Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Journalist and broadcaster, best known as a morning TV staple in British homes for over 40 years.
On the island
Eight records
it reminds me of my mum and it reminds me of us dancing about and just having fun
The song that always got us up, always got everybody up on the floor
it's almost like putting a comfort blanket on because I know the song so well
this song was out when my daughter was born, so I was hearing it all the time
it's a story of love, it's a story of a relationship... it's just so beautiful
The keepsakes
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:23How do you hit the right tone?
I always remember Piers Morgan said, I was an iron fist in a velvet glove. And I loved that description so, so much. And I don't mind when people come in, particularly politicians, and they underestimate you because then they're on the back foot. It's just quite handy that. Yeah, and I don't do the sort of gladiatorial style of interviewing someone, which is more like an interrogation. I do like to let people talk because oftentimes, particularly with politicians, they don't quite know how to handle that and they trip themselves up and they end up being very revealing a lot more than they would if you just hectored them all the time, you know. My thing is, and I think I learned that from my parents, is just treat everybody the same.
Presenter asks
7:25How had your parents met?
My wee mum, when she was very, very young, she was only about seven or eight, and her and her three sisters were put into a convent and they lived there and they were educated there. And she basically stepped out of the convent, got a job in Semples in Denison, and it was like a record shop where they sold televisions and radiograms and all of that. So she was the girl that, if you came in and wanted to buy, you know, the latest Elvis, she would be playing it for you because you were allowed to listen. The listening booths. The listening booths. I mean god. … And my dad was an apprentice T V engineer and he took her out to the dancing. One thing led to another and my mum found herself pregnant and you know she she told me that they went to see her mother, Granny Mac, who was a very, very formidable woman and she wanted my mum to go down south because her bigger sister Jacqueline lived in Cheltenham to have the baby which was me. … And then to put the baby up for adoption. And my wee dad, who was from the Gorbles, and he had his Elvis haircut and he had his wee suit on and his wee pointy shoes, because back then the shoes were pointy.
The book
Ernest Shackleton
South by Shackleton. The book that's by my bedside, it's his account of his amazing voyage where he managed to save all of his men's life and just the leadership qualities of the man.
The luxury
digital photo album with solar power
Do you know you can get these digital photo albums? ... And then I can just have photographs of everybody that I love.
Presenter asks
10:42What about Granny Mac? You said she was quite formidable, but you were very fond of her.
No, I was very fond of her because I wasn't her child, I was her grandchild. She was hard on her children. … She's one of these people who, very well-educated, self-educated, you know, working-class women who I think felt frustrated. … And I think there was a resentment there, I think. Very complex character. One minute, she could be your best friend in the world, and the next minute she would be calling you from everything. So it was very difficult to know where you stood with her. But from her, all her daughters and her sons have got this amazing love of Shakespeare, poetry, books.
Presenter asks
16:31How did your parents feel when you turned down the place at university to take up the job on the paper?
Education, education, education. And they wanted that photograph on the mantelpiece with the wee funny hat and the scroll under your arm. … They were very, very disappointed, but they didn't say anything. They just they said, Oh, well, okay, we wish you all the best. We wish you all the best. That's great. If that's what you want to do, that's absolutely fine. And of course it turned out really well, but I didn't no, they didn't know that at the time.
Presenter asks
30:37When you became the main presenter of Good Morning Britain, how did you find making the switch from reporter to presenter?
Essentially the same because you're getting the story. Although I never ever thought that I would be sitting on a sofa, you know, a pink sofa with big hair. I never thought about that. … I remember one exec saying to me, you don't make my trousers twitch. Nice, huh? Wow. Oh, yeah, wow. … I'll tell you what made it easier. Mike Morris made it easier. He was a very kind, very generous, very underrated presenter. And we got to the stage where we could finish each other's sentences. I knew when he was going to do a follow-up question. Obviously, I'm not going to stand on that, I will lean back. And we had this kind of thing where if he asked the first question, it didn't really matter who did what, you know, but if he asked the first question and I wanted to ask the second question, I would just kind of tap him on his leg. And if he leaned back, you know, I could jump in, but if he leaned forward, he'd something else to say. And we were all, you know, it was new and it was exciting and all of that. It was amazing. But it was scary as well.
Presenter asks
32:33While you were on maternity leave, you got a call from your boss. How did that go?
Oh that did not go well. I had Rosie in the June and obviously I'm freelance, you know, just a taxi for hire. So I was coming back in the September, which is no time at all. It's only a couple of months. But I fully expected to be coming back. We had a massive mortgage, you know, we needed to I needed to work. And the boss called me up and just said, Em. … And then eventually spat it out and said, we don't need you anymore. … Sorry, we're not renewing your contract. We don't need you anymore.
“I always remember Piers Morgan said, I was an iron fist in a velvet glove. And I loved that description so, so much.”
“the viewers were sold short because they deserve to have the facts and if she doesn't want to get asked those kind of questions and we're using her as an example but it could have been so many other people. If you don't want to be asked questions do not come on because there's no point because all the things they don't want to talk about are the things that we want to hear about.”
“I have blanked out such a lot of that. Because I think in order to function, you had to. Because there were bodies everywhere, everywhere.”
“Being a mother made me so much better at my job. You have so much more empathy, you have so much more understanding, you know, it definitely, definitely made me better.”
“if it's just some sand in a palm tree, I'm going to be bored out of my tiny mind. So I'd want to be able to go for a big walk. Can I make it a sort of reasonably large island? So it's got to be quite a big enough island to explore. And birdies. I want to, you know, bird watch and animal watch and stuff like that.”