Kirsty Wark The TV That Made Me


Kirsty Wark

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TV.

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The magic box of delights.

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As kids, it showed us a million different worlds,

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all from our living room.

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So funny!

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That was state of the art! Arrgh!

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I loved this.

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Each day I'm going to journey through the wonderful

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world of telly... Cheers. ..with one of our favourite celebrities...

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We're going into space. It's just so silly.

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Oh, no!

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..as they select the iconic TV moments...

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Oh, my God, this is the scene. Oh, dear.

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..that tell us the stories of their lives.

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I absolutely adored this.

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Some will make you laugh...

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Don't watch the telly, Esther, watch me!

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..some will surprise...

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No way, where did you find this?

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..many will inspire...

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It used to transport us to places that we could only dream about.

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..and others will move us.

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I am emotional now.

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Today we look even more deeply.

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Why wouldn't you want to watch this?

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So come watch with us,

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as we rewind to the classic telly that helped shape those

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wide-eyed youngsters into the much-loved stars they are today.

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Welcome to The TV That Made Me.

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My guest today is one of Britain's best-loved journalists

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and broadcasters. It can only be the one and only Kirsty Wark.

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AUDIENCE APPLAUSE

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Kirsty started off in radio before switching to our TV

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screens in the '80s,

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anchoring countless current affairs shows

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and ground-breaking programmes such as The Late Show and Newsnight.

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The TV that made Kirsty includes a drama series that showed

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young women could be independent.

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Soon every mother will be unmarried.

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And an iconic interview with the Iron Lady.

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You were seen as a hectoring lady in London who has not achieved

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any popularity in Scotland at all.

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Today the expert interviewer becomes the guest.

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So, I want you to relax. How do you feel about being interviewed?

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Actually, I think it can be quite fun. I'm looking forward to it.

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Well, today is a celebration of TV.

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TV that shaped you, probably made you the person you are today.

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Some classic moments that you haven't seen for many years.

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But first up we are going to rewind the clock

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and have a look at a very young Kirsty Wark.

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Kirsty Wark was raised in the Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock.

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The family consisted of dad Jimmy, a lawyer,

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mum Roberta, a teacher, along with Alan, Kirsty's younger brother.

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After attending university in both Stirling

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and Edinburgh, Kirsty joined the BBC in 1976,

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starting off in radio,

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before gracing our screens in regional news and current affairs.

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The nation then woke up to her on the morning show, Breakfast Time.

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And over the years she confirmed her place as one of Britain's

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most respected political journalists.

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So, what was it like looking back?

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Um... Idyllic childhood? Yes. It was a lovely childhood.

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I grew up in a great, it was a kind of country industrial town,

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which, very sadly, doesn't have all the big industry it used to have.

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It was a lovely childhood. A childhood with a lot of freedom.

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That was the great thing.

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You could go out in the country on your bike,

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I was away from nine in the morning to five at night.

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There'd be no question in the summer holidays of contacting

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your parents, you just did that.

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So did you have much time to watch TV as a youngster?

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I can remember watching, I remember TV being rationed. Rationed?

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Those early, early childhood moments were obviously all black and white.

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Of course.

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The only time you saw colour was when you went to the pictures.

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Well, we're going to have a look at your earliest TV memory now. Great.

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Here it is.

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The Man From U.N.C.L.E, starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum.

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Yeah.

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On a street in the East 40s, there is an ordinary tailor's shop.

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The series focused on McCallum, a Soviet agent, Illya Kuryakin,

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and Vaughn as his American counterpart, Napoleon Solo.

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The show's witty writing

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and fast pace always offered up high-end spy thrills.

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These two leading men really were the super sleuths of the '60s.

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They both work for U.N.C.L.E.

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U.N.C.L.E is an organisation

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consisting of agents of all nationalities.

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It's involved in maintaining political

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and legal order anywhere in the world.

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This was extraordinary for me, because all you

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heard about as a child was, you know, about Russia being different

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and people not being able to come out from behind the Iron Curtain.

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And then here was this, kind of,

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early detente between an agent from the West and an agent from the East.

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In this tense scene, Napoleon Solo is trying to smuggle a medal

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engraved with the names of enemy agents.

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When Ricardo Montalban's agent, Satine, emerges from the fog, Solo

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has to make a nail-biting decision about whether he is friend or foe.

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We loved it. We loved the espionage. I loved looking at America.

