Do you remember an entry I made recently regarding ageism and sexism in telly when Strictly Come Dancing’s Arlene Philips was sacked in favour of much younger and less experienced in the field Alesha Dixon? And do you remember the comparisons I made with older male newsreaders outlasting their female counterparts on the telly? I cited Jon Snow from Channel 4 and Bill Turnbull from BBC Breakfast News as examples.

I’ve just been reading today’s Daily Mirror. I didn’t read yesterday’s but it seems they have launched an appeal to bring Arlene back, which prompted them to conduct their own little investigation.

They have an article called “Old Boys’ Networks”, and they basically mirrored my thoughts from my entry on the 14th. Spooky or what?!  They conducted an analysis on all the major channels day by day, Jon Snow and Bill Turnbull illustrated just a couple of their examples. They found that on Channel 4 the average age gap difference is 10yrs between men and women. And the biggest gap on a single day was today (Saturday), where male presenters have an average age of 60, compared to 27 for women.

I notice it’s a bit different in the States. The likes of Diane Sawyer and Barbra Walters are considered institutions. Even in their everyday news I notice the maturity of some of the anchorwomen. I’m not sure if she’s still going, but I remember up until last year 64yr old  anchorwoman Sue Simmons was still leading the evening news on their own Channel 4, NBC. I remember watching her 25yrs ago when I first went to the States! I couldn’t believe it when I saw her again last year when I went on holiday.

Don’t get me wrong. Whilst I love older men, in my job and watching them on telly (especially the more distinguished), does the article not prove that sexism and ageism is rife in TV today? C’mon telly, give us more mature birds a chance. How about tipping the scales a little more our way. We’ve still got life left in us y’know. I’m sure I have a few customers who will atest to that.

Now I’m off to make some Horlicks.