WCXX

Almost 300 BBC staff, including presenters, editors and technicians, were sent to the Somerset festival

For an hour on Saturday coverage was broadcast simultaneously on BBC 2, BBC3 and BBC4, and a live stream was provided online.

But the BBC were unable to show the full Rolling Stones set, which has since been described by some critics as the greatest show on earth.

They only showed the last hour of the two hour live set, and could not show the encore, after a rights dispute.

On Saturday afternoon just 800,000 watched the festival, compared with 2.6million who tuned in to Wimbledon on BBC1 and 849,000 who watched Midsomer Murders on ITV.

A BBC spokesman said the viewing figures were around three times higher than the average for the timeslot on BBC2 and almost a million went to their website to watch it online.

After the aged rockers took to the pyramid stage on Saturday night some of their bizarre requests have been revealed.

Ronnie Wood is said to have wanted a tube of the adhesive on hand in case his porcelain dental veneers fell out, Keith Richards reportedly demanded shepherd's pie cooked to his own recipe with HP sauce on the side, Sir Mick is said to have demanded £25 moisturiser Super Flight Cream before taking to the stage, while Charlie Watts wanted a comfortable chair in his yurt.