Kevin Spacey blasted the Beeb over talent shows like Andrew Lloyd Webber's Maria and I'd Do Anything Andrew Stuart / PA.

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KEVIN Spacey has lashed out at the BBC for televising musical talent shows like I'd Do Anything and Any Dream Will Do.

The Hollywood actor, and artistic director of Waterloo's Old Vic Theatre, has accused the BBC of effectively handing 13 weeks of free advertising to Andrew Lloyd Webber with the talent searches.

The latest, I'd Do Anything, is an open contest to find hopefuls to play Nancy and Oliver in a restaging of Lionel Bart's musical version of Oliver Twist. Lord Lloyd Webber sits on the judging panel, although this show is being produced by his friend Sir Cameron Mackintosh.

It follows similar programmes for The Sound of Music and Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat, both produced by Lord Lloyd Webber.

"I felt that was essentially a 13-week promotion for a musical - where's our 13-week programme?" Spacey said in a BBC interview.

He said he had spoken to the BBC's top brass about his concerns but had yet to receive any direct response.

And he called on the corporation to restore its old Play for Today strand – a TV home for new drama which, during the 1970s and early 1980s, produced such landmarks as Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party and Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff.

Spacey said it was "great" people were getting "interested in the West End and theatres", but he thought the BBC's talent shows were "crossing the line" and "unfair".

He said a TV series about the theatre "to help kids find their own sense of self-esteem, confidence and ability to collaborate" would be better – but added: "These are interesting ideas, now they're not sexy so maybe they don't want to put them on air."

The BBC said it "always reflected" other West End shows in its talent programmes, and stressed its "longstanding commitment as a patron of the arts".

A spokeswoman pointed out that the corporation had no commercial interest in the West End productions of Oliver!, Joseph, or the Sound Of Music.