{"id":143440,"date":"2023-11-05T16:39:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T16:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprojectsworld.com\/?p=143440"},"modified":"2023-11-05T16:39:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T16:39:00","slug":"angela-rippon-didnt-hold-back-during-brutal-bbc-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprojectsworld.com\/celebrities\/angela-rippon-didnt-hold-back-during-brutal-bbc-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Angela Rippon didn’t hold back during brutal BBC row"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angela Rippon has revealed she demanded to know if Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson were being treated the same way when the BBC told her she was old news.<\/p>\n

The Strictly star, 79, said former director-general John Birt told her to \u201cmake way\u201d for up and coming talent when she hit 50.<\/p>\n

Angela, who was the first female journalist to read the news regularly on national TV, joined the BBC in 1966 aged 21.<\/p>\n

She presented the Nine O\u2019Clock News and had other high-profile roles including on Antiques Roadshow.<\/p>\n

But recalling the run-in with Birt in 1996, she told Saga Magazine: \u201cHe said \u2018Angela, you have to accept you\u2019ve had your day and it\u2019s time to make way for younger women coming up behind you\u2019. I remember saying to him \u2018Are you having the same conversations with Michael Parkinson and Terry Wogan?\u2019, who were both older than me.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018And what do you mean, make way for the younger ones coming up behind me?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you want to lose all that ability and knowledge? There\u2019s room for everybody\u2019. The thing is, I\u2019m still here \u2013 he is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BBC has been at the centre of ageism rows for years, including in 2009 when Strictly judge Arlene Phillips, then 66, was replaced by 30-year-old Alesha Dixon.<\/p>\n