SIR - So, Des Lynam, pictured, has decided to quit his £600,000-a-year job presenting Channel 4's Countdown after only 18 months (T&A, September 30) because he had to travel up and down to Leeds, sometimes every week.

For goodness sake the man is only 64 and apparently in good health. Celebrities are grossly overpaid considering the rest of society might have to work until they are 70 for a fraction of that money.

Now perhaps TV chiefs will do what they should have done in the first place and choose a true northerner to replace the late Richard Whiteley.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford