Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding: I used to be groped at all times via my colleagues once I labored for the BBC

Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding has spoken out about being constantly groped whilst operating on the BBC as a tender lady, The Mail on Sunday can divulge.

The 67-year-old stated it used to be commonplace follow for males to the touch ladies’s breasts right through conversations on the company within the 1980s.

Exposing the surprising behaviour, she stated: ‘I labored on the BBC when I used to be in my 20s, and also you simply were given used to the truth that folks would in truth put their hand to your boob whilst they have been speaking to you about paintings.’

She instructed the yearly Soho Summit at fashionable Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire that ladies on the BBC have been resigned to the on a regular basis incidence.

‘It simply gave the look to be what you set up with,’ says Ms Fielding, who rose to popularity within the Noughties after her extensively a hit Bridget Jones books have been was Hollywood movies, starring Renee Zellweger as Bridget.

‘I first wrote Bridget pre #MeToo, and once I take a look at that movie now, I will’t imagine that that stuff used to be occurring.’

In scenes on the subject of her personal reviews, Ms Fielding’s heroine is perennially fielding undesirable sexual advances from males, together with her fictional boss Daniel Cleaver, performed via Hugh Grant, who surreptitiously gropes Bridget within the place of job.

The unmarried, cigarette-puffing Bridget additionally fends off her lascivious boss Mr Fitzherbert – nicknamed ‘T**spervert’ – who blatantly stares at her breasts.

The 67-year-old stated it used to be commonplace follow for males to the touch ladies’s breasts right through conversations on the company within the 1980s. Exposing the surprising behaviour, she stated: ‘I labored on the BBC when I used to be in my 20s, and also you simply were given used to the truth that folks would in truth put their hand to your boob whilst they have been speaking to you about paintings’

Exposing the surprising behaviour, she stated: ‘I labored on the BBC when I used to be in my 20s, and also you simply were given used to the truth that folks would in truth put their hand to your boob whilst they have been speaking to you about paintings’

Ms Fielding, who used to be interviewed via creator Dolly Alderton at the yearly pageant, the place different attendees integrated Hollywood actresses Rebel Wilson and Gillian Anderson, additionally stated that sexism used to be nonetheless obvious within the movie business.

‘I in truth suppose it is nonetheless there within the film trade, it is just below the parapet,’ she added.

‘I believe there must be a relentless consciousness of now not being unequal in the way in which ladies are handled.

‘You nonetheless must struggle a lot more difficult as a lady, even a a hit lady, and also you get handled in ways in which males would now not be handled.

‘And there is no denying that it’s nonetheless occurring and it wishes to switch.’

Ms Fielding’s first enjoy of the BBC after leaving Oxford University used to be operating at the back of the scenes of Jim’ll Fix It, the kids’s TV display hosted via Jimmy Savile, whose unmasking as a serial paedophile brought about an enormous scandal on the company, which used to be accused of enabling his behaviour.

She has up to now stated she had suspicions concerning the past due presenter: ‘Well, we all the time stated, ‘Don’t go away Jimmy on my own with the kids’.

‘It simply gave the look to be what you set up with,’ says Ms Fielding, who rose to popularity within the Noughties after her extensively a hit Bridget Jones books have been was Hollywood movies, starring Renee Zellweger as Bridget. Pictured: Renee Zellweger and Leo Woodall in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Ms Fielding’s first enjoy of the BBC after leaving Oxford University used to be operating at the back of the scenes of Jim’ll Fix It, the kids’s TV display hosted via Jimmy Savile, whose unmasking as a serial paedophile brought about an enormous scandal on the company, which used to be accused of enabling his behaviour. Pictured: Helen Fielding 1997

‘But we have been kind of 23, and you recognize…. I’m positive the manufacturers will have to have recognized. We did not suppose he would do the rest. But he used to be so creepy. We all the time stayed with the youngsters.’

The creator changed into a regional researcher for the BBC in 1979, as a part of the scoop mag Nationwide.

In the 1980s, she produced and wrote documentaries in Africa for the primary two Comic Relief proclaims.

After operating as a columnist and journalist for a number of nationwide newspapers, Ms Fielding started writing an unattributed column about her unmarried lifestyles for The Independent entitled Bridget Jones Diaries in 1999.

Her columns struck a chord with many unmarried ladies and resulted in 4 novels and movie diversifications.

A BBC spokesman stated: ‘We’re sorry to listen to of those reviews. Attitudes and behaviours have modified considerably within the remaining 40 years and the BBC – like the remainder of society – may be very other position now from what it used to be then.’