More over 50s for TV

The BBC has been accused of being ageist by The Anchor Trust, leading provider of housing and care for the elderly. It seems that with only 20 per cent of people on the channel being over 50, including presenters and actors, this is sending out the wrong message that over 50s are past it. In comparison, ITV1 had 31 per cent of people over 50. The figures came from the monitoring of all five terrestrial channels over a week's period. The highest number of older people were shown on BBC2.

Anchor's chief executive Jane Ashcroft claimed that people over 50 were not fairly represented and called for TV executives to "embrace the wealth of talent and experience" that older people could offer.

Whilst the BBC responded by saying it welcomed the research, and was delighted to see that BBC2 represented older people, a spokesman said that: "We do not believe a one-week sample study is an accurate reflection of the BBC's output throughout the year." He quoted a number of older people represented on the channels including Sir David Attenborough, Sheila Hancock, Julia Somerville and Arlene Phillips, who was embroiled in an age war recently and replaced on Strictly Come Dancing by the much younger Alesha Dixon.

What's this?