logo
Kirsty Wark asked me to fetch her a cup of tea and a Penguin biscuit

Kirsty Wark asked me to fetch her a cup of tea and a Penguin biscuit

Certainly, she can appear regal to the journalistic peasantry. I remember a packed press conference where she breenged in with her crew. Suddenly we – self-important, like everyone in our trade – all felt like minions. She asked me to fetch her a cup of tea and a Penguin biscuit ('one with a green wrapper'). Wow.
What ingredients went into creating such an imperious personage? Well, being born was a useful start. This auspicious event occurred on 3 February 1955 in Dumfries. Kirsty's father, who earned a Military Cross for heroism at Normandy, was a solicitor. A convivial raconteur, he also liked spending time on his own fly-fishing. 'I'm sure he was reflecting on the horrors of war, ' Kirsty told the I newspaper recently.
Her mother was a teacher who, after one early Newsnight interview, phoned to complain that she'd split an infinitive. Poor Kirsty must have been tempted to tell her mother where to boldly go.
She spent her early years in Castle Douglas before moving to Kilmarnock. After attending all-girl, 'independent' Wellington School in Ayr, she studied history, specifically Scottish Studies, at Embra Yoonie. In 1976, aged 21, Wark joined the BBC as a graduate researcher and soon became a producer for Radio Scotland, displaying enthusiasm and a willingness to make things happen. Wish I'd tried that.
(Image: Jamie Simpson)
BOXING CLEVER
WARK switched to television in 1982, producing Reporting Scotland, Agenda and Current Account. She then moved into presenting various Scottish political programmes before moving to UK network television as part of the Breakfast Time brigade.
In 1988, she reported on the Lockerbie bombing and, in 1990, made her mark as an interviewer when she confronted, so to say, Margaret Thatcher. The Iron Lady was incensed with her abrasive questions about the poll tax, and complained afterwards that she'd 'interrupted me more than I've ever been interrupted'.
Later, it emerged that Wark had just learned she was pregnant with her first baby, and so was determined to remain 'preternaturally calm' for both their sakes.
In 1993, she joined Newsnight, BBC 2's mumphing aboot politics show, in a role that was to last three decades. She stood down last summer, a week after the General Election.
In her time, she has faced accusations of being too close to Labour. Donald Dewar, former Labour First Minister and a close friend, appointed her to a panel choosing the design for the new Scottish Parliament – with hilarious consequences!
Later, the independent production company she co-owned was an awarded a BBC contract to make programmes about … construction of the Scottish Parliament building. Whoopsie.
In 2005, she invited another Labour First Minister and long-time friend, Jack McConnell, now Lord McConnell of Proletariat, and his family to stay at her Majorcan holiday home over New Year. Doubt was cast on Wark's neutrality and suitability to anchor political programmes, with respected quality newspaper the Daily Mail dubbing the episode 'Villagate'.
Importantly, it added that she had a 'big, almost masculine voice that belies a worked-on slim figure and good legs often hidden by trousers'. Trousers, ye say?
However, several observers considered the 'scandal' overblown, with Newsnight's editor pointing out that many media peeps had old pals who went on to hold office. 'The important issue is your ability to ask tough questions and that is not a problem with Kirsty Wark …'
READ MORE
Rab McNeil: Get your Boots on, we're going shopping for unicorn hair gel
Rab McNeil: No wonder the whole Scottish nation loves Nicola (no, not that one)
Scottish Icons: William McGonagall - The poet who right bad verses wrote still floats some folk's vessel or boat
Scottish Icons: There is a lot of tripe talked about haggis – so here's the truth
ECK OF AN ATTITUDE
ALEX Salmond was a problem for Kirsty Wark. In 2007, after an interview with then First Mniister, the BBC received 120 complaints from entirely disinterested individuals, and issued a public apology regretting Wark's 'rude and dismissive' tone.
In 2020, after she presented a programme about Salmond's sexual assault trial – in which he was acquitted – more than 900 complaints of bias were made.
Wark responded: 'Alex Salmond was found innocent, not guilty, there is no disputing that in any way. What we were doing was giving background to the whole thing, and we did that fairly.'
Politically, she has described herself as 'soft left', with pals in all parties. Late Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy called her a 'fierce foe when the studio lights go on, great fun in the bar'.
Late Labour MP Robin Cook MP said at least she let folk answer the question, 'unlike those from the Paxman and Humphrys school'.
She herself describes her approach as 'forensic' – certainly leaves blood on the floor sometimes – and contends that she's professional enough to 'leave my own views at the door when I come to work'.
Forby politics, she's right arty and, indeed, has written two novels. She presented BBC Two's Late Show from 1990 to 1993 and, in 2006, interviewed playwright Harold Pinter, resisting the temptation to get back at the old scrote by leaving long silences.
She made cameo appearances in Doctor Who and Absolutely Fabulous. In 2013, she appeared on the inexplicably popular Great British Bake Off, but has resisted 'many times' invitations to do Strictly Come Dancing, another programme that has sapped the nation's morale.
More consequentially, she has highlighted problems of the menopause, believing people are reluctant to discuss it. Moving swiftly on, two months ago she bagged a BAFTA Fellowship, with BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip praising her 'enormous charm and wit'.
GA-GA FOR RADIO
ALWAYS based in Glasgow, Wark has lately been appearing in BBC Scotland's Good For Her, in a running sketch that follows a woman who can't stop speaking as if she's delivering the news.
Kirsty Wark misses the buzz of Newsnight, but is content for the moment presenting arts magazine show Front Row and history series The Reunion on BBC Radio 4.
She likes claes and, in 2013, was deemed one of the 50 best-dressed over-50s by fashion magazine, the Guardian. In other news, we can reveal she loves gardening and homemade jam, having spent several years in recovery from an addiction to banana cake.
Meanwhile, in the interests of truth, that currently under-rated concept in which she takes such a great interest, I should clarify that, at the start of this authoritative exposé, I was only joking about the cup of tea and a Penguin. It was a Twix.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Former First Minister's in-laws in Gaza 'can't even find grass or leaves to eat'
Former First Minister's in-laws in Gaza 'can't even find grass or leaves to eat'

