Ageism is fact of live on TV
Kate Humble is resigned to losing her job: “Old women don’t get on the telly”
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| Humble said she would be happy to run her farm when her television career is up Photo: CHRISTOPHER JONES By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor Humble, 43, hosted Springwatch and a recent spin-off, Winterwatch, for BBC Two. Her latest programme, Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey, begins on the channel next week.
However, Humble said she will not be upset when the presenting jobs dry up.
“The reality is I’m either not going to want telly or telly is not going to want me. I’m not going to start sobbing into my beer because I’m getting older and old women don’t get on the telly. It’s just a fact,” she told the Radio Times.
Humble, a Telegraph columnist, claimed she would be content to retire and run her farm in Monmouthshire when she can no longer get decent television work.
“TV is a fantastic job but I have never wanted it to be my life,” she said.
Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, admitted recently that there are “manifestly too few older women” in high-profile presenting roles.
Miriam O’Reilly, a BBC presenter, won a landmark age discrimination tribunal against the corporation after she was sacked from Countryfile.
Rowan Atkinson last week defended the right to sack presenters on the basis of age, saying O’Reilly’s case was an “attack on creative free expression”.
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