Richard and Judy were first, claiming blissful ignorance when their Channel 4 show was caught making money from callers who would never make it to air.

Jo Wiley was equally unaware when a ‘competition winner’ on her show turned out to be a member of staff, despite the segment in question being pre-recorded.

And now Ant and Dec claim no knowledge of the fact that callers to their Saturday Night Takeaway were charged money to enter competitions and then discarded if they weren’t sufficiently photogenic or living in the right part of the country. Yet they are executive producers of the show.

These celebrities – and more – all claim to be innocent in the premium rate phone scandal plaguing British broadcasting, and we have no reason to disbelieve them. But the fact remains that they should have known what was going on. They aren’t just hired voices, but the interface between ourselves and the workings of the show.

Like a newspaper editor, they are the public faces of their programmes and should be the first to go at the end of any inquiry. Not for being complicit in any wrongdoing, but for precisely the opposite: being ignorant of misdemeanours carried on all around them.

Yet the networks have an interest in overlooking this fact, only too aware that it’s those famous faces and voices that pull in the crowds.

We’ll force out a back-room boy instead, shall we? He’ll not be missed, and then we can say we’ve done our bit.

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