I was moved and gripped by the recent departure of much-loved BBC weather stalwart, Carol Kirkwood, 63, and the montage that accompanied it. The news that she was retiring to spend more time with her husband sparked an outpouring of love for the stalwart broadcaster, and her tears at being torn over spending time with her family and leaving a job that she had “loved every minute of” will have chimed with many.See too presenter Liza Tarbuck, who recently stepped down from her show on BBC Radio 2 because she wants to “get her weekends back”. After more than a decade in her Saturday evening broadcasting slot, she said she wanted more personal time rather than being tied to the regular schedule. In the handwritten note, posted on Instagram, she wrote:“I think you’ve guessed, some fool left a door open & I sneaked out – a French exit! Together we made 2 hours of radio feel like a private member’s club, that’s the stuff of dreams, thousands of people enjoying each others company like great friends. Imagine what else we could do.“Thank you for letting me in, it’s been a privilege…”I couldn’t help comparing and contrasting these planned warm departures with the icy, brutal and sudden departure of Scott Mills, the man who until this week presented the flagship Radio 2 Breakfast Show. The details are vague, but the BBC revealed it had terminated Mills’s contracts on Friday over “allegations about his personal conduct”, just days after taking him off air, following new information it received in recent weeks.The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into the 53-year-old in 2016 over allegations of serious sexual offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000. The BBC confirmed it knew about the police investigation into Mills in 2017, but said it “acted decisively” after receiving “new information” in the weeks before his sacking. The corporation has also apologised for not following up after a separate allegation of “inappropriate communications” by Mills was raised by a journalist last year.Liza Tarbuck’s exit from her beloved radio show stands in stark contrast to the erasing of any trace of Mills from the BBC’s records (Getty)Mills broke his silence on the matter yesterday, issuing a statement in which he confirmed that he was no longer contracted to the BBC and that this “has led to the publication of rumour and speculation”.His statement said: “In response to this, the Metropolitan Police has made a statement, which I confirm relates to me. An allegation was made against me in 2016 of a historic sexual offence, which was the subject of a police investigation in which I fully cooperated and responded to in 2018.“As the police have stated, a file of evidence was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, which determined that the evidential threshold had not been met to bring charges.”As the rumour continues to swirl, the outgoing BBC director general (who also leaves this week) reportedly demanded Mills go as one of his final acts in the job.Overwhelmingly, Tim Davie’s tenure will be remembered for a series of scandals involving older, white, indulged and highly paid male presenters, many of whom seemed to have been getting away with bad behaviour for years. The BBC has been wrestling with the apparent blind eye turned to the peccadillos of its stars for a while. And the unique thing about the recent scandals is that they all apparently involve men of a certain age. Just saying.As the new director general of the BBC, Matt Brittin inherits a corporation with a repeating propensity for scandals involving men – will he take decisive action? (BBC)It’s funny, isn’t it? How women at the top of media are either disappeared because they get too old, wrinkly and bolshy (“become less pleasing” as someone put it to me, so are replaced by a younger model) or retire to spend more time with their family – ie, they have a real life as well as a career. By contrast, the men are the ones dominating recent headlines for scandals that have included criminal offences of the worst kind.This tells its own story.There’s been lots written about the BBC’s women problem – Miriam O’Reilly famously fought a successful ageism tribunal against the corporation back in 2009, although not much has changed since. But the truth is that the Beeb doesn’t really have a women problem; it has a predatory-older-man problem.Just think about it. There was Jimmy Savile, of course – king of the BBC, who was revealed to be a serial paedophile, hiding in plain sight. Not to mention Chris Denning, who died in prison aged 81 while serving a sentence for abusing boys as young as eight.There have been longstanding accusations and controversy surrounding John Peel’s past behaviour, particularly regarding sexual relationships with underage girls when he was younger. While he died in 2004, they’ve circulated for years and continue to affect how some people view his legacy.The Huw Edwards scandal is surely the most incendiary one for the BBC in the last few years (PA)And then there was the scandal of scandals: Huw Edwards, 64, the face of the Beeb – the man entrusted with fronting the Queen’s funeral – who lost his job and ended up pleading guilty to three charges related to indecent images of children that were found in a WhatsApp chat and was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.Of course, it’s not all men – lots of men are lovely, I’m married to one. Scott Mills has also not been found guilty of any crime. But it has to be said that when it comes to the BBC, it is not the older women who are leaving because they are at the centre of a scandal that has brought the corporation into disrepute.So here’s a thought for the new (male, ex-Google) BBC director general Matt Brittin: if the BBC really wants to clean up its act and stop the never-ending reputational risk that so many men have put the corporation under, it needs to look to getting more top-notch, excellent midlife women in place. I have scanned the runners and riders of presenters to replace Mills permanently, and there are currently only three women (two in some lists) – Sara Cox, Clara Amfo, and Tarbuck.We can but hope for the return of the latter, but at the moment, the winds are blowing in the direction of Cox. It’s not such a preposterous notion. After all, midlife women are risk-free, responsible, reliable and not known for predatory behaviour. Who knew? Older women could have been the answer to all the BBC’s problems all along.Eleanor Mills is the founder of noon.org.uk – the UK’s premier network for women in midlife