THE Scots broadcaster, Kirsty Young, is reported to be not especially “fired up by complaints that TV bosses discriminate against older women”.
In a report in today’s Herald of an interview with the Radio Times magazine, she is quoted saying: “Here’s the thing: I know I didn’t get the job [at Channel 5] because of my looks, which are average, but because they thought I could do the job.”
The presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs is a former STV News presenter who was recruited, aged 27, to present the news for Channel 5.
The Herald article, on page five, is headed: ‘Desert Island Discs host Young unmoved by ageism concerns’.
The 43 year-old is further quoted, as saying: “The idea that you have to be young and beautiful to be on TV is boring, although when you see [former Strictly Come Dancing judge] Arlene Phillips being hoiked off, there’s probably still an argument.
“It’s not a drum I want to bear. I don’t wake up and think I must storm the barricades, althouth I don’t want to be told in ten years that I’m not allowed on television.”