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I loved looking at New York. What age would you have been?

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Um, I think I was probably about seven or eight.

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So very young, still.

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I can remember my father had razor blades, and they came

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in a little cream box, and we turned these into pretend transistors.

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We used to play The Man From U.N.C.L.E...

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Oh, right. ..in the streets and in the park near where I was raised.

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Kirsty, can you picture what your old sitting room looked like? I can.

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Maybe you're like this. I've got this uncanny ability to see

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rooms as they were, so I can remember, um,

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we had a kind of rust-coloured carpet

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and we had a kind of bluey-green sofa.

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And that actually had been my grandparents',

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and Mum, I think, had had it covered at least twice.

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Mum had also gone to classes for making lampshades in those days.

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And so these lampshades would really take you back, wouldn't they? These lampshades would take me back,

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and she did all different sizes, all different colours.

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And they looked fantastic, I mean, she was incredibly good at it.

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Wait one moment, Kirsty, I've done it, I've created this for you.

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SHE LAUGHS

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There it is. Oh, my God, you've got a Dimple bottle.

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We've got a Dimple bottle. And you've got a kind of '60s shade.

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We've got an awful '60s shade. Yeah, the Dimple bottle is beautiful.

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That Dimple bottle... You're a 15-year-old.

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My father loved good whisky, but... Do you know what, I think

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I might have to steal that from you. Really?

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Well, I'll put it on the side. Let's put that there.

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There... Ah. Look at that!

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Come on, round of applause, please.

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APPLAUSE

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And it's got a little adjustable bit, so if you want to move

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it around, have a look at something, then you just put it back on.

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There you go, that's great. Fantastic.

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The next choice is a family favourite that you used to all laugh like drains at.

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Ah, Minister. Allow me to present Sir Humphrey Appleby,

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permanent undersecretary of state and head of the DAA.

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Hello, Sir Humphrey.

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Hello and welcome.

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This is, of course, Yes Minister.

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Stars Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne were magnificent.

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Dry, wry and very funny.

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Opposition is about asking awkward questions.

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And government is about not answering them.

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Well, you answered all mine anyway.

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I'm glad you thought so, Minister.

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They embodied the '80s attitude towards politics.

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Poking fun at a world full of doubletalk and jargon.

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..known as the permanent secretary.

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Willie here is your principal private secretary.

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I too have a principal private secretary and he is

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the principal private secretary to the permanent secretary.

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Directly responsible to me are ten deputy secretaries,

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87 undersecretaries and 219 assistant secretaries.

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Directly responsible to the principal private secretaries

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are plain private secretaries

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and the Prime Minister will be appointing two parliamentary

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undersecretaries and you'll be

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appointing your own parliamentary private secretary.

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Can they all type?

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LAUGHTER

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None of us can type, Minister. Mrs Mackay types.

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She's the secretary.

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I absolutely adored this and we did as a family

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because it was just so accurate, so funny.

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You imagine the civil service being

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so superior to the politicians, which I still think they are.

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I think they think they are anyway, and they probably are.

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And the actual civil service are the ones that are doing the hard graft,

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the checking, holding things back, holding everybody to account and the

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civil service are the high flyers

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and they just watch the politicians come and go.

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Yeah, and you think this was the beginning of it all.

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I think this was the first real light that was shed on what

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actually happens in Westminster.

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So you watched this religiously?

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Religiously. I loved it.

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Really? Look at those performances.

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They're just amazing.

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Real division-one acting team, wasn't it?

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Absolutely. The dialogue was amazing.

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I know, and you can watch them now and still laugh your head off.

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Yes Minister was the catalyst for many political sitcoms and satires.

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But it wasn't the first on our screens.

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Only Fools And Horses creator John Sullivan brought

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Robert Lindsay's young Marxist Wolfie Smith and his own

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peculiar brand of politics to our screens in 1977 with Citizen Smith.

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A decade after Wolfie, The New Statesman arrived,

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when we were treated to Rik Mayall's

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ultra-right-wing Conservative

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backbencher, Alan Beresford B'Stard.

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Then, in 2003, Charles Prentice and

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Martin McCabe came to our screens.

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A pair of PR gurus played by Stephen Fry

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and John Bird in the series Absolute Power.

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And, of course, who can forget Doctor Who star

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Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker,

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keeping everyone on their toes in the multi-award-winning

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The Thick Of It.

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So, did your parents encourage you to take an interest in the world?

