Ruined by women?

"The BBC is being ruined by women, says Patrick Moore" was a headline I noticed this week. The piece began -

"Sir Patrick Moore has identified an alien species that threatens to destroy intelligent life – the women who have taken over the BBC. The veteran astronomer celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Sky at Night with a withering attack on the female executives he believes have dumbed down the corporation."

"Sir Patrick, 84, was asked by the Radio Times if television had got better or worse during a career spanning the medium’s life. The answer was worse – “much worse”. He said: “The trouble is that the BBC now is run by women and it shows: soap operas, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays. You wouldn’t have had that in the golden days.”

At the time I read it, there were 68 comments, one of them this – "I'm a woman, and I hate soap operas, makeover shows, reality TV, property porn, & c. The problem is not gender-based, but one of programmes aiming for the lowest common denominator. Terrestrial TV seems to have abdicated all responsibility to provide universal access to work of real cultural purpose and value. Doc M, Glasgow"

Although some comments disagreed with Sir Patrick's views, the majority supported his opinion.

Daily Telegraph columnist Jan Moir was outraged. "Sir P may still present The Sky at Night, the longest-running series on television, but the poor old fossil seems not to realise that some of the programmes he has enjoyed appearing on, such as Have I Got News For You, have women at or near the helm, too. It is an understandable mistake. Sir Patrick only recognises a woman if she's wearing a crinoline and a bonnet, or bent double over the smoothing iron as she attends to a pile of his capacious gaiters."

Not enough time in the day

Yesterday was a bit of a madhouse and there wasn't time to complete today's blog. Whether I'll get time to post some additions today remains to be seen. They may have to wait till tomorrow.

Meanwhile, if you haven't already done so, read what Danuta Kean has to say about fictional prostitute memoirs. I agree with her that these books are a disgrace to publishing.