Kids are Baby Goats

Six of one and half a dozen of the other by the sounds of it!
She scoffed and told my friend it was a bit late in life to start studying ancient history (friend is a medieval archaeologist and published historian!).
It's never too late!!

She was very scathing about AA Gill's lack of university education, but only after he had made misogynistic and insulting comments about her.

That's OK , I re-read my post and see why you may have thought that.

townie as it was in RL I can't possibly name my source, suffice it to say a friend of mine, equally well-educated as MB but not so high profile. But very miffed at MB's rudeness and patronising attitude.

Anyway, I shall continue to watch her, even if her style of presenting grates a bit.

Jalima, if I misunderstood your posts, then I am really sorry

Now, as I said before, 'nuff said (on this thread, by me personally, I mean).

And what examples are there of her 'throwing out insults in RL to people whom she considers inferior to her'??

Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge, not Oxford, btw.

I know lots of people who (from the way they speak and their lack of formal education) you personally would probably dismiss as 'plebs'

You know nothing about me apart from what I post MamaCaz so you do not know whether I am pleb or patrician.
There are very few patricians around and most of us are plebs, myself included.
But there is no need for 'dumbing down', I know of no other presenter who does it.

Ooh, I didn't mean to be insulting. I think you misunderstood my post totally MamaCaz - I was not meaning that I think of them as 'plebs', rather that (imo) Ms Beard does.
Moreover, she is not above throwing out insults in RL to people whom she considers inferior to her (and who, in fact are just as highly educated but not as high profile as her) and inferring that most people are her intellectual inferiors.

(from the way they speak and their lack of formal education) you personally would probably dismiss as 'plebs' and / or 'the lowest common denominator', as you put it, but who are hugely interested in history and would definitely watch programmes like this.
Like me you mean? But even I do not like being 'talked down to'.

In my head "kids" is an affectionate term, so I've always used it, along with other less affectionate terms! ?

A teacher I once knew greeted her class each day with " Good morning my lovelies". Much better than "Mornin kids" which I have heard.

This is getting insulting silly, Jalima!

I know lots of people who (from the way they speak and their lack of formal education) you personally would probably dismiss as 'plebs' and / or 'the lowest common denominator', as you put it, but who are hugely interested in history and would definitely watch programmes like this.

But I'm off now - 'nuff said on the subject!

MamaCaz perhaps those to whom this folksy, colloquial type of presenting would appeal would not watch anyway - "Oxford Professor presenting a programme on Pompeii anyone?" "Or shall we watch something on Netflix instead?"

No brainer as Mary may say

It won't stop me watching her though

I can't say that I agree with you on this one, Jalima, but life would be very boring if we all agreed with each other all of the time

Personally, I think that the discomfort we feel when first hearing Mary's choice of language comes largely from the fact that it isn't what we are used to on factual TV programmes. I don't mind admitting that it gave me food for thought initially, but I quickly realized that I wouldn't bat an eyelid at that kind of presentation in any other format, such as a university lecture, so why should I care if it's on TV?

As for it "putting off a lot of other viewers in the process", well yes, perhaps, but I'm sure that there are still plenty (the vast majority?) of other programmes out there on a similar topic that will not offend their linguistic senses.

But putting off a lot of other viewers in the process MamaCaz

(Appealing to the lowest common denominator)

Jalima: or to put it another way, trying to make programmes that potentially appeal to as many people as possible?

I used to know a very 'upper class' lady who literally looked down her nose at me when I referred to 'kids'.

According to her, it was a 'ghastly Americanism'.

Gettin' down wiv da kids

Or trying to make programmes that appeal to the plebs?

I watched the programme, but didn't even notice the 'kids'!
What I did notice, however, was that she used colloquial / informal words and expressions throughout, presumably in keeping with her preferred presenting style.

I thought that too, Jalima.

Did anyone watch Mary Beard's Pompeii programme last night?

She kept referring to the little children who were lost in that disaster as 'kids' and it sounded so demeaning and inappropriate.

I haven't actually tried this myself (can't be bothered), but I bet it would be quite difficult to find any dictionary that doesn't list something along the lines of 'A child or young person' as one of the definitions of 'kid'. In other words, what's the problem with it, apart from personal preference?

In a swerto yourfirstquestion, OP - yes.

helmacd I'm sure she does send valentines to her grandchildren, as do I.

Don't see any problem with it at all. You ask if it's normal - yup, in our house it is . Do you think it's 'abnormal'? K

My mother, who disliked Americans strongly always dismissed the use of 'kids' for children as an Americanism, so I think my dislike of it stems from her.

Lately every man referred to in the media is a "gentleman", even if he's in the news as a wife-beating thug.
The police are also incapable of saying man or woman, they use male and female. Just something else to shout at the radio about.