Interview with DJ Kershaw pulled

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A Radio 4 interview with BBC DJ Andy Kershaw about "rebuilding his life and career" has been pulled.

In December, Kershaw, 49, was given a suspended six-month prison sentence after breaching a restraining order banning him contacting his ex-partner.

The BBC said it had not been possible to provide an "appropriate degree of privacy" to "other parties involved".

The On The Ropes programme, presented by John Humphrys, had been due to air on Tuesday at 0900 BST and 2130 BST.

The edition of the programme, which looks at "the lives of successful people who have weathered storms in their careers", was pulled on Tuesday morning.

The programme was recorded and edited very close to the day of broadcast, hence the lateness of the decision to cancel BBC statement

A BBC statement said: "The aim of the programme was to explore the events leading to Kershaw's breakdown and his subsequent efforts to recover, whilst providing the other parties involved with an appropriate degree of privacy.

"This, however, did not prove possible."

"The programme was recorded and edited very close to the day of broadcast, hence the lateness of the decision to cancel."

The statement said that Kershaw's "behaviour throughout the interview was in no way an issue and had nothing to do with the decision to pull the programme".

Anger management

Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer, writing on the station's blog, said: "We were mindful of the background and, in particular, the strained domestic circumstances surrounding the break-up of Andy Kershaw's long-term relationship and the legal order, the result of which makes it very difficult for him to have significant access to his children."

Kershaw had been jailed in January 2008 for breaking a restraining order which banned him from seeing Juliette Banner - the mother of his two children.

He was released in March.

In December, he was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years for again breaching a restraining order.

The sentence was given on condition he attended anger management, drug and alcohol courses.