Glamorous TV presenter Kirsty Wark's decision to wear a short dress during a BBC broadcast from the Cannes Film Festival has triggered a flood of complaints.

Viewers watching the Newsnight Review show from the French Riviera last Friday were treated to the 53-year-old mother-of-two flashing her legs in a black dress with a hem several inches above the knee.

Ms Wark's revealing attire was attacked by one viewer as 'much too short for a lady of her age'.

Leg work: Kirsty Walk in her natural studio habitat, left, and presenting Newsnight Review at the Cannes Film Festival last Friday

In an internet post on the BBC's Newsnight duty log, the upset viewer continued, 'There is a much younger woman beside her who is wearing something much more modest.

'Could someone not have told Ms Wark that it would not be advisable presenting this show naked from the waist down?'

Another viewer was even more damning: 'It is about time you scrapped this programme. The format is tired and stale. It is just the same old faces every week.'

Last year, BBC news presenter Emily Maitlis came in for similar criticism over her hemline's length - or lack thereof.

Sitting pretty: Emily Maitlis perches on her desk for a BBC1 news trailer last year

During a televised trailer for BBC1's 10 O'Clock News, the 37-year-old blonde was perched casually on the edge of her circular desk, her stilettos dangling above the studio floor, while she swung one toned leg over the other.

Although she was wearing a relatively demure navy skirt-suit, Ms Maitlis's flash of shapely calf led to more than 30 complaints from disgruntled licence fee-payers who labelled the trailer 'indulgent' and 'completely inappropriate'.