Jay Hunt: age old problem
Camilla Palmer, discrimination law expert and solicitor for Miriam O’Reilly, laid down a new law for television talent recruitment, after her client won her ageism case against the BBC. Palmer said: “The lesson is that presenters and journalists should be selected by their abilities not their age.”
If that is now a legal hurdle to jump, it will send a chill wind through television executives. TV isn’t a meritocracy, where the most able rise up the ladder and the very best end up presenting prime-time hits on BBC One.
It’s as much about who your agent is, who is available and at what price and most importantly of all – because it’s TV – what you look like. There are plenty of highly able presenters and journalists who will never make it to the big time because something about their physical appearance would turn off viewers. Blame the audience, not the producers.
If a show like Countryfile is being revamped for a new, prime-time audience, casting presenters who have the profile to bring in a new audience – it appears that Ms O’Reilly didn’t meet that criteria for Ms Hunt – is bound to be a consideration.
Hunt’s mistake seems to have been not to have discussed properly with the existing team, who were bound to be upset, just what was happening to the show and why, allowing rumours that she “hated women” to run rife.
If the tribunal had found the BBC guilty of sex discrimination that would probably have been fatal for Hunt, who began her new job at Channel 4 this week, given that the case hinged on her evidence. Channel 4, committed to diversity and equality, could not command the confidence of programming talent with such a person as its Chief Creative Officer.
But the tribunal did not find for the sex discrimination claim. The ruling that the BBC, through Hunt, was guilty of “direct age discrimination and age victimisation” might have been enough to cost her the BBC One Controller’s job if she had stayed, coming as it did after high-profile rows over Arlene Phillips and Moira Stuart.
Richard Fox, Head of Employment at Kingsley Napley solicitors, said: “The judgment brings into sharp focus the need for establishing transparent and objective selection criteria. Given the comments made about some of the recent BBC selection decisions, it might be said they had this judgment coming to them.”
The BBC’s immediate response, an apology for getting it wrong and promises of additional training on the appointment of presenters and ”new guidance on fair selection for presenter appointments” suggests that senior executives accept the affair has been highly damaging.
So Hunt’s high-flying reputation has suffered a severe bruising as she arrives at Channel 4, where she will have to firefight over Frankie Boyle’s excesses, which may result in a serious Ofcom censure.
Channel 4′s need to connect with younger audiences makes it even more difficult to ensure that presenters with grey hair and wrinkles aren’t passed over in favour of young starlets.
It’s fortunate then that C4 has overlooked all those thrusting young gag merchants for the gig of presenting the channel’s first British Comedy Awards. The job’s gone to Hunt’s old BBC employee Jonathan Ross, now a veteran in his 50s.
What these shenanigans reveal to us is in all its breath-taking glory, is Jay Hunt’s gossamer-light but steely touch with on-screen talent. Like a funnel web spider sinking its fangs silently into a helpless bluebottle or a raptor tearing the head off a rabbit with a twist of its razor sharp beak, it truly is a natural wonder, combining effortless grace with ruthless potency.
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