TV presenters are beginning to annoy me. They seem to have forgotten they have to tread a fine line to ensure they do not monopolise the programme they are fronting.

Presenters have to be both informative and, occasionally, entertaining, but it’s easy for them to cross that line and become an irritation instead of an institution.

David Attenborough, for instance, can get away with it because of his affable, laid-back style and, of course, he has long since been elevated to the status of national treasure.

But Jeremy Paxman, would-be historian and University Challenge presenter, is self-important to the point where he makes me want to scream. His withering put-downs of contestants who get a question wrong (as if Paxman knew all the answers) merely serve to underline my contention that too many of today’s TV presenters have become, well, just too big for their boots.

OK, I accept that Paxman’s caustic style is, to a degree, all part of his “act” but TV presenters, and TV historians in particular, are especially at risk of falling victim to the cult of personality. I like them to be subservient to the history they are presenting.

Mary Beard, the eccentric, bicycle-riding professor of classics at the University of Cambridge, succeeds where so many TV historians fail because of her matter of fact, but nevertheless compelling style, of presentation.

Judging by some recent headlines, I am not the only one irked by some TV historians’ penchant for being bigger than the programme they are presenting. And it’s even better when one historian slags off another.

Horrible Histories author Terry Deary fired both barrels at Royal Palaces curator and TV historian Lucy Worsley last weekend for her “posh little voice” and “inflated acting skills”.

Ms Worsley likes to dress up in period costume to add an extra ingredient to her programmes. One week she’s Elizabeth 1, the next she might be Cleopatra. To make matters worse, she is also prone to outbreaks of cheesy acting.

Deary’s attack was spiteful, perhaps, but he was making a valid point. For a while, I found Worsley’s style of presentation fascinating, even original. But only for a while. It then reached the point where it had become the Lucy Worsley Show and I looked for the remote control.

When TV presenters become mere parodies of themselves – and Paxman and Worsley are now firmly in that category – the time is well overdue for them to remember it’s their subject, not them, which is important.

The Codgers' Monday Moan column is in the Medway Messenger each Monday.