Although Sky Sports has hardly emerged as one of the most enlightened enclaves in the world in recent days – unless perhaps you compare it to a German beer festival in the Forties - Janet Ellis, the former Blue Peter presenter, wonders if the broadcaster hasn’t over-reacted in the sexism row.
“I am not sure it was a good idea to have sacked Andy Gray over what he said,” Ellis tells Mandrake at the launch of the Birds Eye View Film Festival at the Century Club. “Far better to have kept him on and made sure he wasn’t sexist again.
“Honestly, all the guys who work in sport are so ridiculous when it comes to sexism, but you don’t do women any favours by standing on a chair and screaming every time someone says something that they shouldn’t. You say, 'don’t be silly’ and carry on. I hope both the girls who were abused step up and say, 'It doesn’t matter, we’re bigger than that.’”
Of Richard Keys – the other Sky Sports commentator who made some regrettably sexist remarks – Ellis, 55, says she concedes that he is now “doomed”, and adds that, when she once worked with him, she noticed he had “the hairiest hands in the world”.
