There are times in your life when you look back on a decision you made and say: “What was I thinking?”
When I was first offered the BBC Breakfast job, I turned it down. I can’t really tell you why. Perhaps the prospect of trying to fill Bill Turnbull’s incredibly significant “slippers” daunted me, even then. I said “no” a second time before, eventually, realising what a wonderful opportunity it was.
In his kindness, the rather special man who made the sofa his own for 15 years called me before I started the new gig. He was so very helpful.
“You’ll be brilliant,” he said calmly, in those reassuring Turnbull tones. “The one piece of advice I would give you is make sure you manage your sleep.” I thanked him… and then completely ignored his wise counsel.
Bill would always nap during the day and tried to go to bed at a sensible hour. During my six and a half years on BBC Breakfast I operated on about four hours kip. Not ideal, but the joy of the job kept me going.
Just as soon as I started at BBC Breakfast, I realised just how big a gig it was. There is something wonderfully intimate about being on TV at that time of the day, on a programme that people trust. Viewers are waking up, they are sharing their first cup of coffee with you, they are getting ready for work, getting the kids ready for school, preparing for the day ahead and they are – as I was often told – in their underpants!
Louise Minchin and I would always talk to the audience like they were a friend or a member of the family. We could laugh along with them when things were funny, be outraged at injustice together and hold their hands, or put our arms around them before breaking bad news.
I will never forget being on air the morning of the Manchester Arena bomb in 2017. Louise was down at the scene, and I was alone in the studio. No autocue, no script and – when we went on air – no idea how many people had lost their lives. You have to be accurate, fair, kind, understanding at times like that and treat your audience with great care. Louise was brilliant at it.
With such an important job, there is an understandable level of scrutiny. Each day you are accused of bias from all sides. Each day, you get people shouting at you for everything from politics to potholes to your pay packet. Where we sat on the sofa could become front page news!
But the benefits of being involved in a show with so much history and such a big, loyal audience far outweigh the negatives and the 3am alarm calls.
Every day, people would stop me in the street to talk about the programme. They would ask me how Louise was, or what Carol Kirkwood was up to. They’d tell me how much they enjoyed watching Sally Nugent become the new presenter once Louise moved on.
People talk to me about Strictly Come Dancing and my new job on Channel 5 but it’s Breakfast, and what happened on that sofa, that resonates more than anything else.
The other thing that makes Breakfast special is the people who work on it. I still talk to some of the directors, floor managers, producers, editors, guest bookers, make-up artists and presenters I used to work alongside regularly. They all care so much about the show.
My sleeping pattern was a doddle compared to the real sofa superstars. When I got into the office before 5am, the overnight team had been in since 9pm the previous evening.
So, why leave one of the best jobs in telly? I had a wonderful time on the show and loved every minute of it but I didn’t want to become stale. I wanted a fresh challenge. Telling Sally that I was leaving was one of my toughest mornings. She is amazing and we remain great friends. It’s been lovely to watch her be brilliant alongside her new TV husband, Jon Kay.
I must be honest here and say I do miss Carol Kirkwood. For me, she is BBC Breakfast. Carol is the human embodiment of all that is brilliant about the show. She is kind, loving, caring, serious when she needs to be and funny when it’s called for. She always gets the tone right; you can throw anything at her, and she has the perfect balance of someone you trust and somebody you imagine would be great fun on a night out (which I can confirm).
The show has been waking the nation up for 40 years, and I consider it a great honour to be a part of that BBC Breakfast family. As long as they hold on to gems like Carol, there will be many more birthdays to celebrate, and it will remain the most popular way to start the day.
This week I have been…
Watching… Standing at the Sky’s Edge at The Crucible in Sheffield. Mrs Walker got me tickets to the theatre for Christmas and this week we went to see the brilliant show. We had heard good things about it and it was epic.
The award-winning British musical is a love letter to Sheffield and a window into the history of modern Britain through the eyes of three families who all share the same flat in a tower block over a period of 60 years. It’s all set to the music of local legend Richard Hawley and it’s going to the National Theatre in February and March.
I’ve also been binge-watching the second half of The Traitors. I don’t normally watch much reality television, but I gobbled this up because I always loved “Mafia” – the game it’s based on.
There were some brilliant characters in there like Wilf, Amanda, Maddy and Alex and it was genuinely compelling right up until the final act.Travelling… on the train, where I spend a lot of my life at the moment. So it was interesting to see the Prime Minister flying around the country talking about “levelling up” this week.
I tweeted that it would be nice to see him getting around the north of England on the incredibly unreliable train service so that he could see just how frustrating it is. I was bombarded with messages from people in all parts of the country (except London) complaining about cancellations, costs and crummy service.
Stretching… because I have been struggling with a dodgy back and knee for years. I finally decided to take some action. A brilliant friend suggested that I book some sessions with the former Team GB sprinter Julian Thomas.
We haven’t lifted a single weight, but he has had me stretching all over the place working on hip mobility and trying to make my bum muscles fire more efficiently.
I’m loving it and it has already made a difference but, if you hear me screaming like a banshee with my leg up in the air, or see me walking like a Thunderbird the next morning, blame Julian.