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Castaway
1 appearance
Former England international footballer known for her energy on the pitch and team spirit; second most capped British player and Euro 2022 winner.
On the island
Eight records
reminds us of England under 19s when we used to go on the coach and the bus journeys and we'd be playing this song full blast and I remember more Marley our manager saying some people might not want to listen to music on the way to games so I had to quickly purchase some headphones and I used to just play this song over and over again. I think the words of it, the higher you build your barriers, the taller I'd become and I'd be thinking of the things that I was going to face in a football match and think there's a line in there where it's like if someone runs fast I'll run faster than you and I would really kind of motivate myself with this song.
So I've gone for So Good by Boys On because this was the first cassette that I ever bought and it reminds us of my holidays, going on holiday with my mum, my stepdad and I would just have this song on repeat really. I was a really big fan of Boys On. I remember paying a pound to go to the Metro Centre. I actually bunked off school and you could pay a pound to get a kiss off each member on the cheek.
So, this song actually is a tattoo on my wrist. So, I was going to a tournament, and Whitney Houston Step by Step is the song. I got the tattoo on my wrist because I was heading to this major tournament, and I felt like I just needed some words of motivation. But this song actually ended up being the whole kind of motto of how I live my life. So, step by step, day by day, mile by mile. And obviously, I've ran a lot of miles. If I was a car, I would have a very high mileage on my clock.
So this reminds us of when I first passed my driving test I had a little red Peugeot 106. My grandma bought us at £300. It had four gears and it had a cassette player and you could put the cassette in and it had a wire that joined to your iPod and didn't have a lot of storage my iPod so I only had Maroon 5's album and I think Sunday morning was always my favourite day of the week because I either had football or I had a race and it kind of always represents say going to football and then looking forward to heating my Sunday dinner up in the microwave when I got home.
The ClimbFavourite
So, I'm going for Miley Cyrus the climb. So, this takes us back to 2009 when we made the final of the Euros. We got beat off Germany actually 6-2. So, to fast forward then 13 years when we beat Germany in the Euros final. But I just remember making that final and me and one of the girls just singing this song out at the top of our voices. And I think the words to this song, when you kind of associate it to sport, yeah, you can always want that final thing in life, that gold medal. But I think if you enjoy the climb, then that's the best part of everything.
My nephew Dexter, so he's 11 now. And when he was younger, I used to sing this song to him when we were in the car. He used to come on car journeys with me, him, Charlie, my other nephew. And I used to sing this song to him because it was just all about how much I loved them. And they were only like three and five years old. And he said to us the other day, I haven't played it to him for about seven years, and it came on on the radio. He said, Jill, is this the song you used to sing to me? And he was saying all the lyrics. And it was just, I said to him, Yeah, how do you remember that? So, in years to come, maybe when he's older, he'll listen to this song and hopefully think of Auntie Jill.
I love Peter Andrea and on the back of the jungle I sang this song a lot and I think ... when I was in the jungle, I'm a celebrity. I sang this song a lot. We were doing raps and stuff like that. Peter Andre always been a fan of his, and he actually sent us a message on Instagram going, Next time I go and do a concert, you can come and do the rap on stage. So I'm going to hold him to that. Also, it reminds us a lot of my initiations at Everton Manchester City, which is where you join a team, you have to get up and do a song or a dance. If it wasn't poetry, it was always this song, Peter Andre, Mysterious Girl.
Well, I don't think I would have had the opportunity to even come on Desert Island discs if we hadn't have won the Euros. And the song that reminds me of that the most when I did that last lap with the team walking around Wembley for the final time, gold medal around my neck, holding the trophy. When I hear this song, which is Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, it brings a massive smile to my face. And the fact that the whole nation got behind us whenever this song comes on, I think they do think of that Euros moment when the lionesses brought it home.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:22What did it mean to you to finally win that medal [the Euros]?
Oh, it meant absolutely everything. I still can't put it into words now. I feel like I had that full England experience. Obviously, 16 years I was in the team for. I was a massive fan of England before that, the men's team, the women's team. And then I actually got to pull on that shirt and played the last 35 minutes of that final. I think I might have done the last header of the game as well. And then that final whistle went. I just went around just thanking the team, thanking the staff, because I was like, you've really made my dreams come true. And I know a whole nation's dreams come true of bringing that trophy home. And if I'm ever having a day when I think, oh, I'm not in a great mood, I just think back and think, we won the Euros, and it just makes us.
Presenter asks
6:42Were you encouraged towards what would have been considered girls' hobbies and activities back then?
I think my mum tried to a little bit. I remember she put us in this tap dancing class and I had to wear a sealer dress and did you feel it. ... I hated it. I hated wearing dresses. I remember going on a butland's holiday and the dressed is up as Livin' Doll and I had to have this pink dress on with bright red rosy cheeks. I wasn't like 14, I was about five. And I had to sing this song and yeah, my mum said that my face, all the other girls in the line when we did the sailor dress dance, they were all in time and I just had a face like thunder.
The keepsakes
The book
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾
Sue Townsend
You know what, I was thinking hard about this and I've read a lot of books about inspiration, motivation. But I think if I was on an island, I'd need a little bit of fun. And my mum used to always read the books, The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole. And I used to pinch them and just read kind of little extracts from the diaries and they used to always have us laughing. But I was also a little bit too young to be reading some of it. So I feel like that would just keep us going.
The luxury
I think I would have to take a pen and paper, which I know sounds like so simple, but I think if I could write my poems and my poetry, and maybe I could do the secret diary of Jill Scott on a desert island, but I think if I had somewhere where I could put my thoughts down, I would just want a pen and paper.
