Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Broadcaster and sports presenter who was the first woman to anchor ITV's football coverage and now hosts major events for the BBC.
On the island
Eight records
The heartbeat used in that opening ceremony is the heartbeat for me of a nation, of a sporting movement, of everything that was about to come. The words really for me just mean take a chance on me, I won't let you down, please stick with me and that's sport.
This song kind of sums up lyrically, I think, what it meant to be loved by my parents and grow up in an environment that was unconditional love, support and yet a freedom to go and do what you want to do.
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
This track is Summertime from Porgy and Bess. Anne Tallantyre opened up my ears and my eyes to all kinds of music: a love of jazz, an early knowledge of a bit of opera, classical music that I never would have heard at the Motown-loving home that I came from.
Going Home (Theme of Local Hero)
This song is played every home game at St James's Park and it's soppy and sentimental. It is my most nostalgic choice, I think, going home.
The night that Daniel died, the first thing I wanted to do was listen to Elton John's Daniel. And my children, as babies, as toddlers, loved me singing it to them when they were going to sleep at night. It kept his memory and his spirit alive with them and it's a really special song to us.
Doddy Weir had been diagnosed with motor neuron disease and we were all packed into this car and he was playing Belter by Gerry Cinnamon and the sun was shining and the windows were open and everybody was laughing and here was this man with this horrendous diagnosis living life as he did every day, never feeling sorry for himself.
George Michael and Mary J. Blige
This was supposed to be the first dance at our wedding. A couple of nights before, Kenny not being a very musical fella, he wanted to put a few steps together and so we played the song and I love the words. It was a Stevie Wonder song that was done by these two.
You Got the LoveFavourite
The Source featuring Candi Staton
It's the one that makes you just want to stand up and dance and just raise your hands in the air. But I think it is all for me about that incredible unit that I have around me who are Kenny, Reuben and Lois. And I've got their love and they've got mine.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44When you think about the lessons that sport has taught you, what's the most important?
I think back straight away to being a child running around after dinner with my siblings chasing each other around the garden. Ostensibly this was a game but it always had a competitive element. Or there would be jumpers for goalposts and jumpers for tennis nets and there was joy there but there was also life lessons at every turn, you know, learning to lose, learning to win gracefully as well.
Presenter asks
10:18What about that other downside? You said you were skirting the borders of an eating disorder. How did that manifest?
No. Yeah, I think it was at the time though, in that setup, at that time in rhythmic gymnastics, it was purely from us gymnasts to each other almost. It wasn't that the coaches were saying to us, you know, you need to be this weight, although we did have weigh-ins. We weren't body-shamed. We weren't told what not to eat. And actually, it would have been more helpful if there had been a nutritionist helping us. So our idea of losing weight or our idea of maintaining weight was to go on weird mono diets. Oh, I'm only going to eat tomatoes this week.
Presenter asks
13:38Take me back to May 11th, 1985, the day of the Bradford fire. What happened?
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Works of Alan Partridge
Steve Coogan
I think I should take something that is going to make me laugh and entertain.
The luxury
I'm going to take a piano. Just practising every day for a few hours a day, I'll be able to come off and play something better than I do now. And it's a good use of my time away from the Ireland Olympics, which I'm organising and the Alan Partridge shows which I'm doing for the local animals as well.
We always sat together as a family, but that day because of the numbers we had to sit in separate seats… And just before half-time, she always left a few minutes before half-time, my mum, to avoid the crush in the bar… And she shouted down to us from the back of the stand, you know, did we want to go with her? … And that was one of the most important decisions I probably ever made in my life because, as the eldest, I led us up there. And within a minute and a half, somebody opened the door to the bar and told us all to get out because a fire had started in the stand. … In the end, fifty-six people lost their lives that day, and our family was incredibly lucky.
Presenter asks
18:34In 1992, your mum called with terrible news. What did she tell you?
She didn't really have an introduction, she just said the words that changed our lives, which Daniel has died. And Daniel was my 15-year-old brother at the time. He was a couple of months off his 16th birthday. He'd just signed to be a professional footballer for [Leeds] United, who had just won the league. And he was a beautiful, strong, fit, healthy, handsome, popular young man. And he had everything to live for.
Presenter asks
27:17You were at ITV for eight years, but then your time there came to an end. What exactly happened?
It's important to realise that not everybody has to like you in life. And I had a boss who had arrived at ITV, who had been my boss at Sky, who I immediately sensed didn't really want me there anymore. And I fought against it, and he probably couldn't properly kick me out because I had a contract. But I was slowly being dropped off quite major programmes. … I was devastated because I wanted things to be on my terms… And the BBC approached me and said, we'd like you to come and present this new show called Inside Sport. … So although it wasn't the way things had in my head were going to pan out, I was given a huge opportunity. And actually, that boss at ITV, I'm thankful for now that he stuck to his guns, which was to replace me because I wouldn't have taken those opportunities.
Presenter asks
30:27Kenny was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. How did you deal with that as a couple and family?
Very, you know, he's got that sportsman's kind of right. This is the plan. This is what we're going to do. And we've done that when we'd gone through IVF to conceive Reuben and Lois. We'd had this right. This is we're going to try and get the best help we can and do the best we can and be the fittest, you know, eat well, Kenny, and exercise and be in good shape. We've been together such a long time that, you know, there aren't many things that surprise you anymore about that person in the sense that, you know, you think you've uncovered all the corners of their personality. But actually, the vulnerability that I saw in Kenny last year, it made me feel quite sad for him that, you know, that he was going through that. He's been really positive and brilliant since then, Kenny. And as always, he's got so much enthusiasm, but it does feel like it's doubled a bit.
“learning to lose, learning to win gracefully as well.”
“And that was one of the most important decisions I probably ever made in my life because, as the eldest, I led us up there.”
“And in the end, fifty-six people lost their lives that day, and our family was incredibly lucky.”
“She didn't really have an introduction, she just said the words that changed our lives, which Daniel has died.”
“I stepped into the world of assholeness and then came back again very quickly because you've got enough good people around you who can pull you back in.”