Jodie Whittaker may have struggled at school but, as Emma Freud discovers, she’s perfectly qualified to play the smartest alien in the galaxy
This article was published in RT in October 2018 and is part of our digital Doctor Who anniversary bookazine — click here to download it for free. Over a decade before becoming the first female Doctor Who, the then 25-year-old Jodie Whittaker gave an interview to her local newspaper. She said: “When we were training, it was a 50/50 male/female split, but we knew when we came out that 80 per cent of acting jobs are for men. A woman is never going to get to be Bond or Doctor Who. That will never happen.” Yet here we are, and I can’t think of a more perfect woman to take on this historic challenge. I first met Jodie in 2015 when I helped produce Dermot O’Leary’s 24-hour Danceathon for Comic Relief. We needed celebrities to come down and cheer him on, and although I’d never met Jodie, I’d become obsessed with her from watching Broadchurch. I sneakily found her email and asked her to swing by at any point during the 24 hours. Of the people I asked, 90 per cent came for half an hour during the day. Jodie doesn’t work like that… “First I went to the shops and bought a Red Nose Day T-shirt,” she recalls. “I had to get an XXL because I was eight months pregnant. I got there at ten in the evening because most people had gone and I thought he might need a friendly face. Poor guy, by midnight he really hit a wall. I was dancing till 2am but then everyone got worried I was going to go into labour so eventually I was sent home.” Born and raised in West Yorkshire, Jodie, now 36, has always been a dynamo. Her first stage job was at Shakespeare’s Globe (The Storm in 2005), her first movie was opposite Peter O’Toole (Venus in 2006) and her quietly devastating performance in Broadchurch as Beth Latimer made her virtually a national treasure. When she calls by to discuss her new role as the Doctor, my son is at home worrying about his GCSEs. As soon as she arrives, Jodie reassures him that her results prove he has nothing to worry about. “I got five. An A* in drama – thank you – an A in PE, and three Cs. I was delighted, but the school – not so much. “One of the things that made me nervous about playing the Doctor was having to play one of the most intelligent characters on TV. I’ve always considered myself emotionally bright, just not necessarily academic. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand things at school, I did – I just couldn’t take them in, using the traditional teaching methods. There are 30 kids in most classes, and if you are in the back end of that, it’s hard to keep up.” So how did she cope during her school days? “I’ve always learnt to enjoy life through make believe. As a kid I could sit, and play, and be, in a world I imagined – and it turned into my way of learning. I’d struggle with things that didn’t capture that for me. But if I could apply my imagination to those subjects, it worked: so I gave a division sign a character and the numbers on either side a bit of a story. If I made it move or talk, it made sense and I could do it.” I wonder if anyone has since pointed out to that school that this girl was described by Peter Capaldi as a “super-smart force of nature” and is now playing the most intelligent alien in the galaxy. Luckily, those early knocks didn’t seem to hold her back – she has the confidence of a head girl. “It wasn’t massively angsty for me because my parents didn’t pressurise me academically. It’s all down to who you come home to. My parents just asked me: ‘Do you try? Are you a good person?’ That was all they needed to know.” Were they similarly supportive when she decided to try acting? “Yes, very. I was really lucky – they supported the fact that I wanted to do something that wasn’t in their life. At 15, a careers advisor said to me, ‘Most actors don’t make it, what’s your back-up plan?’ My parents were furious and just said, ‘Do NOT have a back-up plan. Work at what you want to do.’” Christian Burgess, head of drama at the Guildhall in London, where Jodie went on to study acting, has said this about her: “I think initially Jodie felt she hadn’t had a very powerful, formal education, but she has this innate actor’s intelligence, which she gradually came to recognise as being much more useful than having been to Oxford or Cambridge. She’s fearless, that’s the thing. And when she decides she wants a job, she goes into a room and convinces them that they have to have her.” So what exactly does this actress have that made her the perfect person to play the most enigmatic character in TV history? For one thing, the Doctor Who team had decided very early on that they were going to change the gender, she explains. “Chris Chibnall [the new showrunner] knew he was writing for a woman. We worked together on Broadchurch and he asked me to come in to audition with my own accent, and all my fidgeting, really being me. “I think I have an energy Chris felt would drive this part. I’m more comfortable viewing things in the child version of me than the grown-up. I wouldn’t say it’s being fearless – because children aren’t scared, they don’t have the bruises – perhaps more naivety. “It’s