UK NEWS
FIRST MOIRA, NOW 'AGEIST' BBC AXES CRIMEWATCH NICK
Nick Ross
By Elisa Roche, Showbusiness Editor
THE BBC was at the centre of a new ageism row yesterday after ousted Crimewatch host Nick Ross said he felt sidelined by younger staff.
Ross, 59, said he was forced into quitting his job of 23 years after his input was increasingly ignored by top production staff.
The BBC was recently accused of ageism when Moira Stuart, 55, was dropped from reading the news.
Ross, a former Radio 4 host, said an independent team of TV advisers was consulted, instead of him, about how to refresh Crimewatch.
“TV is very much a young person’s medium,” he said last night. “They brought in outside producers and asked them, ‘What do you think we should do to the show to keep it fresh?’ Until then I had always been at the heart of the editorial process behind Crimewatch.”
Ross, who signed off the first edition of Crimewatch in 1984, and all subsequent shows, by saying “Don’t have nightmares, do sleep well”, said it had become clear that he was seen as the main problem.
“I think these new producers said something like, ‘You’re not going to make it look very different if Nick is still fronting it’.”
Ross said he first wondered whether his 59 years was an issue when BBC1 controller Peter Fincham questioned the ageing profile of the show’s audience at a breakfast meeting before he knew his contract was not being renewed.
Ross said: “It is well known that the controller of BBC1 has got a problem, as have ITV, with the changing nature of audiences to terrestrial TV.”
But Ross said he was not bitter, though his next Crimewatch appearance on July 2 will be his last.
He said: “I have no criticism of the idea that you have to modernise. But if it was left to me, I don’t perceive myself to be a problem.”
He added: “The fact that I hadn’t even been told they were thinking of having a review of the programme tells me that the writing was on the wall. I’m not a lollipop. I don’t just read from the autocue.”
He said he had already received two TV offers since news of his departure broke.
Sue Cook, who presented the show with Ross for 11 years, said: “I was shocked because Nick has shown staunch loyalty by sticking with Crimewatch for so long.”
Crimewatch will forever be associated with Jill Dando who took over from Sue in 1995 and was shot dead on her doorstep in Fulham in 1999.
Loner Barry George, convicted of her murder in 2001, has won the right to a new court appeal.
A BBC insider admitted: “There is a feeling we are losing younger viewers to satellite stations, independent channels and the internet and we are desperate to keep up.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “Nick’s contract was coming to an end, so we thought it was an opportunity to make changes.
“Age has not come into this at all. In fact, we asked him to stay on until Christmas but he preferred to leave before the summer break.”
Co-presenter Fiona Bruce, 43, is staying on. It has not yet been decided if she will host the show with a new partner.
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THE ONE THAT OUGHT TO GO.
20.06.07, 5:07pm
The only one that ought to go is that left-wing leviathan that stands for nothing British the B-liar Broadcasting Corruptly organisation. We could do with the whole lot being closed down and re-building afresh.
• Posted by: saxon • Report Comment
THE ONE THAT OUGHT TO GO.
20.06.07, 5:03pm
With regards to this article...
• Posted by: saxon • Report Comment
NICK ROSS IS CRIMEWATCH.
20.06.07, 2:54pm
It is high time that the BBC is shut down forever, none of us want it, it is a unnecessary monetary burden on us all, we get everything that they do on other channels without paying a ever growing overly expensive license fee. This dinner time in my club 48 people were asked if they would keep the BBC and every one said NO.
Nick Ross is Crimewatch and he presents it brilliantly.
How old is Sir Trevor Macdonald????? ! ! ! ! ! !
Nick would continue to do a good job on anything which he was given just like he always has.
You should not be allowed to treat decent loyal workers with such contempt and pettiness, we deserve better.
The asshole who is firing him is probably a pc brigade moron, lesbo or queer or a mixture and is a complete wan=== just stirring things up to make their own unimportant job appear important.
Look at all of the old cretins in the House Of Lords who just turn up to be fed, wined and drawer their expenses and are not of any measurable value.
Look at fat John Prescott 69, by the way what was he for?
It is about time common sense came back to our little island and all of the deviants kicked out.
Nick Ross's biggest failure was being ENGLISH and not a Jock, have you noticed all the Jocks in government and on the TV? They are taking over ENGLAND.
23 years loyal service has Nick, It does not pay, get as much as you can while you can, dog eat dog, you are better off in the long run.
Do not be surprised if Nick does not go with Sky TV.
By the way these youngsters who are coming into TV are mostly crap even worse than the latest bunch of comedians, comedians my ass they are unfunny and pathetic.
KICK OUT AGEISM.
Best of luck Nick and Thank you.
• Posted by: Robertz • Report Comment
PLEASE KEEP NICK ROSS.
20.06.07, 1:48pm
I am really upset about this. Crimewatch is one of my favourite programmes and to be honest Nick is wonderful at presenting it. It won't be the same without him fronting the programme, plus if this is how the BBC treat their staff then they can get lost as I will refuse to watch it despite it being one of my favourites. I would like to know what age has got to do with presentation?. I bet the people who decide on these matters is no spring chicken either. However they must be short of a few marbles in pulling tyhis latest stunt.
The BBC did the same with East Enders. Myself and most of my family members was avid fans of the soap,but then they axed all the people we had grown familiar with and it was never the same for us so we all stopped watching it. I know there sometimes needs to be change but axing so many of the regulars in one go was ridiculous and damaging. The bosses etc who decide on these matters should be sacked as they are not doing the BBC any favours with the viewers who have to pay a licence fee.
• Posted by: Nimue • Report Comment
AGEISM
20.06.07, 1:07pm
It is small wonder that Britain is in the sick state it is. You would not allow children to run the home or drive a bus or perform open heart surgery;and yet every employer I have had experience of employs youg people with little or no experience of the professions they enter and then promotes only if you think the same way they do.
People of experience are beteer suited to guide this nations institutuions such as Education,The Press ,Health and Law and Order.
Degrees dont make you capable. Experience does and there is no substitute for it.
Learn now Britain before it has gone to far to redeem.
• Posted by: Harnser • Report Comment
2006 AGE DISCRIMINATION LAWS
20.06.07, 12:49pm
What happened to the 2006 age discrimination laws?
Surly this can't be another nu-labor legislative loop-hole screw up!
• Posted by: TicToc • Report Comment
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