‘My Countryfile fans only ask about clothes’
ELLIE HARRISON, the Countryfile presenter, has expressed frustration that the only fan mail she gets is in praise of her clothes.
While male presenters are asked about countryside issues, Harrison receives a different kind of attention.
“‘Where do you get your boots from?’ That’s all I ever seem to get. And people always seem to comment on how a woman looks,” she said. Harrison said she stays away from social media in case the feedback is less than flattering. “I don’t engage with Twitter conversations because I’m frightened it will ruin my day. I prefer not to look at all,” she told Radio Times.
She has said in the past that Countryfile producers told her to look “less Hollywood” and that her blonde hair was “too present” on camera.
That contrasted with the treatment of Miriam O’reilly, the former Countryfile presenter, who won an age discrimination case against the BBC after she was dropped from the lineup. She claimed that a director suggested she try Botox, while a cameraman gave her a can of hair dye to cover up her greying roots.
Next week, viewers will see Harrison present Autumnwatch on BBC Two with Chris Packham. He also gets mail about his looks. “I refuse to answer those because I consider them trite,” he said.
Viewers often send him photographs of creatures and ask: ‘What is this?’ Packham said: “They’re usually poorquality photos taken at great distance, of something occupying three pixels. The answer is always either cockchafer – a species of beetle emerging in May, which confounds everyone – or a solitary wasp, or a hairy caterpillar.”