With the BBC highest paid performers list you also have to factor in the hidden payments.

Graham Norton for example, listed at £610k per year, however this is only his direct pay. The production company that makes The Graham Norton Show is called So Television and was at one time owned by Norton but he sold it. Part of the agreement however is that Norton still does presenting for them. In 2015, he was paid £2.52million in “presenter fees, production fees and royalties” from that production company. The BBC still commissions and broadcasts the GN Show and pays So TV to do it. This means that the BBC pays GN indirectly to present the GN Show, this on top of the £610k they pay him directly.