BBC presenters Liz Kershaw and Sandi Toksvig tell of ‘being groped’ at work

The 54-year-old claimed she was “once very unpleasantly groped” while she was broadcasting by “a famous individual who shall remain nameless”.

Toksvig also told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show she was not surprised by allegations of inappropriate behaviour as she “had heard those stories when I was working at the BBC”.

She said: “When I told staff afterwards what had happened, everybody thought it was amusing. There was a sort of ‘shrugged shoulder’ approach to the whole thing.”

Her comments follow former Radio 1 DJ Liz Kershaw, who said she was “routinely groped” while on air by a colleague.

Kershaw has admitted that jokes about Saville, who left the BBC shortly after she joined,had been common amongstaff.

Concerns are growing about the Jim’ll Fix It host’s possible past. Tapes of Radio 1 programme Savile’s Travels dating to 1975 have been released from the BBC’s archives and given to police.

In one recording, Savile can be heard making a girl promise that he is “the only one” in her life. The girl can be heard pleading “get off me” and “get off my backside” in a separate clip. It is not known whether the exchange was broadcast.

More than 40 women have now contacted police forces, national newspapers and the BBC itself to air accusations of suffering sexual abuse at the hands of the presenter.

Among the catalogue of alleged victims is one man, who claimed he was molested at the age of 12 by the children’s TV presenter.

The teacher, who is now in his forties and did not wish to be named, said he had been groped by Savile on a day out.

He said: “When I told my family later, they said I was imagining it and that Jimmy Savile was a good man, but I’ve always known he was a paedophile.”

The list of allegations to surface in the past week have not been limited to claims from members of the general public.

Sue Thompson, who worked at BBC Leeds in the 1970s, has alleged she walked in on Savile sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Presenter Coleen Nolan has claimed she was begged by Savile to join him at his hotel suite after appearing with him on Top Of The Pops in 1979.