Senior Asian journalist at BBC denounces corporation's 'patronising' White series

BBC2 has been running the series under the banner White, suggesting that less affluent white people are "under siege".

But environmental correspondent Sarah Mukherjee claimed yesterday that BBC staff were guilty of a negative portrayal of the white working class.

She said: "I grew up on an overwhelmingly white Essex council estate.

"Funnily enough, people there had the same concerns as those in Notting Hill - a good education for their kids, a good standard of living, enough left over for a nice holiday.

"Yet listening to the patronising conversations in some newsrooms, you'd think white working-class Britain is one step away from anarchy, drinking themselves senseless and pausing only to draw benefits and beat up a few black and Asian people."

The reporter, a regular on Radio 4's Today programme, added: "Am I the only one for whom this season leaves a nasty taste in the mouth?"

The BBC has received complaints about the trailer for the season, which shows a white man's face being covered in black ink as phrases from foreign languages are written on him.

It has included the struggles of a working men's club in Bradford and a drama about a white girl who moves into a Muslim-dominated community and starts wearing an hijab.

But it has been staunchly defended by the BBC executive overseeing the series, Richard Klein.

He has claimed that many poorer whites believe they are "threatened economically and stifled socially" and that they no longer have a voice.

Mr Klein said many people interviewed for the programmes felt they could not say what they really thought for fear of being criticised.

"I wanted to change that. And I think it was important for the BBC to try and have a go at it."