Guess which 4-letter word Tom Jones used to describe the BBC (clue: it wasn't love)

He's since hit out at the "sub-standard" BBC for their handling of the switch, but it turns out his initial reaction was rather more colourful when the news was first broken by his son and manager, Mark Jones.

"I said, 'I don't give a f***. I enjoyed it, but if they don't want me any more, they can go f*** themselves," he reveals in a new interview with The Times.

Nearly two months on from his shock exit, the veteran singer is releasing his autobiography which also packs some punches in its discussion of the Beeb. "What a cold place the BBC is," it reads. "Sometimes you wonder whether it's run by humans or a machine in a basement."

He goes on to talk of the days when the shots were called by Bill Cotton – BBC1 controller and Managing Director of Television until his retirement in 1988: "He... knew intuitively what makes entertainment work for the British public. Sadly, there's not so much of that at the BBC today."

Jones is one of two outgoing judges from The Voice this year after Rita Ora jumped ship to The X Factor. She will be replaced by singer Paloma Faith for the new series of BBC1's talent contest which is expected to begin its fifth run in early 2016.