Is Paxman, 66, in denial? He brands OAPs ‘virtual corpses on the verge of incontinence’

HAVING become a pensioner last year, some may have thought that Jeremy Paxman would deploy his invective in support of others who have reached the autumn years of their lives.

But the TV presenter, now 66, has found himself embroiled in a dispute with readers of Mature Times, a free newspaper aimed at the over-50s, after claiming the publication’s target market was comprised of “virtual corpses” who were “on the verge of incontinence”.

Writing in the Financial Times, Paxman launched into a furious diatribe against the publication, prompting its publisher to claim the presenter was in denial about his age, and like “Jeremy Clarkson without the charisma”.

The University Challenge presenter said that he had come across a copy of Mature Times in a hotel. He wrote: “This must be the most unfashionable publi- cation in Britain. Who wants to be called ‘mature’, like an old cheese? We all know that ‘mature’ means on the verge of incontinence, idiocy and peevish valetudinarianism. They might as well have named it the ‘Surgical Stocking Sentinel’ or ‘Winceyette Weekly’. The paper is adorned with advertisements for hearing aids, recliner chairs, copper insoles, stairlifts, devices to help you in and out of the bath, and Your Life After Death, a book written by someone called ‘Joseph’ who, apparently, is dead.

“I should rather be keeping company with Joseph than looking forward to any of these products: why do the people who run these dreary publications assume that, apart from a cruise somewhere in the company of other virtual corpses, this sort of stuff is all we want?”

Andrew Silk, the publisher, responded: “At the sprightly age of 66 you are indeed one of the 12 million people over 65 in this country – get over it!”