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Absolutely to take an interest in the world.

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It wasn't just comedy that Kirsty's parents opened her eyes to.

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They also encouraged her to take an interest in the news,

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and one heartbreaking story from the 1960s really left its mark.

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I'm very intrigued with your next clip.

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It's a major event. A truly harrowing story

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about the Aberfan disaster

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reported by Cliff Michelmore.

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He's reporting on the disaster here.

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Never in my life have I ever seen anything like this.

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I hope that I shall never, ever see anything like it again.

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It was October 1966 when the colliery spoil tip above the mining

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village of Aberfan slid and engulfed a farm, houses, and a school.

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116 children and 28 adults died.

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Cliff Michelmore was visibly shaken as he reported from the scene.

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Only minutes ago, someone came down with a faint hope. They said

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that they'd found a child.

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And the child was underneath a blackboard

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and they thought that the child was alive.

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10 minutes before,

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they brought out a whole pile of bodies

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of 20 children

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where the whole of this muck had run straight through

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the whole of the classroom

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and literally buried them.

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Does it still move you?

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It does and, you know, these were miners searching for their own

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children and Cliff Michelmore was a tremendous reporter there

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and he really absolutely kept his - as he should do - kept his head.

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Only just.

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Only just, but I mean, that image of a child being lifted

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out from under a blackboard and thinking the child was alive...

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I mean, as a child at school, of course,

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you couldn't imagine what that would be like, to have the whole

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classroom engulfed and not only one classroom but several classrooms.

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The whole school. Wiped out and parents searching for the kids.

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It was unbelievably sad.

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And I watched that because that was the first time I'd

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seen in the aftermath of this event cameras and reporters

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talking about it on television, so it really stuck with me.

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I think it carries a responsibility to be...

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To be a straight arrow,

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if you can, and I think he showed that kind of reporting.

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He held it together and was crisp, was clear, didn't over-egg it,

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because it's nothing that needed to be over-egged, it was

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so horrific, but gave you clear fact about what had actually

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happened, and that really, I think, gave me

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an appetite to see what was going on in the world.

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One of my great heroes was Joan Bakewell

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and I can remember her reporting on television.

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I can remember Late Night Line-Up, 24 Hours, Tonight.

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All of these programmes that I would

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watch and they were really enjoyable.

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I can remember Late Night Line-Up actually had arts material

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on as well and all sorts of...

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There was actually someone

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sang at the end of the programme.

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I can remember that as well, so I mean, I loved all that,

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I thought that was a really...

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A great way to kind of imbibe television.

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This is your Must See TV.

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This is my room.

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You and Avril may hire the marital couch

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when you wish to sample the joys of marriage without its responsibilities.

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This is Take Three Girls. That's correct.

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And it was a fantastic drama.

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I'm one of the 7%. Of what?

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Unmarried mothers in Greater London.

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Not only was it fantastic,

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it was also BBC One's first-ever colour drama, following the lives

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of three young women sharing a flat in London.

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..infant symbiosis.

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You're frightfully clever, Kate, but you do confuse one, rather.

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Oh, hell, what does anything matter?

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He used to call this flat one of my assets.

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Others were my eyes, my hair,

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his unborn child, he knows, was one of my liabilities.

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So you think a show like this what was

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going on was very much of its time?

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I think it was absolutely of its time.

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It was 1969, I was 14.

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So, you see, this was incredibly influential for me.

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I loved it and I wanted to see it again. I would watch this again.

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Well, we'll give you the box set. Give me the box set. Yeah.

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If such a thing exists, give me the box set.

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It was just at the time of women's liberation

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and there was always, for me, the first kind of idea

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about women's liberation, three girls sharing a flat together.

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All the trials and tribulations of being on your own in the city.

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Never missed an episode. I think it was only two series.

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24 episodes, there were apparently, yeah.

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I just thought it was incredibly entertaining.

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Do you think it was quite risque for the day? It was.

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I think it was quite risque but then the BBC have done lots of fantastic

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stuff, Cathy Come Home... all sorts of stuff.

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Kitchen sink dramas.

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So, did you think that had an influence on your life?

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It was this opening up of sort of the idea that women can do

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anything and I think that a lot of the television started to

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play to that idea.

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Probably, television was actually quite, you know,

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ahead of its time in that regard.

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So, do you think it empowered you?

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Erm, I think it was one of the things that entertained me

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and made me think that women could definitely be independent.

