Rowan Atkinson: 'Miriam O'Reilly's BBC discrimination case was wrong'
Published Feb 22 2012, 20:13 GMT | By Paul Millar
Rowan Atkinson has criticised Miriam O'Reilly for her discrimination case against the BBC.The Blackadder comic actor believes that the corporation should have been allowed to freely drop the 53-year-old from Countryfile without intervention.
O'Reilly last year won a landmark case against the BBC following her axing from the rural series.
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Writing a letter to BBC Radio 4's The Media Show, Atkinson claimed that the presenter's case should have no more validity than "Pierce Brosnan complaining that he was sacked from the role of James Bond for being too old".
Atkinson went on: "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."
The 57-year-old added that "the creative industries are completely inappropriate environments for anti-discrimination legislation and that the legal tools she used should never have been available to her".
Hitting back, O'Reilly told The Guardian: "I think very few people will agree with Mr 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 added: "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.
"It was very unfortunate that I had to take legal action against the BBC for them to fairly represent women and older women. I would have liked them to have done so without me having to take action but it has already made a difference already. Mark Thompson has said it was a turning point in the representation of older women on screen."
> Fern Britton: 'Older hosts should stand aside'
If they just cancelled the entire series, would she have the same complaint? Now she may have made it harded for women just to get a hosting job for fear that they'll sue.
March 20th 2012 at 1:20pm
Having older women on the TV because of their age just doesn't work; look at Julia Somerville on the BBC News Channel - she's absolutely hopeless and simply can't do the job. She's only there because the BBC wants to show that they DO employ older women. Compare Somerville to Fiona Armstrong, who's one of the best news presenters I've EVER seen, and who presumably is there for the same reasons as Somerville. The difference between them is that Armstrong DESERVES to be there.
Don't employ older women because of their ages, employ them because of their abilities.
February 23rd 2012 at 4:55pm
53, really? and the rest.
February 23rd 2012 at 9:22am
Got to agree with Rowan here... Guess the comment of "I think very few people will agree with Mr Atkinson" shows just how far here age has addled her brains...
February 23rd 2012 at 1:48am
So she's comparing being sacked on the basis of age to the 1960's Civil Rights movement? I don't remember there being lynch mobs against older women on television! Miriam O'Reilly should think before she speaks and I agree with Rowan.
February 23rd 2012 at 12:12am(+1 like)