Selina Scott returns to the BBC

Selina Scott has accused the BBC of "insidious, cowardly" treatment

Selina Scott has returned to the BBC after accusing the corporation of ageism and sexism for employing too few older female newsreaders.

She is filling in for Moira Stuart on Chris Evans' Radio 2 breakfast show while Stuart is on holiday.

Earlier this year, she urged the BBC's governing body, the BBC Trust, to address "blatant and sometimes malign sexism and ageism against women".

Scott helped launch BBC Breakfast Time in 1983 and has worked for ITN and Sky.

She now makes her own brand of socks made from goat wool in Hovington, Yorkshire.

She said: "Chris makes me laugh - he's a cheeky boy, that's why I'm doing his show, getting up at an ungodly hour before dawn.

"I haven't done that since I launched BBC Breakfast more than 25 years ago."

Evans said: "It's a fair swap, I have to admit. Like bringing Shearer on for Lineker. Moira goes Stateside, Selina arrives from her goat farm in Yorkshire."

In 2008, Scott reached a settlement with TV channel Five after suing them for age discrimination.

She was reportedly being lined up to provide maternity cover for Five News host Natasha Kaplinsky but was subsequently overlooked.

This July, she presented a report about alleged discrimination to BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons, compiled with charity Age Concern and Equal Justice.

At that time, she wrote in the Daily Telegraph about her experiences dealing with the BBC, ITV and Five in recent years.

"I experienced in this period a disregarding, unthinking, almost casual maiming which leaves women like me with their confidence and career in tatters but which is done in a sly and at times almost unspoken and Machiavellian way," she wrote.

"You are rarely told outright that you are not wanted. There is never a conversation. It seems to be conducted by whispers in corridors. It's insidious, cowardly and unworthy of the great traditions of a public broadcaster like the BBC."