Humza Yousaf accuses Alex Salmond of abusing power in office

Mr Aberdein also said that his former boss was “very, very angry” about losing his Westminster seat in 2017, believing he had been “let down” by the party.

Following the election defeat, Mr Salmond launched a show on Russian state broadcaster RT.

Ms Sturgeon said her former mentor knew how difficult the job was, adding: “Shouldn’t he have tried a bit harder to make sure that managing his ego wasn’t one of the problems that landed on my desk?”

Liz Lloyd, Ms Sturgeon’s ex-chief of staff, told the documentary: “It was a real sign that he didn’t really care how he was perceived any more.

“He was going to do what served him and not what served the party, not what served the country.”

Mr Salmond, who suspended his RT show in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said his successor had been “annoyed” because she had not been told about the show before it launched.

He added: “I wasn’t a member of parliament. The simplest thing to say was Alec makes his choices, I make mine, full stop.”

Salmond and Sturgeon – A Troubled Union will be available on BBC iPlayer from Tuesday, as well as being broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel on Tuesday and Wednesday.