"Beginning from Firefox version 23, Firefox web browser from Mozilla has removed the UI to disable and enable the JavaScript (JS) on web pages from “Content” tab of web browser’s Options menu."
Not the person you replied to, but to add to the subject, just uBlock Origin on Chrome and the page loads in a second or two, with 11 elements blocked. If I also disable Javascript(1), it loads even faster, but the difference between the two is on the order of half a second, so minimal in practice.
BBC is a bad choice as they don't have traditional ads, just ones for their own content.
Another note: the preference to disable JS is not surfaced in Firefox unless you go to about: config, so it is a little fiddly.