Source: Daily Mail/ Amanda Platell
Picture the scene. BBC bosses haul in the 81-year- old Bruce Forsyth and say: ‘Thanks for making Strictly Come Dancing one of our most popular family entertainment shows ever, Brucie, but we’ve decided you’re passed it.
‘We’re replacing you with Peter Andre. He may not know much about dancing, but he looks good in his skimpies.’
Unthinkable, isn’t it? Yet equally absurd is the decision by the Beeb to sack the show’s vastly experienced, gloriously acerbic judge Arlene Philips, 66.
Her mooted replacement? The pneumatic 30-year-old Alesha Dixon, a pop singer with even fewer facial expressions than Amanda Holden and about half as many brain cells.
Alesha’s only qualification for the job is that she won the last series of Strictly by wearing as few clothes as possible – a ‘talent’ I’m sure will be on prominent display if she joins the judging panel for the forthcoming series.
Contrast little Miss Cleavage with the witty and wise Arlene – a woman passionate about her profession, with a lifetime of choreography to draw on – who remains unfalteringly frank and fair in her verdicts.
She is every bit as vital to the show’s popular appeal as her fellow judge, 65-year- old Len Goodman, who’s another wise old bird. So why isn’t he being asked to step aside? Easy. He’s a man. And men at the Beeb aren’t limited by their age. Women, on the other hand, are cast on the scrap heap as soon as that first grey hair sprouts.
It is outrageous that any organisation, but especially a publicly-funded one like the BBC, is allowed to behave in such a blatantly biased manner.
Part of the success of Strictly – and I am an unashamed devotee – is that it managed to appeal to all classes, sexes and generations.
Chucking out Arlene for a seminaked pop poppet is an insult to every woman watching, young or old – a signal that we’re valued only for the way we look, not for our wisdom, experience and hard work.
Not that we should be surprised. Arlene is merely the latest in a long list of women of a certain age treated appallingly by the BBC – a cravenly PC organisation when it comes to minority rights, but as ageist and sexist as a Premier League football team’s locker room when it comes to its own female presenters.