Ex-BBC presenter ‘threatened with sack for having grey hair’

Ms Franklin said a noticeable grey streak at the front of her hair was the reason why she was told she looked ‘too old’

Ken Bruce and Caryn Franklin (Getty)

A former BBC presenter has claimed she was threatened with the sack for being “too old” when she was in her thirties.

Caryn Franklin, now aged 64, was a presenter of the BBC’s prime time The Clothes Show from 1986 to 1998 and alleges she was told she was going to be “wound down” because she was looking old.

Ms Franklin said a noticeable grey streak at the front of her hair was the reason behind the remark and she was “shocked” to be told this.

Caryn Franklin, now 64, was a presenter of the BBC’s prime time The Clothes Show from 1986 to 1998 (PA)

The Clothes Show was aired on BBC One between 1986 and 2000 and attracted around 9 million viewers every week.

Ms Franklin presented the show for 12 years, including while she was pregnant, alongside co-presenter Jeff Banks who is 15 years older than her.

Writing in The Independent, the former presenter she was “objectified in a way that few men in the workplace or male TV presenters ever experience”.

Ms Franklin said after she was told she was going to be wound down, she made the grey streak in her hair her trademark.

She said: “I did not meekly cover up my stylish streak, but made it my trademark, instead. Charles Worthington, my hairdressing mate, dyed the rest of my brunette hair to a much richer colour to make my light stripe stand out.”

She continued: “Ginger Spice would soon be presenting a synthetic blonde streak in her red tresses and, as an unforeseen bonus, my hair is suddenly poptastic, with many assuming I am dying the light in.

“I continued to focus on identity politics both on screen and off and in my early 50s, transitioning to the full (silver) fox. It’s long too, and young women in particular absolutely love it.”

Ms Franklin said “wrinkly, grey-haired males” have been normalised in the media. “There are no grey-haired news women (and few actors, presenters and MPs too). Unlike young men, our young women don’t get to see where they are going as they age”, she said.

In June last year, 63-year-old Liz Kershaw was replaced on her Saturday afternoon Radio 6 show by 31-year-old Jamz Supernova. Ms Kershaw later tweeted: “I got sacked from @BBC6Music because they don’t want women over 60.”

And former BBC broadcaster Vanessa Feltz, 60, accused the BBC of “ageism” in January following 71-year-old Ken Bruce’s announcement he was leaving Radio 2.

In 2014, a former BBC employee claimed that she and her female colleagues had been systematically sidelined and pushed out of the corporation once they reached their fifties.

Olenka Frenkiel, a multi-award-winning broadcast journalist, said that after “30 great years” with the BBC she found herself “being rubbed out”, with fewer opportunities to showcase her work.

The BBC declined to comment on Ms Franklin’s claims.