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Atkinson: TV makers must be free to fire older presenters
Miriam O'Reilly's objection akin to 'Pierce Brosnan complaining he's not too old to play Bond'
WADING into the Countryfile ageism row, Mr Bean actor Rowan Atkinson has said the BBC should have been free to drop presenter Miriam O'Reilly without attracting accusations of age discrimination.
According to The Guardian, the 57-year-old Blackadder star said he did not blame O'Reilly for taking legal action but believed her successful age discrimination case amounted to an "attack on creative free expression".
O'Reilly won the landmark case in January 2011 after being one of four women in their 40s or 50s to be dropped from the revamped Countryfile. She never returned to the programme, instead hosting a Crimewatch spin-off, which she quit in January to set up the Women's Equality Network.
In a letter to Radio 4's The Media Show, Atkinson wrote that television was the wrong place to deal with anti-discrimination issues and O'Reilly's complaint was no more sensible than "Pierce Brosnan complaining that he was sacked from the role of James Bond for being too old".
He wrote: "If either at the outset of a TV programme, or at any time during its screen life, you want to replace an old person with a young person, or a white person with a black person, or a disabled straight with an able-bodied gay, you should have as much creative freedom to do so as you have to change the colour of John Craven's anorak."
O'Reilly, who was not invited to take part in the programme, told MediaGuardian she thought few people would agree with Atkinson. "At one time we didn't think black people should sit next to white people on a bus but fortunately we live in a fair and civilised society," she said.
"Television has an enormous influence on shaping society and how we see each other and we have got to have fair representation of everyone on TV. We can't leave it up to the whims of the so-called creatives."
The Daily Telegraph points out that the remarks come weeks after BBC director general Mark Thompson acknowledged that the broadcaster does not have enough older female newsreaders and presenters. ·
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