Fiona: BBC wouldn’t have picked me for Question Time ten years ago
SHE became Question Time’s first female host this year – but Fiona Bruce fears she would not have got the job as recently as ten years ago due to sexism at the BBC.
The 55-year-old mother of two said the corporation has made great strides following the storm over its gender pay gap.
‘The BBC has come a long way in equal pay. It’s come the furthest of all in the representation of women on screen... that’s really changed,’ she told Good Housekeeping.
‘Would I have got a job on Question Time ten years ago, assuming I was good enough? I very much doubt it. That is not an issue any more.
‘Things have definitely improved, and definitely for older women. I’m perfectly phlegmatic about the nature of the job. That’s just the way it is. These decisions get made. It’s brutal, but that’s how it is and I’m fortunate enough to have been on the positive end of it for many years.’
On getting older, she said: ‘The face I see in the mirror every day is not how I feel inside.
‘That’s because, since my 40s, I’ve had some of the best challenges career-wise, so I haven’t felt ageing is a problem.’
Of taking over from David Dimbleby in January, she admitted: ‘I was incredibly nervous to start with, more nervous than I’ve been in years. ‘That has eased off now, but Question Time is not a programme that you can relax into.’ After being announced as the show’s new host in January, she described Dimbleby as ‘one of my television heroes’, adding: I am thrilled and not a little daunted to be stepping into his shoes.’
As well as hosting Question Time, Miss Bruce also presents Fake or Fortune, Antiques Roadshow and news bulletins. She is one the BBC’s highest-paid stars, earning an estimated £800,000 a year.
The corporation handed huge pay rises to a string of women – as well as pay cuts to some men – after it emerged that female staff were being paid thousands of pounds less than male colleagues in similar roles.