Sandi Toksvig says women’s contributions on panel shows are often edited out.
The TV host, who presents QI and The Great British Bake Off, opened up to the Radio Times about female contributions to comedy shows.
“There are panel shows that struggle to get women on, and that’s because the women feel marginalised and stupid and in the edit are often seen just laughing at the boys and not saying anything at all even though I know for a fact in the recording they were clever,” she said.
“I’m not shy at speaking up but even I, on those shows, am silenced. And I sit there and think, ‘I could have been at home eating Chinese. What am I doing sitting here?’ And that’s a shame.”
Sandi recently revealed that she doesn’t get paid as much as Stephen Fry did to host QI. Instead, she gets less than half of his original pay packet.
Speaking at the Women’s Equality Party conference, she said: “I recently discovered… do you want me to tell you? I feel awkward.
© BBC
“I get 40% of what Stephen used to get. And I get the same pay as Alan Davies, who is not the host.
“So I temper this with the fact that I love the show and [am] the first woman to host such a show.”
However, Sandi has previously said that she gets paid the same as Noel Fielding for her role on Bake Off.
© Channel 4
“Noel and I have complete parity,” she said. “We’re open and transparent about everything, which is the best way to avoid problems.
“This issue should have been dealt with long ago. I very much hope everyone will clean up their act. Sadly, I doubt it.”
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