Sir Tom Jones took a brutal swipe at the ‘cold’ BBC when the corporation axed the legend from The Voice UK’s fifth series.

The Welsh singer, 84, was an original coach with will.i.am, Jessie J, and Danny O’Donoghue when the show launched in 2012.

Despite his legendary mark on the music scene, Sir Tom was shipped out ahead of the fifth series to make way for Boy George – despite four previously successful seasons.

Sir Tom claimed that the producers told his agent he wouldn’t be ‘invited back’ just a month before filming began.

The Delilah hitmaker expressed his shock in his 2016 autobiography Over The Top and Back, that the BBC was a ‘cold place.’

The Welsh singer, 84, was an original coach with will.i.am, Jessie J, and Danny O’Donoghue when the show launched in 2012

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He wrote: ‘To say I was shocked is to put it mildly.’

‘But my shock wasn’t about the fact they had replaced me.

‘My shock was about the way they did it.’

Tom further added: ‘nobody has the right to think of themselves as a permanent fixture’.

He claimed that his management questioned the decision to replace him, BBC bosses simply said he was ‘out of contract’.

‘Indisputable as a bald statement of fact, I guess. But what a cold place the BBC is. Sometimes you wonder whether it is run by humans or a machine in the basement’, he quipped.

‘It’s a shame because I always treasured the BBC – always had this strong British attachment to it.’

 While he was off air Sir Tom ‘liked’ tuning into the show, then after a one-series absence, he returned as a judge when the programme made the switch to ITV.

For the latest series, new judges LeAnn Rimes, 42, and McFly duo Tom Fletcher, 39, and Danny Jones, 38, joined veterans Sir Tom Jones and Will I Am, 49.

Despite his legendary mark on the music scene, Sir Tom was shipped out to make way for Boy George – despite four previously successful seasons

Sir Tom claimed that the producers told his agent he wouldn’t be ‘invited back’ just a month before filming began

The Delilah hitmaker expressed his shock in his 2016 autobiography ‘Over The Top and Back’, that the BBC was a ‘cold place’

It comes as this year’s series, Season 13, is proving a success as the ratings are up on last year and have consolidated across ITV1 and ITVX to 2.9 million.

ITV have reported the biggest growth in audience numbers is between 16- and 24-year-olds, which have nearly doubled, up by 93 per cent on last year.

Children viewership is up by 19 per cent, meaning under 25 viewing has increased by more than a third.

The Voice  UK continues Saturday nights on ITV1, STV and ITV