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Definitely be independent. And you was, you was very independent.

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I was independent, yeah.

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I was pretty independent, yes, yeah, because I'd gone to school when I was very young,

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when I was four and so when I went away to university I was just 17.

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So, did you think it would be fun to sort of share a flat with three others?

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Yeah, and very quickly I did, I went to university when I was 17

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and I was in a flat when I was 18.

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What was you studying?

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I was studying first English and Scottish Literature

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and History Of Art and then I went on to do Scottish Studies

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and European Medieval History, Architecture, all sorts of things.

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And then I was lucky enough to be selected for the graduate

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entry programme, I applied for the graduate entry programme

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for the BBC to be a researcher and that's how I came into the BBC.

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Now to look at one of your biggest influences. A giant...

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Well, a colossus of a broadcaster in his day. Who am I talking about, do you think?

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I think you can only be talking about Robin Day.

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Yeah, Robin Day, who you worked with. I worked with as a radio producer, yes.

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Shall we have a little look, first? Yes. Let's have a look at Robin in action.

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Good evening from Number Ten Downing Street.

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On Panorama, Robin Day didn't take any nonsense from the then

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Prime Minister, James Callaghan.

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Why do you shrink from legislating about abuses in those

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particular spheres as opposed to a complete act?

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Why do you use the word shrink?

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Well, I use the word shrink because it occurred to me

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as an accurate word to describe your position. I see.

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The way that I have tried to fight the battle of inflation doesn't,

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with respect, give me the impression that I shrink from a fight

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if I believe it's right. Would you mind withdrawing the word shrink?

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I will withdraw the word shrink.

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SHE LAUGHS

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May I tell you why I used it?

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Because I felt that you may think there is

0:18:240:18:26

a case for law in these matters

0:18:260:18:28

because you did say in the House you were not against it in principle.

0:18:280:18:31

Well, it's a perfectly fair point to put to me.

0:18:310:18:33

See, that's great.

0:18:330:18:35

You know, "I won't call you a shrink again,

0:18:350:18:36

"but I'll tell you why I did call you it."

0:18:360:18:38

It's a perfect piece of interviewing.

0:18:380:18:41

He was very good on the one-two, where you kind of ask a question,

0:18:410:18:45

which either way it's answered is problematic for the politician,

0:18:450:18:47

and then he's ready with the next question. Yeah.

0:18:470:18:50

I think that he changed the whole style of interviewing.

0:18:500:18:53

He was not deferential, but he was rigorous.

0:18:530:18:56

And I think partly to do with his lawyer's training.

0:18:560:19:00

And he was also very funny, he never took himself that seriously.

0:19:000:19:03

And I think his pomposity was not genuine.

0:19:030:19:05

I don't think he really was a very pompous person.

0:19:050:19:07

He was great fun.

0:19:070:19:09

When I worked with him on The World At One as a producer

0:19:090:19:11

and I used to sit next to him, I learned so much from him.

0:19:110:19:13

Just the way he prepared for interviews,

0:19:130:19:15

the way he thought about things.

0:19:150:19:16

He did Question Time brilliantly and he was just forensic

0:19:160:19:20

and I loved that.

0:19:200:19:21

Were politicians scared of him?

0:19:210:19:23

I think politicians were scared of him.

0:19:230:19:25

He wasn't an establishment figure at all.

0:19:250:19:27

He was very funny actually

0:19:270:19:28

cos I can remember you'd go in early, early morning

0:19:280:19:32

and Robin would come in half an hour later and he would sit waiting

0:19:320:19:35

for the morning meeting.

0:19:350:19:36

He would sit in this chair the whole time before The World At One

0:19:360:19:39

and on one side, he would have a pack of fags.

0:19:390:19:41

On the other side,

0:19:410:19:42

he would have, not really thick cigars, but, kind of, cheroots.

0:19:420:19:45

And from then till you went on-air, and during on-air,

0:19:460:19:49

he would just smoke one then the other, one then the other.

0:19:490:19:51

And the other thing, he would chew them as well.

0:19:510:19:54

Cos he would chew the cigarette forgetting it wasn't a cheroot.

0:19:540:19:58

And there was just this kind of fug around him.

0:19:580:20:00

But he was a great person to learn from and he was generous.

0:20:000:20:04

He was tough, but he was generous with his thoughts and his advice

0:20:040:20:07

and I think he was an absolute colossus of broadcasting.