the ‘lightbulb’ thing. If you turn a light on in a cave, a grown-up will be scared of what’s in the dark bits they can’t see. Whereas a kid would be fascinated by the light. I’m not always the brightest spark in the room, but I know that I’ll keep on learning new stuff all the time. I want to play the joy, the discovery, the fear and the curiosity. I have a short attention span, bound on set and my brain jumps from subject to subject. It turns out that is the Doctor in so many ways.” She admits to never having been a dedicated Who fan, but since getting the part has she studied the 12 previous Doctors as part of her process in creating the 13th? “I’d seen some growing up, but once I started auditioning, Chris was happy for me to come in with fresh eyes. Because of the wonders of the internet, I was able to do the research without watching every episode. I wanted to make sure my choices were instinctive to me, rather than mimicking a previous performance. As a new Whovian, when I hand over to the next Doctor I can’t wait to cane every episode of this show – I’m going to start at [first Doctor] William Hartnell and do it in order.” With one series of ten programmes under her belt, as well as a Christmas special, she’s employing the same tactics with the loquacious dialogue that she used with long division. “I’m doing what I do with every script. Always, everything is pictures. It makes perfect sense when I turn all that information into images. I get the script beforehand, I think, ‘That word means this version of the galaxy, what does that galaxy look like?’ I apply my very normal instinct when I’m talking about space, or time or historical events – and the pictures say it.” In accepting the part, Jodie’s taking on more than the scripts – she’s part of the redefinition of women in the television industry, a potentially key player in the female army demanding parity, and she’s already thrown a mighty brick through the glass ceiling… “Thing is, I’ve never felt that there was a glass ceiling to break, because I’ve never put a glass ceiling up there. When I was little, not looking like someone didn’t stop me from looking up to them. I wanted to be Mikey in The Goonies or Atreyu in The NeverEnding Story. I didn’t care it was a boy playing the part. “I don’t want to defend the decision to have a female Doctor because there’s nothing to defend – I’m playing an alien. Matt Smith wasn’t qualified. Peter Capaldi wasn’t qualified. They can challenge me about my academic qualifications – fine – but no one can be properly qualified for this job unless they’ve got two hearts and come from Gallifrey.” Then how does she feel about the drama that surrounded the announcement of her getting the job? “I truly hope that in a couple of years casting a woman in a traditionally male role won’t be so exciting – because when it’s not celebrated, it will mean it’s no longer unusual to have this sort of parity. “I’m always asked, ‘Do you think James Bond should now be a woman?’ But that’s not the conversation. It’s really – ‘Should every point of view be the same?’ And the answer is no. Stories shouldn’t always be told from the same perspective. It’s a mistake to think that the only heroes are white men. I’ve spent the last nine months hanging out with my Doctor Who family – Tosin [Cole], Bradley [Walsh] and Mandip [Gill] – and those are very different points of view. I get to see the world for a fleeting moment through their eyes. How lucky am I? It’s the representation of humanity that matters. That’s The Conversation.” And what about The Pay-Check Conversation – did she ask for equal pay? “I didn’t need to.” On Sunday, when the first episode is broadcast, her life is going to change. How does she feel about her impending superstardom? “When I was younger and said I wanted to be an actress, lots of people said, ‘Oh, you want to be famous!’ No – I never wanted to be famous, I just wanted to be an actor, and it’s one of the things that goes along with doing the work. With other professions, like a tennis player, you’d never say to them, ‘Oh, you want to be famous!’ They don’t, they want to become the best that they can be – but they never get accused of ‘wanting fame’. I’m aware of it but it ain’t the aim. The aim is to do exciting work that reaches an audience.” She’s already put in place some strong boundaries to protect her from the noise of celebrity – she never talks about her marriage, hasn’t revealed the name of her daughter, and isn’t on any platform of social media. “I find it hard when I’m really passionate about something, that I don’t have that public voice. But you can’t pick your public voice, and I only want it sometimes.” A few years ago Jodie was asked to open the sixth form college of the school she attended. “I declined at the time, but in the future I’d love to go back and maybe talk to the students – it’s important to stress to young people that there are so many choices to make and so many different ways you can succeed.” Last week, sitting alongside my schoolboy son, I watched a preview of Jodie being brilliant in episode one of the 13th Doctor’s adventures. As the end credits rolled, he leant over and whispered: “I knew I didn’t need to do my homework.”
