Mary Beard ‘cut’ from US episodes of Civilisations

PROFESSOR Mary Beard has accused a US broadcaster of editing her episodes of Civilisations to be more anodyne, saying her on-screen appearances had been cut.

The scholar, who hosted two episodes of Civilisations for the BBC, said the edits for American channel PBS had central arguments erased and her on-screen contributions reduced.

Prof Beard added: “[I] can’t help think that there is something about a creaky, 63-yearold, grey-haired lady that doesn’t quite fit the bill. But I am probably smelling a rat where there isn’t one!”

She urged viewers to watch the full BBC version online.

A spokesman for PBS said: “We value Ms Beard’s contributions to the series, and regret to learn of her criticism, however the PBS version was always intended to be a different presentational style from the BBC version.”