Replacing John Humphrys won't be an easy task

Replacing John Humphrys won't be an easy task


Play all audios:

There has been more than an element of ageism in the attacks on Humphrys. He is one of the last great white male presenters of his era, along with Naughtie (now 67), David Dimbleby (80 when


he retired as presenter of Question Time), Jonathan Dimbleby (75 this summer and still presenting Any Questions), Jeremy Paxman (65 when he left Newsnight three years ago) and Andrew Neil


(70 this year and still going strong).   


The problem, though, is how to replace Humphrys and, more important, how to replace this whole generation of superb TV and radio presenters. When Sarah Montague left Today last year she


simply swapped places with Martha Kearney from The World at One. When Eddie Mair left PM, Evan Davis moved over from Newsnight, where he still hasn’t been properly replaced. Replacing


Humphrys will be much harder. Replacing this whole generation of top presenters is almost inconceivable. This comes at a time when BBC News is not in great shape and when presenters might be


thinking of following Eddie Mair and Chris Evans out of the BBC (and Jeremy Vine now combines a Channel 5 daytime show with presenting his programme on Radio 2) to earn more and receive


less public scrutiny over their pay.


You can see the problem. Radio 4 currently has fourteen news presenters. Two are non-white and one, Mishal Husain, is already at the Today programme. Finding a new woman presenter to add to


the Today team may be hard. Finding a much-needed non-white presenter at Today or indeed to replace one of the other BBC presenters soon to retire will not be so easy. The BBC Executive


Committee (one non-white member out of 15) will have their work cut out for them.


By proceeding, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and our Privacy Policy.


If an account exists for this email address, you will shortly receive an email from us. You will then need to:


Please note, this link will only be valid for 24 hours. If you do not receive our email, please check your Junk Mail folder and add [email protected] to your safe list.