TV producer asked to leave

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 6

TV producer asked to leave

By

TONY VERDON

in London

A New Zealand-born television producer, Miss Linda MacDougall, has lost her job producing a prominent British current affairs programme. The day she returned from a month’s holiday in New Zealand with her husband, the British Labour M.P., Mr Austin Mitchell, she was asked to leave the programme, “This Week.” However, Miss MacDougall, who worked for New Zealand television before moving to Britain almost 20 years ago, will continue working for Thames Television as a producer. She told the “London Daily News” that it was purely the "editor’s wish” that she leave the weekly current affairs pro-

gramme, presented by the prominent broadcaster, Jonathan Dimbleby. “The editor does not like me,” she said. Miss MacDougall confirmed that there had been frequent personality clashes with the editor of the programme, the content of which she describes as “boring.” The programme, which began in September, has rated poorly. She said that the weekly programme had appealed only to Oxbridge don types. Miss MacDougall, aged 46, has worked for Thames Television for the last nine years, all of that time on current affairs programmes. She said that it had not yet been decided where she would work within the company from now on.