Daily Record

time42 minutes ago

  • Daily Record

Former First Minister's in-laws in Gaza 'can't even find grass or leaves to eat'

Dundee councillor Nadia El-Nakla, the wife of Humza Yousaf, said it was 'traumatising' to watch her relatives go through a 'living nightmare'. The wife of former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf has said the lives of her family in Gaza are 'hanging in the balance' as she accused Israel of starving two million people in the Strip. ‌ Nadia El-Nakla said her family could not even find grass, leaves or any animals to eat, amid an Israeli blockade on the amount of food and supplies going into the region. ‌ The Dundee councillor said it was 'traumatising' to watch her relatives go through a 'living nightmare'. She described the territory as 'hell on earth'. ‌ Asked on BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme if she thought she would ever get back to Gaza to see her family again, she said: 'I think Gaza is gone – I don't think Gaza will exist any more. 'The situation is just incredibly difficult, heartbreaking, traumatising for us to watch, and for them their life is now hanging in the balance.' ‌ She said her cousin Sally, a mother of four, has been moved to different tents 15 times after her house was destroyed. 'She has no food,' Ms El-Nakla said. 'She had a loaf of bread the other day that she was trying to save for her children. My other cousin told her, 'look, just eat grass, eat leaves, eat plants', and she said 'we can't even find them'. 'There's no cash either, so even if I sent her £1,000, she can't access that money, and there's no way for her to buy anything. So it's just a living nightmare – it's hell on earth.' ‌ She added: 'It's just, it's so devastating because her husband is going out every day, and they're so scared that he'll not come back because of the bombing, to try and find food, and he can't find any.' She said that even for those who can access money, the price of a kilo of sugar is about 200 dollars (£148), making it inaccessible for most. ‌ She urged world leaders to do more to force Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, amid warnings from aid agencies about mass starvation. Speaking about her cousin Sally, she said: 'She sent me a voicenote saying 'I hate the world – no-one is coming to help us', and I could hear her children in the background. 'That's what breaks my heart the most, is they know that no-one's coming to help them, and to have your child hungry, to be hungry yourself, how that feels to have hunger, and how you're supposed to look after your kids, and they're crying to you because they're hungry – like I say, it's a living nightmare.' ‌ She added: 'Now nothing exists. It's bare survival. 'They feel that they're all going to die and we're all watching them through the process of being terrified for their lives from bombs, from being shot at and having to run, which I've had calls with her where she's like, 'I can hear the gunfire', and she's having to run, and then now calls that there's no food there. 'It's a silent killer. They're killing them so slowly and quietly, but they're killing them at every single point. And it's just devastating to watch. It's heartbreaking. It's sickening.' ‌ Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Ms El-Nakla said she feels 'physically sick' hearing about her family's situation in Gaza, adding that she feels 'completely inadequate as a cousin, as a human being, that I can't do anything'. She said she was angry with the UK Government, which she said 'isn't doing anything' to 'try to stop the genocide'. She said aid must urgently be allowed in to stop the 'catastrophic starvation of two million people'. "We are living in a dystopia where we are just watching two million people slowly die,' she said. 'For our own humanity, how can we live with that? Our Government has to do something.' The UK Government and Israeli embassy in London have been approached

