What kind of damn fool cuts Mary Beard?

What a disgusting bunch of sexist philistines we are.

Professor Mary Beard has accused a US broadcaster of editing her own episodes of Civilisations to make them more anodyne, saying her on-screen appearances as a “slightly creaky old lady with long grey hair” had been cut.

Prof Beard, who hosts two episodes of Civilisations for the BBC in Britain, said the American edits of the show had seen her central arguments erased, her on-screen contributions reduced, and an episode on religion re-edited to focus more closely on Christianity.

This isn’t Fox, either, it’s goddam PBS.

Prof Beard said: “Really hope that friends in USA realise that my Civilisations episodes on PBS are very different from original BBC versions, have been drastically changed.

“The originals were far from ‘anodyne’ I promise.”

Saying the experience had left her grateful for the BBC’s treatment of Civilisations episodes, she told the Telegraph: “Whether people liked them or not, my BBC episodes were at least what I wanted to say!”

The BBC and PBS versions were made by the same production company, but the two broadcasters were each responsible for their final chosen edits.

And PBS decided to give us much less Mary Beard.

While the British version had three hosts, Prof Beard, David Olusoga and Simon Schama, lead their own programmes, the American edits see them join a number of “contributors” to each show including expert “talking heads” and narration from actor Liev Schreiber.

Ugh. I hate those expert talking heads PBS is so keen on.

Asked on Twitter why the changes were made, Prof Beard wrote: “I wish I knew .. to make it better for an American audience, people say…???? I am rather sad about it. Hope people will look at the originals when they are available.”

Questioned on whether she had approved edits, she said: “Put it this way, if that’s how I had wanted to make the programme, I would have done it that way!”

Dammit PBS.

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