Craven: I quit Newsround because I’m going grey

JOHN Craven has revealed he felt pressure to leave Newsround because he was going grey and TV had ‘unfortunately’ become ‘ very youth-orientated’.

The BBC star, 79, said children’s TV used to be full of popular older presenters such as Hartbeat’s Tony Hart and Animal Magic’s Johnny Morris, but executives now only hire young stars ‘jumping up and down’.

Craven, pictured, launched Newsround in 1972, but said he felt too old for the job when he left aged 49 after more than 3,000 episodes in 1989.

The host, who has since presented Countryfile for more than 30 years, said of quitting Newsround: ‘It was very difficult.

‘ But I was more or less forced into it because the hair was going grey and I didn’t jump up and down like a lot of people expect to do. It became a very youth-orientated thing – children’s television – and so unfortunately we don’t have the Tony Hart figures, the Johnny Morris figures, the John Craven figures on children’s television [now]. They are all much younger.’ He also said he was concerned about getting pigeonholed into doing children’s TV.

The Yorkshireman added: ‘I was the editor of the programme as well and I got rather bored with being a BBC bureaucrat.

‘I thought I had better go now – I was in my late 40s – I had better go now before it is too late. ‘So I thought I would risk it.’ The star announced his departure on Saturday morning and by Monday he had a call about Countryfile. He described both shows as ‘world firsts’.

Craven said of the switch: ‘I could keep wearing jumpers so I’ve not had to wear a suit in my BBC career for about 45 years. It made leaving Newsround less hard.’ He added now it is ‘all very different – you don’t have people who are on one programme for a long, long time’.

‘Each programme has lots of different people popping up doing things. In that way I am very lucky,’ he said.