Do we really want more ancient women on TV? And if so, perhaps we should examine why exactly?
My feeling is that people of both sexes over the age of 60 should be doing different things.
David Dimbleby gets more irascible as time goes on, while Sir David Frost's show on BBC4 is positively painful to watch – I have to study him closely because I'm afraid that he has stopped breathing.
As with most things, it depends on how long the person in question can keep going in their career. Mary Berry is wonderful, and I want her to continue for ever.
But with their loud cries for comebacks, Angela Rippon, Joan Bakewell and Selina Scott, who surely landed their TV careers due to their good looks (and, in the case of Rippon, great legs), remind me why this particular sort of older woman is a turn-off.
Berry is warm, nurturing and, occasionally, slightly stern, while women such as Bakewell want to continue asking probing, important questions, which, once you are post-menopausal, turns you into a mad, impatient and slightly batty combatant.
More... I wish I had my babies younger says Kate Garraway, 46, as poll shows 70% of British women think having children in their forties is too old Kirstie Allsopp and her sister faced Angelina Jolie's cancer dilemma. Here they reveal why only one has had a double mastectomyI know this because this is what I'm like: I fly off the handle, I moan, I have no patience with men or with younger women, and I am intolerant to the point of wanting to punch staff in Sainsbury's who ask me if I have a Nectar card.
I nearly had a fight the other day with a young male waiter who asked me to move along one stool at the bar of a swanky restaurant because that would allow another couple to sit down.
Comebacks: Angela Rippon, left, and Joan Bakewell, right, remind me why this sort of older woman is a turn-offAn older man would have said 'OK, old chap' and not turned a hair (if he still had hair, that is). But an older woman immediately thinks this is a personal attack on the fact she doesn't have a husband, and is not attractive enough to act as a siren to passing trade.
So we become unreasonable, which is OK if you are making cupcakes, but not if you are addressing Barack Obama. Prickly isn't good either – even Jeremy Paxman dusts his dourness with flashes of wry humour.
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Or take Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray, who peers over her spectacles as you take your seat opposite her in the studio, with barely a smiled hello – an effect that is terrifying when you are a guest.
She comes across as a woman with a short fuse, only sympathetic when it comes to cancer or abuse victims, which is when you feel, as a listener, you are being licked by a labrador.
Women who ask difficult questions have to do so with a sort of oleaginous charm (as practised by the doe-eyed Emily Maitlis), but that's a tad more difficult to pull off when you are a mere desiccated husk.
So, really, what we as a nation have a stomach for is sweet old ladies only, and women who have kept their looks, such as Nigella Lawson. Oh, hang on. It seems they have to be in kitchen settings, too.
And I suppose my final point is that looks do matter – or at least grooming. I would listen far more closely to what Germaine Greer has to say if only she could find her comb.
I admire Mary Berry and Shirley Williams for their hard work and intelligence, but also for the fact they are soignee. Neither is a great beauty, but both show me they are where they are due to perseverance and modesty. Two great qualities, at any age.
PS It seems for animal-lovers sorely disappointed by Tony Blair (not by one centimetre did he increase the size of a battery hen's cage) and Nick Clegg (his manifesto was the most animal-friendly of all, which is why I voted for him, but he has backtracked wildly), that UKIP might be the way forward.In response to a letter asking for his party's stance on animal welfare, an adviser to Stuart Agnew, UKIP's spokesman on agriculture and welfare, sent this: 'The intention is to oppose live animal exports. 'We are concerned that, as the EU expands, many of the countries joining have little or no interest in animal welfare and they will have a growing interest over EU policy on this subject. Bad hair day: I would listen far more closely to what Germaine Greer has to say if she could only find a comb 'We have seen this indifference to animal welfare crop up in regard to the EU's ban on battery cages and on sow stalls and tethers. 'Many countries have been very slow to react despite long periods of warning. Rest assured, Mr Agnew will continue to speak out on these issues.'They've got my vote.