Britain's forgotten suburbs – where Farage is seen as the saviour
Britain's forgotten suburbs – where Farage is seen as the saviour

Channel 4

time4 hours ago

  • Channel 4

Britain's forgotten suburbs – where Farage is seen as the saviour

Unless you live in this part of the East Midlands, you'd have little reason to go there. Chilwell is six miles from the centre of Nottingham – an emerald green landscape, like much of Nottinghamshire, surrounded by farmers' fields. Peppered with moderately affluent areas and council estates, it's nowhere in particular and yet somehow feels reflective of everywhere in the UK. One part of the estate is known as 'Inham Nook', although some don't like that name, due to negative connotations from the past. It's an area that's had a bad reputation, largely based on other people's assumptions, and often from those who don't have any experience of living there. It's also undeniable some of the area's problems have been hidden in plain sight. Suburbs are often overlooked, with the affluent surrounding areas masking the daily reality for many people. Despite never featuring on any of the 'most deprived lists', there are high rates of deprivation in this area, with some streets in the neighbourhood sitting within the top 10 per cent for child poverty in England. We met Kayleigh Purvis, 33, a cook at one of the local schools. Yet she told us she's using services from a local food hub so that her family doesn't go hungry. She's had periods of sickness off work while dealing with mental health and housing issues. Like so many over the years, she is exhausted from dealing with what feels like the cumulative failures of everyone 'above'. Kayleigh told us: 'The council thinks they're above it… prime ministers, police officers, I know they're all normal people… but everything they do affects us because we're at the bottom. They think 'oh you're sat on your arse all day' and it's not the case, a lot of us do work. They make us feel like the scum of the earth.' So, in Chilwell they help each other, and there are helpers everywhere. Michelle Adkin runs Chelsey's cafe and a food bank, where no referral is needed, at the heart of the estate on the Inham Nook Recreation Ground. Everyone we spoke to said it was a 'godsend' and Michelle told us how work simply wasn't paying for many people: 'You can work two jobs, or have two parents working two full time jobs, and they haven't got two pennies to rub together at the end of a week. They are the ones who need the help, too.' A lot of the people we spoke to on the estate said they would be voting Reform UK at the next General Election, and the recent local elections saw the vote split between Reform UK and Labour in this area. We asked why Nigel Farage had convinced them, given his private education and former employment as a City trader, making his lived experience the polar opposite from theirs. Geraldine Kirchen-Jones, who moved to the area ten years ago, told us: 'At the minute it doesn't feel like Labour are doing anything for us. It feels like they want to exclude and they want to penalise. The difference to me is it feels like [Nigel Farage] is listening and he wants to do something to help rather than reading something that's scripted.' Paul Groves, a retired dental technician, says he intends to vote Reform UK after voting Conservative all his life. He thinks that things have improved for the estate's worst off but is switching his vote anyway: 'Every day on the news you see more and more people coming across the channel. I mean, where's this 'smash the gangs' gone? They're not doing much smashing. That's why everyone wants to come to Britain, because we're a soft touch.' – Paul Groves These voters are coming to this conclusion after years of feeling invisible to all those who hold power, and never seeing their daily reality reflected in the media or by politicians' policies. The current Labour government says it's determined to make change for people in places like Inham Nook, saying it wants people to feel better off and it's working hard to demonstrate the change it wants in communities. But some people living on the estate feel they're dealing with a shopping list that goes back years: the cost of living, crime, poor management of housing, and never ending hurdles or changes within the benefits system. Even for those who are doing well, there's a sense that they're looked down on just because of where they're from, which can feel completely unfair. Because there is good – and a lot of it is coming from the community itself – but there's also frustration and fatigue. Farage claims billions of savings possible under Reform UK One year under Starmer: has Labour delivered change? Has Starmer kept his election promises? Labour's first year explained

