Denise Welch wants TV bosses to stop worrying about the opinions of those on Twitter.
The 65-year-old star initially appeared as a panellist on ITV's lunchtime chat show 'Loose Women' from 2005 until 2013 before returning to the desk 2018 and has explained that these days television bosses are "so influenced" by those who write "vile" things on the microblogging website that it has stopped some people from being "outspoken" on screen.
She told The Sunday Times Style Magazine: "Some people won’t be outspoken about something because they’re so terrified of what Twitter might say. I could not give a f***. That doesn’t mean I’m not affected by unkind things that people say. But also if I think I’m right about something I don’t care what people think of me.” Someone like ‘Twitter user Doris1745’. Who gives a f*** about Doris? She’s got two followers! These are basically people who have never been on a date in their life, have got one tooth and live in their mother’s attic. All of our bosses are so influenced by these people who sit at a computer waiting to say vile things, and yet our jobs rely on what these people say. And it really p**** me off because we have to stop being susceptible to Twitter — it is not representative of anything."
The former 'Coronation Street' actress went on to add that 'Loose Women' - which has seen a number of household names including Ruth Langsford, Janet Street-Porter and Kaye Adams debate topical issues since its inception in 1999 - "reveres older women" in a way that is unlike any other programme and insisted that she, her co-stars and their target audience "do not care" what others think anymore.
She added: "It’s a show that not only employs older women, it reveres older women. It listens to older women, it supports the views of older women. You don’t get that on any other television show — that the older you are, the more you bring to the show, the more valuable you are to the show. Because you’ve had every T-shirt, you’ve worn it, washed it, thrown it away, got another one, you’re not so bothered. All us older ones, we’ve all had a past, and we don’t care so much about what people think any more."
Tagged in Denise Welch Ruth Langsford Kaye Adams