Professor Mary Beard has accused a US broadcaster of editing her own episodes of Civilisations to make them more anodyne, saying her on-screen appearances as a “slightly creaky old lady with long grey hair” had been cut.

Prof Beard, who hosts two episodes of Civilisations for the BBC in Britain, said the American edits of the show had seen her central arguments erased, her on-screen contributions reduced, and an episode on religion re-edited to focus more closely on Christianity.

Suggesting she could not help thinking her appearance “isn’t ideal for US TV”, in a series of wry asides on Twitter, she admitted she felt “a bit shifty” reading criticism of a show she did not fully approve.

Prof Beard, who has regularly spoken of the abuse she has received as an older woman on television, said she was “rather sad” about the changes, urging viewers to watch the full BBC version online.

She aired her criticism on Twitter, after a Washington Post review called the new series of Civilisations on American channel PBS as “anodyne”, with a viewer observing she “virtually disappears from the PBS version”. ...