0:20:070:20:11

For quite a long time you were producing.

0:20:110:20:13

But when was that leap...

0:20:130:20:15

When did that leap happen for you to get in front of the camera?

0:20:150:20:17

It was in the early '80s and it was a Sunday morning

0:20:170:20:21

politics and current affairs programme that I was one of

0:20:210:20:23

the two producers on and the head of the department,

0:20:230:20:26

quite a hard-bitten news journalist originally, just said,

0:20:260:20:31

"Look, you know, we haven't got a woman presenting here.

0:20:310:20:33

"You should try it." And that's what happened.

0:20:330:20:36

So then I had to make a decision, really, a year later, about what

0:20:360:20:38

I was going to do and I decided that as much as I love producing

0:20:380:20:41

and love film-making, that I would really like to carry on presenting.

0:20:410:20:45

Time to move on to one of your big moments.

0:20:520:20:54

A truly iconic interview.

0:20:540:20:56

I remember it.

0:20:580:21:00

This is back in 1990.

0:21:000:21:02

Your own backbenchers are saying that the Community Charge

0:21:020:21:05

is "a political cyanide pill" and it will cause

0:21:050:21:07

"deep hatred and division."

0:21:070:21:09

Now, these are your own backbenchers.

0:21:090:21:11

I have never heard the expression you have used before.

0:21:110:21:14

Tony Marlow and Hugh Dykes respectively.

0:21:140:21:16

Um...

0:21:160:21:17

I did not hear what was said at the 22 Committee,

0:21:190:21:22

but if that is so,

0:21:220:21:24

I don't believe that their judgment is correct.

0:21:240:21:28

After the European elections last year

0:21:280:21:30

when you lost your two remaining Euro seats in Scotland,

0:21:300:21:33

one of the losers, James Provan, said that you were seen as a

0:21:330:21:35

"hectoring lady in London who has not achieved any popularity

0:21:350:21:38

"in Scotland at all."

0:21:380:21:39

Do you accept the fact that some Conservatives in Scotland

0:21:390:21:42

think you're a liability to votes?

0:21:420:21:44

Well, nevertheless, we have in the United Kingdom, as a whole,

0:21:440:21:48

won three elections.

0:21:480:21:49

So, I don't think that story can be wholly true.

0:21:490:21:52

Otherwise, we should never have done that, nor have achieved the

0:21:520:21:55

rising reputation which Scotland now has, to my great delight.

0:21:550:22:00

But long-term, it's working and to the great benefit of all of us

0:22:000:22:03

in Scotland.

0:22:030:22:05

Yeah, well, that took a lot of preparation.

0:22:050:22:08

I worked very hard with Brian Taylor, BBC Scotland's

0:22:080:22:12

political editor, the late Ken Cargill who was the producer.

0:22:120:22:16

Sorry, would you work on something like that for days?

0:22:160:22:18

I worked on it, I thought about it a lot,

0:22:180:22:21

I knew it was coming and I worked on it probably for...

0:22:210:22:25

a week, really thinking about it.

0:22:250:22:26

Because I knew that I only had half an hour

0:22:260:22:29

and I knew there was certain things that

0:22:290:22:31

I really had to get out in that interview and I had to be direct

0:22:310:22:33

and I had to be persistent and rigorous, is what I hope was.

0:22:330:22:38

But afterwards, she had a complete go at me in the studio.

0:22:380:22:41

Oh, really? Absolutely massive go at me in the studio for interrupting.

0:22:410:22:44

Yeah. Oh, for interrupting her? Yeah.

0:22:440:22:47

Yes, because when the Conservatives heard that it was going to be

0:22:470:22:51

a woman interviewing her, they tried to stop...

0:22:510:22:54

the interview. Really?

0:22:540:22:56

They got in touch with the BBC in Scotland

0:22:560:22:58

and BBC stuck to its guns and said that she was coming to Scotland

0:22:580:23:01

and she would not dictate...

0:23:010:23:04

Her office would not dictate who would do the interview.

0:23:040:23:07

And so, BBC stood behind me...

0:23:070:23:09

Stood with me, cos I was the person slated to do

0:23:090:23:12

the interview and we did the interview.

0:23:120:23:14

But she was not very pleased.

0:23:140:23:16

She wasn't comfortable with women interviewing her at all.

0:23:160:23:19

What did you think of Margaret Thatcher?

