BBC ageism ‘isn’t fixed’

THE BBC has a ‘serious problem’ with older women on screen and ‘does not appear to have the will’ to fix it, axed Countryfile presenter Miriam O’Reilly has claimed.

Miss O’Reilly won a £150,000 age discrimination tribunal case against the broadcaster after being dropped from the programme, aged 52, in 2009.

Writing in the latest Radio Times, the presenter said: ‘The corporation is still resisting putting older women on TV.

‘The BBC has had ten years since the promises made after my tribunal win to put its house in order… So, what has happened? Not a lot.’

She added: ‘I do not believe this is a problem to be fought out in employment tribunals… This is a problem the BBC could fix but it does not appear to have the will.’