The troubled world of the BBC in the wake of the Jimmy Savile affair was much in my mind last Saturday as I took my seat at Oxford Playhouse for a sell-out matinee performance of Mike Bartlett’s superb play King Charles III.

Before leaving home I had been listening, with less than usual enjoyment, to Radio 2’s Pick of the Pops in the temporary charge, as he put it, of Mark Goodier.

This follows the abrupt departure of the admirable Tony Blackburn, the programme’s host since 2010, after the publication of Dame Janet Smith’s report into the Savile affair.

The Radio 2 website stated: “Tony was let go by the BBC this week after it emerged his version of events over a 1971 allegation does not tally with the corporation’s.”

Tony has very properly asked, in effect, “what allegation?” since it was withdrawn by the 15-year-old complainant, Claire McAlpine, almost as soon as it had been made.

The disc jockey says he has been “scapegoated” and “hung out to dry” by the BBC. Since he plans to sue both the corporation and its director general, Lord Hall, I must be careful what I write today. No harm can come from my saying, though, that Hall looked a pompous prat as he denounced Blackburn, fully justifying the Private Eye’s nickname for him of ‘Head Prefect’ by wearing what appeared to be a stripey school tie.

It will be interesting to see who pays the damages to Blackburn should he be successful in his claim. Will the Corporation pick up part of the tab for Hall as it has done, I was disgusted to learn, for the millionaire Jeremy Clarkson following his attack, physical and verbal, on Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon?

Strangely, I have not heard Blackburn in his own voice quoted in his defence on any news reports. Having been ‘let go’, in that mealy-mouthed phrase, he appears to have been silenced forever.

My thoughts about Savile persisted at the Playhouse for Charles III owing to the presence in the cast – in the title role indeed – of Robert Powell.

Now, to people of my generation Powell is famously the actor lucky enough to have ‘bagged’ a member of Pan’s People, the dance team whose energetic and sexy routines helped to enliven Top of the Pops, the programme identified by Dame Janet as one of Savile’s principal playgrounds for perversion.

The actor married his Pan’s Person, Babs Lord, in 1975 just before he began location filming in Morocco for Jesus of Nazareth, the movie that made his name. Their enduring union is recognised as being among the happiest in showbiz.

One naturally wonders what suspicions, if any, Babs entertained concerning Savile and whether she and her equally toothsome colleagues had any unwelcome brushes with him themselves.

Certainly, it would be intriguing to learn her views of a programme described by Dame Janet as a “moral danger” to the young girls present.

The show, she said, “effectively provided a ‘picking-up’ opportunity” for warped stars. This ought to have been realised by high-ups in the BBC, Dame Janet thought, especially in the light of a series of articles in the News of the World about sordid behind-the-scenes activities.

But, to her amazement, no senior figure in the corporation did twig what was going on, despite the rumours swirling around over Savile – rumours which I for one had been aware of throughout more than four decades in journalism.

It seems equally amazing in the light of these rumours that establishment figures were happy to cosy up to Savile.

Among them was Margaret Thatcher, who repeatedly tried to obtain a knighthood for him, despite opposition from Whitehall mandarins. They feared possible embarrassment arising from his “strange and complex” private life.

Presumably the reasons for their objections were known to Mrs T. yet she persisted in her efforts. The award was finally made as a result of her intervention in 1990.

Savile’s letters of congratulation included one from the Prince of Wales, the man eventually destined – unless Mike Bartlett’s play proves prophetic – to be crowned King Charles III.

Being pally with the prince, we learned last week, proved useful for Peter Ball, a former Bishop of Gloucester, whose serial abuse of young men went unprosecuted for decades, allegedly because the CPS was unwilling to embarrass church and crown.