Dimbleby: Ageism in TV is a 'crazy waste of talent'

There is a section among television executives who are always being hammered - quite wrongly in my view - to get the biggest possible audience, and [they are told] attractive young women will bring in a bigger audience than less attractive, older women - to say nothing of less attractive older men, like me.

That's the way the TV - not just the BBC - industry works. And I think it's wrong. If you look at American TV you'll find it keeps women at work. They use their experience in that same way that they would use John Simpson's experience or mine, such as it is. It's just a cultural shift that's needed. And I agree that it is demeaning to women and I also think it's a crazy loss of talent.