Mysterious stone head found on tiny Scottish island of Rousay
Mysterious stone head found on tiny Scottish island of Rousay

Scotsman

time4 hours ago

  • Scotsman

Mysterious stone head found on tiny Scottish island of Rousay

The carved head found at Skaill Farm, Westness, Isle of Rousay, Orkney. PIC: UHI Archaeology Institute. | UHI Archaeology Institute The head was found during an archaeological dig at Skaill Farm Sign up to our History and Heritage newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A carved stone head found on a tiny Scottish island has been described as a 'fascinating enigma'. The head was found during an archaeological dig at Skaill Farm at Westness on Rousay in the Orkney Isles. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad With its 'beautifully carved locks of hair' and 'real character', the artefact is the latest find at the site. It was discovered during the university's annual summer excavation of the land at Skaill Farm. Skaill Farm has long been of interest to archaeologists given its long timeline, with the site a hive of activity during the Norse Period, when it was home to Viking chieftain Sigurd of Westness. The landscape features The Wirk tower and the remains of St Mary's Church, both which have been linked to the Norse era and which were later added to during the medieval period. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon, of the UHI Archaeology Institute said the discovery of the stone head indicated that a 'building of splendour' once stood nearby. The head is similar to stonework found at St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, which dates to the early 12th Century. READ MORE: The ancient Orkney site where Picts and Vikings settled now under threat Dr Gibbon, one of the excavation co-directors, added : 'This is such an exciting find. 'Over the years excavating at Skaill and The Wirk – the nearby hall tower – we have found several interesting, moulded pieces of red sandstone but nothing like this. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The rich, red sandstone, with yellow inclusions, was likely quarried from the island of Eday and is the same as the moulded fragments from the nearby St Mary's old parish church.' 'For now, the Skaill head must remain a fascinating enigma in terms of date, origin and use, but its discovery, along with many other fine pieces of carved red sandstone, as well as those built into the nearby kirk, strongly suggests a building of some splendour once stood in the vicinity.' Rousay has often been dubbed the Athens of the North given its rich archaeological deposits, including at least 15 Neolithic chambered cairns, the earliest which dates to around 3,500 BC. In 2019, archaeologists made a breakthrough at Skaill Farm after the remains of a Norse great hall, likely used for drinking and gatherings from the 10th to 12th Century, stood on the land. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The place name of Skaill derives from the Norse for hall and long suggested the area was home to a high-status site. Following its discovery, the hall was linked to Sigurd of Westness, whose chieftainship of the area was documented in the Orkneyinga Saga. Archaeologists found stone benches running down each side of the hall, which is around 13-metres long and runs down a slope towards the coastline. The 13th century historical record documents that Sigurd of Westness was a friend of the 12th Century Earl of Orkney, Paul. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In 1136, Paul was staying with Sigurd at Westness when the notorious viking Sveinn Ásleifarson kidnapped the earl and spirited him away, leaving the Earldom open for Rognvald II to step in and take control. Other finds from Skaill Farm include soapstone from Shetland, pottery and a fragment of a Norse bone comb.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store