Miriam O'Reilly

The former presenter of the rural affairs programme Countryfile was not the first woman to have fallen foul of television's obsession with youth, but at 53, she was the first to win a landmark claim of age discrimination against the BBC over it. O'Reilly complained to an employment tribunal that she had been one of four female presenters in their 40s and 50s who had been dropped from the show when it moved to a prime time slot. She told how executives had "joked" that it was time for her to have Botox, and thet she was "nearly as old as John" [Craven, O'Reilly's colleague who was nearing 70]. "If we don't see older women on television, it's as if they don't exist in society," she later said. The landmark judgement will change the way the BBC, and inevitably other broadcasters, operates; it will introduce new guidelines on presenter selection and they will be wary about dumping older women in future. The landscape for older women on television has become broader thanks to O'Reilly's stand.