Unfair to judge Anthea for ageing

WE truly cannot have it every which way. One minute we’re throwing our hands up in horror at a face of frozen features said to belong to the now unrecognisable Renee Zellweger.

The next we’re staring aghast at photos of someone who vaguely resembles Uma Thurman but has been rendered so immobile it’s extremely difficult to tell. Yet minutes after, we’re bleating to our pals about a picture, above, of Anthea Turner, 54, looking like a 54- year- old woman.

How astounding, we take to social media to announce, that Anthea – who had committed the unpardonable sin of nipping out to the shops without first putting on full slap and spending several hours at the hairdresser – should not look exactly as she did when presenting Blue Peter on television 25 years ago.

Somehow we expect our celebrities to be suspended in aspic or pickled in brine. We’re allowed to age.

Our friends and relatives are entitled to grow older with each birthday. But anyone who has had the temerity to appear on the small or silver screen is supposed to remain precisely as we remember them way back when. It’s time to stop the hypocrisy. We cannot viably criticise over- plasticised surgically enhanced stars while slamming those who have remained as Mother Nature intended.

I saw Anthea a few weeks ago in full evening regalia looking pretty as a picture. I hope she does not take any of the armchair criticism to heart.