Old but Gold

For those of you with better things to do than watch the news, the BBC has had to apologise to one of it's ex-employees after they lost at an employment tribunal.
Miriam O'Reilly was booted off Countryfile along with Juliet Morris and Michaela Strachan in 2008 when the show was given a reboot and shoved on at Sunday primetime.

She claims that her removal was down to 'ageism' and the BBC has had to issue an apology and hold it's hands up to this.

Now losing your job after 8 years is going to be painful but didn't she realise that she is in the televison entertainment industry where looks are massively important?

This is an industry that is making a drama about the last days of Fred West, a man who looked like a potato with hair and playing him will be Dominic West from The Wire who is so handsome that it should be illegal.

Miriam was on the show for 8 years as it dozed away in it's Sunday teatime slot. The BBC decided that it was time for a revamp so it cleared out the old presenters except for John Craven (who is starting to look like a Badger) and brought in Julia Bradbury and Matt Baker.

This happens all the time in the TV business but because of the BBC's unique position it becomes the whipping boy. You don't hear any public outcry when other broadcasters do the same.

Did Miriam think she was entitled to the job for life? The fact that Countryfile's ratings have improved since the change shows that it was the right thing to do.

I know I prefer watching Julia Bradbury's arse wandering around the rural bits of the UK than Miriam's saggy 53 year old one.