JENNI MURRAY: I by no means thought I’d say it, however there are too many ladies presenting sport on TV

I’m now going to write something I never imagined I’d ever think, let alone express in public: too many women are being hired to present iconic sports programmes on the BBC.

Two women and only one man are rumoured to be filling the shoes of departing Gary Lineker on Match Of The Day, and on Tuesday a trio of women presented BBC Sports Personality Of The Year (Keely Hodgkinson being the fourth woman in a row to win).

My reaction surprised me. After all, I began my BBC broadcasting career as far back as 1973 and spent most of it campaigning for women’s voices to be heard.

It was virtually impossible to imagine a woman reading the BBC news until Angela Rippon managed to break through that barrier in 1975. 

But at that point it was as if BBC management patted itself on the back thinking: ‘There, we’ve done it. Now that’s enough. One woman up front will do,’ because it was several years before the next breakthrough.

My first encounter with the sexism in the industry came in 1971 when I was still at university and desperate to join the BBC. I had the voice. I was a good writer and knew how to perform. Most importantly, I was obsessed by the news, politics and had a nose for a good story.

The careers adviser told me not to bother because they’d only take two or three trainees, they’d be male and have first-class degrees from Oxford or Cambridge. A girl from Hull University had no chance, no matter how good my degree.

I was so determined to get in, I managed to apply to BBC Radio Bristol and get a job. It was the lowliest post in the newsroom – copytaker. I was to type up stories that came in by phone or on the teleprinter and hand them to the journalists. 

I crawled my way up the ladder and became a co-presenter (with a man) of the morning magazine programme.

From that moment on, I vowed to make it my life’s work to ensure women were always represented. It took a long time for the message to get through.

In 1983, I was taken on as a presenter/reporter on Newsnight, then the toughest, most respected current affairs programme in the country. The presenting team was entirely male apart from me and the Irish broadcaster Olivia O’Leary. 

She and I were never hired to present the programme together. We were always on shift with one of the men, never given the big interviews and were known throughout the BBC as ‘the Newsnight wives’. It was infuriating and insulting.

From Newsnight I joined Radio 4’s Today programme. Again, I’d be a joint presenter with one of the men – Brian Redhead or John Timpson. I was always made to feel secondary to them.

It was only when I reached Woman’s Hour in 1987 that I felt I was respected for my journalism, interviewing skills and presenting abilities and I was no longer compared unfavourably to a man because of my sex.

It was on Woman’s Hour that I was able to show that a woman was perfectly capable of handling the toughest of political interviews. I was also able to advance my idea that women should be paid as much as men for doing the same job and should never be considered inferior to men.

Slowly, over the years my voice and those of other women fighting for equal opportunities were heard – more women were hired to present the news and the ghastly equal pay gap narrowed. I left Woman’s Hour in 2020 after 33 years thinking, ‘job done’.

So, really, I should be celebrating the latest female appointments. Instead, on Tuesday night, I found myself thinking: ‘That’s not right.’ Three women – Gabby Logan, Clare Balding and Alex Scott – presented Sports Personality Of The Year. 

Each is a brilliant presenter and has intimate knowledge of a range of sports, but somehow the gender balance felt wrong. Sport is for everyone, male and female. The presentation team needed a man.

Of even more concern is the presenting line-up for the new Match Of The Day. Two women and one man for that Saturday night football fest? Where’s the sense in that?

Yes, Kelly Cates, the daughter of legendary Liverpool striker Sir Kenny Dalglish, and Gabby Logan, whose father is former Leeds United player Terry Yorath, know as much about football as any man, but I suspect the sole male co-presenter Mark Chapman may be made to feel the odd man out, working alongside two such powerful women. 

Surely a programme should reflect its audience and, given women make up only 30 per cent of those who watch Premier League matches on TV, a better presenter ratio would be two men with one woman.

I spent close to five decades working at the BBC, but never did understand the mindset of the Corporation’s senior management – how they choose whose faces will be seen and whose voices heard. Often it feels like a diversity box-ticking exercise, rather than an effort to showcase the finest talent.

When I spent a lifetime fighting for better opportunities for women, I wanted to see equal representation. I fear for the response among male football fans to the ‘two women, one man’ line-up for Match Of The Day.

There’s a lot of progress still to be made when it comes to equal opportunities and it would be a great pity if this incited a backlash that pushed women back to where many men still feel we belong.

Yes, you CAN have it all, Fearne 

Poor Fearne Cotton, getting herself into a tiswas about what she describes as ‘the toxic pressure that a woman can have it all’.

I’m sorry the presenter is going through a bad time. Her marriage has broken up, she’s responsible for her two kids and she’s had a recent health scare, but she mustn’t frighten young women who hope to have it all. 

Men and women can have jobs and children as long as they do it together. Men need to step up and do their share.

Boo hiss for the anti-Santa vicar

What was the Reverend Dr Paul Chamberlain thinking when he said to a class of ten and 11 year olds, ‘You’re all Year Six, now let’s be real, Santa isn’t real’? 

I’m surprised one of the shocked parents whose child’s Christmas had been ruined didn’t have a little word with the vicar. ‘Hey Rev, all that Holy Ghost stuff. Are you sure everything you believe is real?’ 

Chris owes me a casserole dish! 

Saturday night and the Strictly final. I prepared my favourite meal – chicken soup with barley – leaving it on the stove to simmer.

As the winners were announced, an acrid smell emerged from the kitchen. Thank you Chris McCausland, for burning my soup and leaving a casserole dish that will never recover.

My dogs and I had no dinner, but I wouldn’t have missed a minute of your triumph.

As the inquiry into the Post Office disaster comes to a close, former chief executive Paula Vennells still insists: ‘No one told me about Horizon.’ Does the woman know no shame? 

Did a boss on a vast wage not wonder why honest postmasters and mistresses were being accused of theft, prosecuted and bankrupted, their lives ruined? If she really was that ignorant, her sheer incompetence must be punished.