Carol: The BBC told me that I'd never make it in TV because my breasts were too small... and how Countdown
Shock: Carol Voderman has told how a BBC boss told her she would never make it because her breasts weren't big enough
But when Carol Vorderman approached the BBC about boosting her career, she was told she would never make it – because her breasts weren’t big enough.
Miss Vorderman revealed how the remark was made by a ‘very big boss’ when she attended a meeting at Television Centre.
The Cambridge University engineering graduate said she had been appearing on Countdown for about three years, and was surprised by how successful it had become.
In an attempt to secure more presenting roles, she wrote to a number of TV executives.
Speaking of her BBC experience, Miss Vorderman said: ‘It wasn’t an interview for a particular job – it was just meeting with one of the very big bosses on the sixth floor at Television Centre.
‘He arrived an hour late. I was sitting there with his secretary in a kind of outer office. Eventually he came in. He’d been drinking and he said, “Come in, come in.”
‘He sat in his chair and he put his feet on the desk. He looked at me and said, “Hmmm. So what do you want to do?”
'I replied, “Well, you know if there are any jobs... I’d be very interested to hear about anything and I’m just really coming to meet you so that you could take my name and consider me for things in the future.
'And he said, “Nah, love, your t*** aren’t big enough.” I mean, can you imagine?’
Unsurprisingly, his comments brought the meeting, in the mid-Eighties, to an end and she wasn’t offered a job. Miss Vorderman, now 52, said she did not complain because ‘that was just how it was then.’
She added: ‘I don’t hold resentments. Life and times have moved on. Now a lot of the bosses are women so you just wouldn’t get that. But that was the time we lived in.’
However, the revelations look set to raise further questions at the BBC about a culture of sexism.
Last night, the Corporation promised to investigate the incident and called the executive’s comments ‘completely unacceptable’.
Last October, barrister Dinah Rose QC was appointed to conduct an internal inquiry into the claims of sexual harassment at the BBC and its handling of the problem over the past 40 years.
TV veteran: Carol, right, pictured with late
Countdown presenter Richard Whiteley, centre, and Cathy Hytner, left, in
the eighties
Outspoken: Conservative MP Nadine Dorries claimed last night that the BBC's attitudes towards women are still outdated
Miss Vorderman, who will present the finale to ITV’s Food Glorious Food on Wednesday, did, in fact, go on to work for the BBC. She presented BBC1 science programme Tomorrow’s World, and has since built up an estimated £20 million fortune.
Snub: Carol pictured celebrating Countdown's
25th birthday with then presenter Des O'Connor, but she says she was
hurt by a lack of involvement in the show's 30th anniversary
‘Sexism is almost as bad in the BBC today – in both radio and TV – as it was in the Eighties, as many female presenters and employees will attest,’ she said.
‘Having held a debate in the House of Commons on this issue prior to the Jimmy Savile allegations, I met Mark Thompson, the former Director General of the BBC.
'I was left with the strong impression that they felt the culture within the BBC was almost too big a dragon to slay, and that change, while happening slowly, would take a considerable amount of time to bring about effectively.’
Miss Vorderman also revealed she was devastated by Channel 4’s decision to snub her from celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of Countdown.
She starred in the show from its inception in 1982 until 2008, when she quit after being asked to take a 90 per cent cut in her £1 million a year salary.
‘You can’t just wipe someone out of its history when you’ve been on it for nearly 5,000 shows. It doesn’t work like that,’ she said.
‘Of course I would have gone back if I’d been asked. It would have been an olive branch to say, “We’re all adults, let’s just get on with it now”.’
New show: Carol pictured with judges Anne
Harrison, Loyd Grossman, Tom Parker Bowles and Stacie Stewart will
present the finale of Food Glorious Food this week