0:23:190:23:22

I thought that she was pretty formidable.

0:23:220:23:25

And I thought that she...

0:23:250:23:28

..had prepared in the wrong way.

0:23:290:23:31

What had happened was,

0:23:310:23:33

she knew she was seen as unpopular in Scotland and so,

0:23:330:23:36

she took a briefing beforehand and she misunderstood the briefing.

0:23:360:23:39

I think the briefings were done by Malcolm Rifkind and Michael Forsyth

0:23:390:23:44

and they said to her, "You have to be more in tune."

0:23:440:23:48

"You've got to seem more in tune", so forth.

0:23:480:23:50

But she took that literally

0:23:500:23:52

and she kept saying to me during the interview,

0:23:520:23:54

"We in Scotland this" and "We in Scotland that"

0:23:540:23:56

and apparently offstage, they were just going,

0:23:560:23:59

"Oh, my God, this is a disaster."

0:23:590:24:00

And I think she felt very uncomfortable.

0:24:000:24:03

I think she knew that she wasn't popular.

0:24:030:24:04

Well, she obviously knew she wasn't popular in Scotland.

0:24:040:24:07

And it was a real difficulty for the Conservative Party then.

0:24:070:24:09

And was this a pivotal moment in your career?

0:24:090:24:12

I think it probably was, but it seems a very long time ago.

0:24:120:24:15

Look at the hair, look at the shoulders!

0:24:150:24:17

That was when we used to have to have big shoulders.

0:24:170:24:20

Yeah, big shoulders. Big shooders.

0:24:200:24:22

That in somehow, if we had big shoulders,

0:24:220:24:24

we would be seen as being more authoritative.

0:24:240:24:26

Oh, I see, the bigger the shoulders, yeah.

0:24:260:24:28

I think it was like your carapace, wasn't it?

0:24:280:24:30

Yeah, you're power dressing, aren't you?

0:24:300:24:33

So, stepping away from politics,

0:24:330:24:34

are you happy to talk about Celebrity MasterChef?

0:24:340:24:37

I'd be happier to talk about it if I'd won.

0:24:390:24:42

It's this whole thing about, if you're going to do it,

0:24:420:24:44

you may as well try the best you can, really in anything.

0:24:440:24:47

And so I was really going to try and do the best I can,

0:24:470:24:49

but I couldn't believe that I got to the final.

0:24:490:24:51

I was just so thrilled, so thrilled.

0:24:510:24:53

Are you quite competitive?

0:24:530:24:56

I'm probably quite competitive with myself.

0:24:560:24:58

I am competitive, quite competitive, yes.

0:24:580:25:00

But actually, in that kitchen, you all wanted everybody...

0:25:000:25:03

You didn't want anybody to see...

0:25:030:25:05

and when you saw other people's disasters, you were really upset.

0:25:050:25:08

You didn't want people to have disasters, it was horrible.

0:25:080:25:10

You don't want Schadenfreude. You don't want to see other people fail

0:25:100:25:13

in that kitchen. Not unless they're really not very nice people and,

0:25:130:25:16

by and large, the people on MasterChef are lovely people. Yeah.

0:25:160:25:19

And you've been on a few other programmes.

0:25:190:25:21

A few iconic ones.

0:25:210:25:23

Yes.

0:25:230:25:25

It's really weird. Doctor Who.

0:25:250:25:26

Well, funnily enough, it's interesting.

0:25:260:25:28

I think you could probably be on Newsnight for 100 years,

0:25:280:25:31

but if you do one cameo in Doctor Who,

0:25:310:25:33

suddenly you get all these people going,

0:25:330:25:35

"Oh, my God, I saw you on the telly!"

0:25:350:25:36

Really, was it like that?

0:25:360:25:38

So, what did you do in Doctor Who?

0:25:380:25:39

I actually said, "The end of the world is nigh" on the Newsnight set,

0:25:390:25:42

which is a dangerous thing to do of course,

0:25:420:25:44

because you must always be very careful about these things.

0:25:440:25:47

But it was, "Get out the city, the end of the..." Ah, right.

0:25:470:25:50

And I was quite scared of myself, actually.

0:25:500:25:53

Really?

0:25:530:25:55

It scared you? I might have believed me!

0:25:550:25:58

That's how good an actress you are.

0:25:580:25:59

But I was so thrilled!

