Watching the exaggeratedly feline mannerisms and purring demeanour of her characterisation by Jan Ravens on the BBC sketchshow Dead Ringers, one might be forgiven for initially pigeon-holing television presenter and journalist Fiona Bruce into the category of ‘auto-cuties’ to which so many females in the media world are consigned.
Confident, assertive and talkative, however, Fiona is a media figure who, whilst acknowledging her femininity, is unafraid to speak beyond it – and who, more importantly, refuses to be either stereotyped or confined.
Asked how she would define her career to date, Fiona is reluctant to categorise herself into any one role. Educated at Hertford College, Oxford, she sent her time at the University, as she wryly expresses it, ‘fitting my studies around my extracurricular’, and made few career plans whilst studying.
‘I had no idea what I wanted to do, and when I left university, I simply fell into the first job I found.’ Initially working as a managing consultant, news-reading was something which she arrived at only several years later.
Yet although her most prolific and public work has been behind the newsdesk of the BBC, she rarely identifies herself primarily in that role. ‘I would never define myself as a newsreader. In the past year I’ve produced documentaries, written a book, and so much more.’ A person who likes to keep busy then? She laughs. ‘Yes, you could say that.’
Beginning her journalistic career in an environment still dominated by men, Fiona pauses to reflect when asked if her sex has ever caused her difficulties. ‘I was closely involved in feminist groups when at Oxford, and I can’t deny that when I started out in journalism, there was a certain sense that sometimes, just sometimes, being a woman was a difficult. I remember after the First Gulf War, I wanted to go to Kurdistan as a correspondent, and there was a vague element of resistance to exposing a female journalist to such danger.’
Generally, however, as Fiona puts it, ‘The BBC likes its mix of men and women. Thankfully, that makes being a woman as much as a help as it is a hindrance.’
Have other aspects of journalism changed in the decade since Fiona began working for the BBC? Agreeing that certain elements of the field are shifting, Fiona draws attention to the increasing predominance of more regional accents on mainstream news channels.
‘My co-presenter, Huw Edwards, is Welsh, and very obviously so. Though there’s no denying we all sound middle class, we seem a long way away now from the ’60s, when everyone was forced to speak in that excruciating received pronunciation.’
If the introduction of regional accents has rendered news reporting a little less formal in tone, the strait-laced mould of newsreaders has also been challenged by their increasing participation non-journalism based fields; as a consequence of the ‘reality TV’ cult; Fiona herself appeared on singing competition Just the Two of Us.
She regards reality TV, however, as just ‘yet another fad’ and says that although she has participated in the past, it isn’t something she would necessarily return to. ‘Reality TV was not one of my most rewarding working experiences’ she admits, and adds cheerfully ‘You’re not going to get me on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here any time soon.’
On being asked if she feels the traditional sanctity of TV news is being threatened by the increasing rise of internet news, Fiona is equally doubtful. ‘Oh, I think there’ll always be a place for the ten o’clock slot. There is no doubt the BBC are placing a lot of money into BBC 24, but people have been speaking of the demise of print media and television news for a long time, and it hasn’t yet happened.’
Pausing to reflect, she laughs, and says ‘You know that Mark Twain quote, the one where he says that “the news of my death has been greatly exaggerated?” Well, that’s kind of how I feel about television news.’
Working as a television journalist since 1989, Fiona has reported more than her fair share of stories. Is it sometimes difficult to speak so calmly of such horrific events? ‘Oh, of course. Just recently, reporting the Burma story has been incredibly hard.
‘Originally, we couldn’t get journalists into the country, and pictures weren’t available. Slowly, however, they filtered in, and we had to call meetings to decide which pictures were suitable to use, and which were just too disturbing. It was such a difficult thing to do, and I’ll always remember it.’
If 2007 saw Fiona working in the fields of journalism, news presenting, and authorship, 2008 is one which has yet more challenges, and yet more opportunities ahead. Following the departure of Michael Aspel, Fiona is now the new face of Antiques Roadshow, and is currently filming a new series, one programme of which is to be filmed in Oxford in the summer.
What made her take the leap? ‘Oh,’ she says enthusiastically, ‘without wanting to sound incredibly clichéd, it was just such an honour to be asked.’ Is she an antiques fan herself? ‘Most definitely,’ she agrees.
When asked, however, if she thinks her role as a presenter will change the tone of the show, she is modestly doubtful. ‘Antiques Roadshow is the cornerstone of the BBC, a great old tradition, and I’m not trying to modernise it. It has been a highly successful show without me; it ain’t broke, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m not trying to fix it.’
On the prospect of returning to her university turf to film, she has mixed feelings. ‘I have good memories of Oxford, and of course, it’ll be lovely to revisit, as I’ve only returned once or twice since graduating. But it’s always strange going back to a town you were a student in – suddenly, you’re a tourist on foreign ground.’
It’s time for the interview to end, and there’s time for one more question. I ask Fiona a joking request from a friend; how does she get her hair to look so good? ‘Oh, it’s easy’ she quips, ‘I get someone else to do it for me.’ And with that characteristically bright, down to earth reply, we finish.
‘Antiques Roadshow’ will be filming at Hertford College, Saturday 28th June. Doors open from 9:30 to 4:30, and entrance is free. For more information, email [email protected].
