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| Tina D, reading the news this morning |
Tina Daheley, the co-presenter of the youth-aimed Today spin-off to be launched tomorrow, has been talking to The Observer. Here are some quotes from the piece:
Anyone who has been paying attention knows podcasts are hugely popular with under-35s, and if you’re serious about reaching that audience, it’s the logical thing to do. For me, a big thing is class and social background. We’re supposed to be holding a mirror to society and be representing them, but when was the last time someone who didn’t go to public school or Oxbridge presented the Ten O’Clock News?
The BBC gets a lot out of me. I should be thinking: ‘this is brilliant, I’ve got this whole area locked off, I tick all of those boxes in terms of strategy – young women, brown people, so-called C2DE demographics – but I wish there were more of me. I had to work twice as hard and be damn good at my job to develop my career. I was doing 19 jobs and working for months without a day off [to get noticed] but there should be more people who look like me.
"There should be more people who look like me"? Hmm, you have to wonder, don't you, does she actually watch the BBC these days?
And far be it from me to suggest that chippy-sounding Tina wasn't being entirely fair about the BBC's attitude towards diversity on 'The Ten O’Clock News', but, as we know, the Corporation is actually completely obsessed with such things:
And far be it from me to suggest that chippy-sounding Tina wasn't being entirely fair about the BBC's attitude towards diversity on 'The Ten O’Clock News', but, as we know, the Corporation is actually completely obsessed with such things:
The programme's six presenters are Huw Edwards, Fiona Bruce, Sophie Raworth, Reeta Chakrabarti, Clive Myrie and Jane Hill.
That's four women and two men. And there are two ethnic minority presenters. Plus there's a mix of English, Scots and Welsh. And of straight and gay.
Plus its main presenter, Huw Edwards, didn't go to public school or to Oxbridge. Nor did Clive Myrie. (The BBC ladies are much posher though!)
Anyhow, reading that Observer interview suggests to me that the young have got such a treat in store when SJW Tina and gloomy Matthew Price launch their Today-based podcast tomorrow.
O to be young again!
O to be young again!
