Cut the swearing on our screens, says ITV's Grade

Sir Michael Grade, who defected from the BBC to ITV in 2006, said the furore caused by the obscene calls made by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to 78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs should trigger a debate on taste and decency.

Speaking at a lunch with the Broadcasting Press Guild, Sir Michael said British broadcasters had become too casual in allowing swearing. He said: "I think there is a kind of pattern in the prevalence of bad language and the 'F' word is a little unrestrained.

"I don't think we take enough care of the use of the 'F' word and similar words. It used to be you would have to get a very, very senior sign-off to use that word in a show.

"Clearly not enough consideration is given to a very large section of the audience who don't want to hear that word. It seems to be rather indiscriminate now. I think we've let it go a bit and need to show more thoughtfulness over use of these words."

Mr Grade added he would be discussing stricter controls of swearing on ITV with his director of television Peter Fincham. Sir Michael, who described the Brand show in question as "horrible and indefensible on any terms", praised his former employers over their handling of the row. He said: "I have never seen the BBC act so quickly. It shows the system with the BBC Trust works."

Whether Brand or Ross recovered from the furore, he said, depended on the British public.

Sir Michael reiterated that the decision to remove Ross from presenting the British Comedy Awards next month on ITV had been agreed mutually with the star.

Moves by the BBC in the wake of the row to cut some of the high salaries paid to its stars could result in the corporation losing a number of high-profile employees. Director General Mark Thompson has been warned by the body which holds the corporation to account that big pay deals at the BBC fuel public resentment.

The Evening Standard can reveal the BBC Trust told Mr Thompson in July that there was "widespread public concern" about salaries. Nothing happened until last week when the matter gained steam after Ross who is paid £6million a year and Brand became embroiled in controversy.

Details also emerged of how 50 corporation executives were paid more than the Prime Minister, who earns £189,994 a year. Ross, 47, was suspended last week for 12 weeks. A senior BBC source said: "The top brass know they simply cannot afford both financially and in terms of PR to pay out that sort of money to a presenter again. There are going to be a lot of unhappy stars when it comes to contract renegotiations."

Among those on lucrative contracts at the BBC are Graham Norton (£2.5million a year), Jeremy Paxman (£1million a year) and Fiona Bruce (£800,000 a year).