' and its present ratings.

Mind you Sky executive billionaires are no better. Every time I switch to one of their channels instead I encounter endless ads.

With a gruff voiced Ray Winstone exhorting the impoverished to bet wisely. It is the extremes of Victorian Britain revitalised.

JAMES MARTIN,

Cowdenbeath.