Big Brother producer Peter Bazalgette has defended the BBC's review of its political programming and criticised those who accuse the corporation of "dumbing down".

"The BBC is absolutely right to try to modernise its political programmes," the Endemol chairman told website ePolitix.

A lot of young people like voting in Big Brother and a lot of young people don't like voting in general elections

Peter Bazalgette

"Anybody who uses the phrase 'dumbing down' should be locked in a darkened room for a couple of years.

"The phrase is normally some kneejerk view not backed up by any evidence or statistics at all - just prejudice," he said.

Mr Bazalgette said that younger people were "less engaged" in politics than in the past, but added: "Whether current affairs can be reformatted for television to get a younger audience or whether we are witnessing a genuine shift away from an interest in organised politics, it is difficult to say."

Big Brother: "Anyone can leave" says Bazalgette

He also warned politicians not to draw the wrong lessons from the success of programmes like Big Brother.

"It is true that a lot of young people like voting in Big Brother and a lot of young people don't like voting in general elections.

"The reason people vote in Big Brother is not because they like sending text messages or because they like sending emails, it's because they are emotionally engaged by the programme - as they are indeed by EastEnders or Coronation Street.

"So, if, for instance, the Conservative Party genuinely believed in liberalising the drugs laws that's what they ought to espouse - I don't know if they do.

"But they shouldn't start by saying 'how shall we chase Big Brother viewers'. They should talk about things they believe in," he said.

Mr Bazalgette also denied that Big Brother had "coarsened" British culture.

"As for coarsening, these are very, very snobbish remarks. It's only recently that a certain sort of people in society got on television on their own terms.

"People like Jade, in the past if they had been on television they would have been either been found in some Man Alive documentary cast as social victims by middle class producers or been ciphers in some sort of double your money game show."

Robust

And he said that, although he "didn't particularly like" the newspaper attacks on Jade Goody in Big Brother, he felt that contestants were strong enough to take tabloid criticisms.

Iain Duncan Smith has warned the BBC over changing its politics coverage

"We picked Jade because we knew she was a robust person and she's come out of the house, she's very happy, she's made quite a lot of money, she's put all that behind her.

"If somebody is not prospering in the house, if they are not happy or not well, they come out. Anybody can leave any time they want to," he said.

Mr Bazalgette, widely seen as one of the most influential men in British TV, also praised the media's critical stance towards politicians.

"It's good we have a more sceptical media, and that we have a more sceptical media makes it inevitable that politicians will be more wary of it and attempt to control it more.

"I think you might as well complain that it rains in the winter - and the summer."