0:25:590:26:01

I mean, it was just such a, kind of,

0:26:010:26:03

joy to be asked.

0:26:030:26:05

You know, it was a thrill to be asked.

0:26:050:26:07

There isn't a Lego bit of me that's Doctor Who though yet, sadly.

0:26:070:26:10

That cameo, 30 seconds? 30 seconds? It's just a matter of time.

0:26:100:26:15

It's great fun playing in dramas, just playing yourself.

0:26:150:26:18

It's good fun.

0:26:180:26:20

I'm just doing it again just now because I've just been in Ab Fab.

0:26:200:26:23

Ab Fab film. Yeah, the movie.

0:26:230:26:25

Yeah, which doesn't come out till July.

0:26:250:26:27

But that was enormous fun cos I have such huge respect

0:26:270:26:30

for Jennifer as a writer and for Joanna as well as actresses.

0:26:300:26:33

They are consummate professionals, but they're great fun.

0:26:330:26:36

So, what TV do you enjoy watching now?

0:26:420:26:44

I absolutely loved Homeland.

0:26:460:26:48

I am behind with War And Peace, though I will watch it.

0:26:480:26:52

I loved The Bridge.

0:26:520:26:54

I think that whole Scandi-noir has completely changed

0:26:540:26:57

our viewing habits. Shetland's come out of that as well.

0:26:570:27:00

These are the kind of things I watch.

0:27:020:27:04

I watch documentaries as well.

0:27:040:27:07

But...

0:27:070:27:08

I wish I had more time, in a way, to...

0:27:080:27:11

There always seems to be so much to do when I'm at home.

0:27:110:27:14

I'm behind with The Good Wife

0:27:140:27:15

and I think Alan Cumming is absolutely fantastic.

0:27:150:27:18

I am not a person that's ever watched more than three

0:27:200:27:23

episodes of Game Of Thrones.

0:27:230:27:24

I obviously watch House Of Cards, it was wonderful.

0:27:240:27:26

But I am the most annoying person to watch television with

0:27:260:27:29

because what might happen is I might miss an ep

0:27:290:27:31

and then the rest of the family are watching,

0:27:310:27:33

cos my daughter's at home for a year.

0:27:330:27:35

And my husband and she might be watching it

0:27:350:27:37

and I'll be going, "Well, I want to watch it with you."

0:27:370:27:39

And they'll go, "But you'll have to not talk. You can't talk."

0:27:390:27:42

And I'll say, "But what if I'm missing something?"

0:27:420:27:44

"Don't talk."

0:27:440:27:46

And then, of course, 30 seconds later, I'm going,

0:27:460:27:48

"How did that happen?"

0:27:480:27:49

Then they have to press pause

0:27:490:27:51

and there's a great long explanation and then we start again.

0:27:510:27:54

Have you enjoyed your experience?

0:27:540:27:55

Yes. It's been lovely having you on the show.

0:27:550:27:57

Enormously.

0:27:570:27:59

I thought you were lovely, kept eye contact... Really? ..friendly...

0:27:590:28:02

Aw, lovely. ..nice shirt...

0:28:020:28:04

Thank you very much. ..smile.

0:28:040:28:07

Well, it's been lovely talking to you.

0:28:070:28:09

Lovely talking to you too. Thank you.

0:28:090:28:10

Now, we always give our guests to pick a theme tune to go out on.

0:28:100:28:13

What's it going to be?

0:28:130:28:15

My very favourite theme tune is definitely

0:28:150:28:17

the theme tune from Arena... Oh, really? ..which is just classic.

0:28:170:28:22

And I don't know whoever dreamt it up at the BBC,

0:28:220:28:24

but it is one of the most enduring,

0:28:240:28:27

iconic and atmospheric theme tunes.

0:28:270:28:29

Well, thank you very much for being on the show.

0:28:290:28:31

I enjoyed it enormously. It's been lovely to meet you.

0:28:310:28:33

Thank you. It really has.

0:28:330:28:35

So, my thanks to Kirsty and my thanks to you

0:28:350:28:37

for watching The TV That Made Me. We'll see you next time, bye-bye.

0:28:370:28:40

APPLAUSE

0:28:400:28:42

Let's get cooking.

0:28:430:28:44

# Everybody dance

0:28:440:28:46

# Doo-doo-doo... #

0:28:460:28:47

Whoa!

0:28:470:28:48

# Clap your hands... #

0:28:480:28:50

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