When the well-known writer and producer of the successfully relaunched Doctor Who, Russell T Davies goes on record in an interview with the BBC (due to be broadcast on Radio 2 in a documentary on the 20 December) stating that he would never cast a Doctor over the age of 45, something is obviously wrong. Not only will he be in direct contravention of the new age discrimination laws due to come into effect in October 2006, but heís also lost much of the radicalism presented by the original series, says Penna plc, a human capital management consultancy.
In an extract from the documentary Russell T Davies is quoted as saying, ìWe live in an age now where you would never cast an older Doctor. Absolutely never. Never over fifty, I wouldn’t say over forty-five actually. So we’ll always have young Doctors now, because that’s what a hero is these days.
The original Doctor Who challenged previous conventions of the BBC. Its producer was a young woman whose roots were in commercial television, the originator Sydney Newman was Canadian, and its director was Asian. Since the 1960s, the business world has gradually caught up with the ground-breaking foresight of Dr Who and recruited and developed people not based on age, sex or race but on talent.
Penna plc, a human capital management consultancy, is sorry to see this apparent bowing to public pressure. ìRussell T Davies is not only wide of the mark and misinformed, but his quote is potentially damaging and would almost certainly be illegal with effect from next October,î says Gary Browning, CEO of Penna. ìLike employees in the workplace, Doctors (in the Who sense) could benefit from the wisdom of age. In an era of low birth rates, increasing life expectancies and a rapidly increasing workforce, age is not something any of us can afford to discriminate against in the future. Over the next two decades the number of people of employable age will decrease by 15% - there will be, for the first time, more people over the age of 40 than under. The challenges of this demographic shift will impact on employers and time travellers alike.
Recent research from the Employers Forum on Age (EFA) found that attitude, not age, counts. Russell T Davies should learn from this.
ìThe Doctor Whoís of the past have been loved and revered because of their talent and ingenuity ñ not because they were traditional heroes,î continues Gary. ìThe only words of consolation I take from Russell’s quote is that with my 45th birthday just 4 weeks away, it would seem that I can still be considered as the next Time Lord ñ but only just!î
Exterminate, Exterminate Ageism
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