Presenter asks
8:41What about the rival teams who were coming to play you [when you were the only girl on the boys' team]?
Parents made a tough for us sometimes, especially of the rival teams, if I kind of beat their precious son. I remember people shouting things at us at the age of nine, like break that girl's legs and kick her and I remember playing the game and I couldn't see because my eyes had just welled up with tears and the manager, Paul Lundy, at the time, oh he was so lovely, and he'd take us off the pitch to protect us. ... Yeah, and he would protect me by taking us off the pitch, but he said that I always wanted to come back on a Tuesday. ... it was definitely because I was female. I think because the perception back in the day was that boys should be stronger than girls, so it was kind of an embarrassment for the son if a girl had kind of megged them or done a trick and got past them. So, yeah, it was really difficult. And people have said throughout my career that I'm resilient and I'm determined. And I think from a young age, without even realizing what resilience even was, I had to build it up inside of me, else I wouldn't have gone on to play football at any level, never mind professional.
Presenter asks
17:30How on earth did you keep that up [the three-hour drive each way to Everton]?
I don't know, to be honest. I remember setting off for the first day, and I was quite an independent child. I remember being 17, and I had one of them AA road maps. I said to my mum, I was like, I think I'm going to go and sign for Everton. And I set off in my little red Peugeot car going down the motorway, and it was so loud because it only had four gears. And I just literally followed this map. I still remember the roads: A19, A1, M62. When you get to the M62, you'll see the rocket pub on the left, and that's where you'll meet the manager. I signed that day, and it was difficult in terms of there was a lot of sofa surfing, so I had to say to the girls, Is it okay if I stay over tonight if we had a game the next day? But you know what? I formed the best friendships. We've still got a group now. I was up and down the motorway probably three times a week, just trying to find somewhere to sleep. ... I used to have coffee like late at night, and it used to wake us up. I don't want to look back on that time and think it was a slog because it was, but honestly, I had the biggest smile on my face. I was playing for Everton women's team with the likes of Rachel Una, Farrell Williams, these England professionals, and I was just about to start my England journey as well. So it's a very happy time for me.
Presenter asks
19:30Were you ever annoyed about how much more male players at the same level were earning compared to the kinds of sacrifices that you and your teammates were having to make?
Yeah, that's mad. You know what though? I've never thought about the money side, and I know it sounds cheesy, I am quite a cheesy person, really, but I don't think money makes you happy. Like when I think back and I think my latter years at Manchester City was the best wages I'd ever been on, but I probably wasn't enjoying my football. And then when I think back to them days at Everton and I remember me and Fern Wheeler putting five pound petrol in the car so that we could drive to the cinema or something like that, them times I was just so happy back in them days where I probably had six pound coins in my pocket.
Presenter asks
22:26Do you think you missed out on a lot of stuff? I mean, in your personal life, you must have had to make so many sacrifices.
I feel like the sacrifice maybe isn't with me because I got to go and live my best life playing football. But I feel like my family made a big sacrifice really because I have been absent from a lot of things. My sister's wedding, I remember going to the wedding and the first dance was about to happen. I had to leave because I had like an FA Cup semi-final the next day in London. I had to drive from Sunderland to London, still all my hairpins in. I think I still had my bridesmaid dress on for me not to be there for our first dance and to just leave the wedding. But you know what? They've always been so supportive and I still feel this massive like amount of guilt. Maybe the sacrifice wasn't with me. It was more my family.
“Oh, it meant absolutely everything. I still can't put it into words now. ... I just went around just thanking the team, thanking the staff, because I was like, you've really made my dreams come true. And I know a whole nation's dreams come true of bringing that trophy home.”
“it was definitely because I was female. I think because the perception back in the day was that boys should be stronger than girls, so it was kind of an embarrassment for the son if a girl had kind of megged them or done a trick and got past them. So, yeah, it was really difficult. And people have said throughout my career that I'm resilient and I'm determined. And I think from a young age, without even realizing what resilience even was, I had to build it up inside of me, else I wouldn't have gone on to play football at any level, never mind professional.”
“I don't think money makes you happy. Like when I think back and I think my latter years at Manchester City was the best wages I'd ever been on, but I probably wasn't enjoying my football. And then when I think back to them days at Everton and I remember me and Fern Wheeler putting five pound petrol in the car so that we could drive to the cinema or something like that, them times I was just so happy back in them days where I probably had six pound coins in my pocket.”
“I feel like the sacrifice maybe isn't with me because I got to go and live my best life playing football. But I feel like my family made a big sacrifice really because I have been absent from a lot of things. My sister's wedding, I remember going to the wedding and the first dance was about to happen. I had to leave because I had like an FA Cup semi-final the next day in London. I had to drive from Sunderland to London, still all my hairpins in. I think I still had my bridesmaid dress on for me not to be there for our first dance and to just leave the wedding. But you know what? They've always been so supportive and I still feel this massive like amount of guilt. Maybe the sacrifice wasn't with me. It was more my family.”
“I learnt that sport can equip you for so much in life, and I say that to young people now. I said before, if you don't go on to reach a highest level of sport, it's so good for life in general. There's so many moments in your life where you'll feel like you'll win, maybe relationships you'll feel like you'll lose. And I think sport teaches you about winning and losing from very early days. I speak about resilience, I didn't even know what it was, but I suppose young nine-year-old Jill was building resilience and determination without even knowing. So I think then when you step into, say, the jungle or a desert island, sometimes you've built them things inside of you that can help you cope with being in these situations that you would never find yourself in usually.”