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The strike was staged by members from the National Union of Journalists, Bectu and Amicus over BBC director general Mark Thompson's plans to axe 3,750 jobs.

It is understood that up to 9,000 staff have joined the 24-hour walkout including high-profile BBC presenters Natasha Kaplinsky, Jeremy Vine and Fiona Bruce.

'Newsnight' presenter Jeremy Paxman has also told programme bosses that he will not cross union picket lines.

However, Radio 1 breakfast show presenter Chris Moyles and Radio 2 morning host Terry Wogan turned up as normal.

Charlotte Simon, a spokeswoman for Bectu, said: "We are hoping that essentially people will not come to work. And we can talk to some people who come in and they may join us.

"As many staff as we could get are going to be picketing and we are hoping that some people who did not put their names down are going to join the picket line as well."

BBC executives made the decision to axe all BBC live shows last week because the lack of technical staff would make it too difficult to broadcast the shows.

News 24 is expected to be the hardest hit by the strike with reports indicating only three out of the 40-strong team are due to come into work today.

It could mean that inexperienced presenters and managers may have to go on air to present.

BBC staff will also strike on May 31 and June 1 in protest at Thompson's proposed cuts.

It had initially been feared that the FA Cup could be hit, but the crown jewel football tournment, which saw Arsenal beat Manchester United on penalites, was spared.

As well as 'Today' and 'Newsnight', strike action will disrupt filming on BBC soap stalwarts 'EastEnders' and 'Holby City', although pre-recorded shows are likely to go out in their normal slots.

Union members voted for strike action after talks broke down following a three-hour meeting between Thompson last month.

The strikes were seen by the unions as unavoidable because the BBC director general was not prepared to delay the proposed cuts to allow an "in-depth discussion" about the future of the corporation.

Thompson could only promise that no redundancies will be made until June, but could not guarantee that all the job cuts would be voluntary.

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