"I enjoy life through make believe": Jodie Whittaker on playing the Thirteenth Doctor
The new sci-fi star may have struggled at school, but she's perfectly qualified to play the smartest alien in the galaxy, says Emma Freud
Over a decade before becoming the first female Doctor Who, the then 25-year-old Jodie Whittaker gave an interview to her local newspaper. She said: “When we were training, it was a 50/50 male/female split, but we knew when we came out that 80 per cent of acting jobs are for men. A woman is never going to get to be Bond or Doctor Who. That will never happen.” New Doctor Who monsters revealed for first time in fresh footage The scripts for Doctor Who series 11 were originally written for a male Doctor There’ll be no romance between Jodie Whittaker and her companions in the new Doctor Who series View oEmbed on the source website Yet here we are, and I can’t think of a more perfect woman to take on this historic challenge. I first met Jodie in 2015 when I helped produce Dermot O’Leary’s 24-hour Danceathon for Comic Relief. We needed celebrities to come down and cheer him on, and although I’d never met Jodie, I’d become obsessed with her from watching Broadchurch. I sneakily found her email and asked her to swing by at any point during the 24 hours. Of the people I asked, 90 per cent came for half an hour during the day. Jodie doesn’t work like that… “First I went to the shops and bought a Red Nose Day T-shirt,” she recalls. “I had to get an XXL because I was eight months pregnant. I got there at ten in the evening because most people had gone and I thought he might need a friendly face. Poor guy, by midnight he really hit a wall. I was dancing till 2am but then everyone got worried I was going to go into labour so eventually I was sent home.” Born and raised in West Yorkshire, Jodie, now 36, has always been a dynamo. Her first stage job was at Shakespeare’s Globe (The Storm in 2005), her first movie was opposite Peter O’Toole (Venus in 2006) and her quietly devastating performance in Broadchurch as Beth Latimer made her virtually a national treasure. When she calls by to discuss her new role as the Doctor, my son is at home worrying about his GCSEs. As soon as she arrives, Jodie reassures him that her results prove he has nothing to worry about. “I got five. An A* in drama – thank you – an A in PE, and threeCs. I was delighted, but the school – not so much. View oEmbed on the source website “One of the things that made me nervous about playing the Doctor was having to play one of the most intelligent characters on TV. I’ve always considered myself emotionally bright, just not necessarily academic. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand things at school, I did – I just couldn’t take them in using the traditional teaching methods. There are 30 kids in most classes, and if you are in the back end of that, it’s hard to keep up.” So how did she cope during her school days? “I’ve always learnt to enjoy life through make believe. As a kid I could sit, and play, and be, in a world I imagined – and it turned into my way of learning. I’d struggle with things that didn’t capture that for me. But if I could apply my imagination to those subjects, it worked: so I gave a division sign a character and the numbers on either side a bit of a story. If I made it move or talk, it made sense and I could do it.” I wonder if anyone has since pointed out to that school that this girl was described by Peter Capaldi as a “super-smart force of nature” and is now playing the most intelligent alien in the galaxy. Luckily, those early knocks didn’t seem to hold her back – she has the confidence of a head girl. “It wasn’t massively angsty for me because my parents didn’t pressurise me academically. It’s all down to who you come home to. My parents just asked me: ‘Do you try? Are you a good person?’ That was all they needed to know.” Were they similarly supportive when she decided to try acting? “Yes, very. I was really lucky – they supported the fact that I wanted to do something that wasn’t in their life. At 15, a careers advisor said to me, ‘Most actors don’t make it, what’s your back-up plan?’ My parents were furious and just said, ‘Do NOT have a back-up plan. Work at what you want to do.’” Christian Burgess, head of drama at the Guildhall in London, where Jodie went on to study acting, has said this about her: “I think initially Jodie felt she hadn’t had a very powerful, formal education, but she has this innate actor’s intelligence, which she gradually came to recognise as being much more useful than having been to Oxford or Cambridge. She’s fearless, that’s the thing. And when she decides she wants a job, she goes into a room and convinces them that they have to have her.” So what exactly does this actress have that made her the perfect person to play the most enigmatic character in TV history? For one thing, the Doctor Who team had decided very early on that they were going to change the gender, she explains. “Chris Chibnall [the new showrunner] knew he was writing for a woman. We worked together on Broadchurch and he asked me to come in to audition with my own accent, and all my dget- ing, really being me. “I think I have an energy Chris felt would drive this part. I’m more comfortable viewing things in the child version of me than the grown- up. I wouldn’t say it’s being fearless – because children aren’t scared, they don’t have the bruises – perhaps more naivety. “It’s the ‘lightbulb’ thing. If you turn a light on in a cave, a grown-up will be scared of what’s in the dark bits they can’t see. Whereas a kid would be fascinated by the light. I’m not always the brightest spark in the room, but I know that I’ll keep on learning new stuff all the time. I want to play the joy, the discovery, the fear and the curiosity. I have a short attention span, bound on set and my brain jumps from subject to subject. It turns out that is the Doctor in so many ways.” She admits to never having been a dedicated Who fan, but since getting the part has she studied the 12 previous Doctors as part of her process in creating the 13th? “I’d seen some growing up, but once I started auditioning, Chris was happy for me to come in with fresh eyes. Because of the wonders of the internet I was able to do the research thoroughly without actually watching every episode. I wanted to make sure my choices were instinctive to me, rather than mimicking a previous performance. "As a new Whovian, when I handover to the next Doctor I can’t wait to cane every episode of this show – I’m going to start at [ first Doctor] William Hartnell and do it in order.” With one series of ten programmes under her belt, as well as a Christmas special, she’s employing the same tactics with the loquacious dialogue that she used with long division. “I’m doing what I do with every script. Always, everything is pictures. It makes perfect sense when I turn all that information into images. I get the script beforehand, I think, ‘That word means this version of the galaxy, what does that galaxy look like?’ I apply my very normal instinct when I’m talking about space, or time or historical events – and the pictures say it.” In accepting the part, Jodie’s taking on more than the scripts – she’s part of the redefinition of women in the television industry, a potentially key player in the female army demanding parity, and she’s already thrown a mighty brick through the glass ceiling... “Thing is, I’ve never felt that there was a glass ceiling to break, because I’ve never put a glass ceiling up there. When I was little not looking like someone didn’t stop me from looking up to them. I wanted to be Mikey in The Goonies or Atreyu in The NeverEnding Story. I didn’t care it was a boy playing the part. “I don’t want to defend the decision to have a female Doctor because there’s nothing to defend – I’m playing an alien. Matt Smith wasn’t qualified. Peter Capaldi wasn’t qualified. They can challenge me about my academic qualifications – ne – but no one can be properly qualified for this job unless they’ve got two hearts and come Then how does she feel about the drama that surrounded the announcement of her getting the job? I truly hope that in a couple of years casting a woman in a traditionally male role won’t be so exciting – because when it’s not celebrated, it will mean it’s no longer unusual to have this sort of parity. “I’m always asked, ‘Do you think James Bond should now be a woman?’ But that’s not the conversation. It’s really – ‘Should every point of view be the same?’ And the answer is no. Stories shouldn’t always be told from the same perspective. It’s a mistake to think that the only heroes are white men. I’ve spent the last nine months hanging out with my Doctor Who family – Tosin [Cole], Bradley [Walsh] and Mandip [Gill] – and those are very different points of view. I get to see the world for a fleeting moment through their eyes. How lucky am I? It’s the representation of humanity that matters. That’s The Conversation.” And what about The Pay-Check Conversation – did she ask for equal pay? “I didn’t need to.” On Sunday, when the first episode is broadcast, her life is going to change. How does she feel about her impending superstardom? “When I was younger and said I wanted to be an actress, lots of people said, ‘Oh, you want to be famous!’ No – I never wanted to be famous, I just wanted to be an actor, and it’s one of the things that goes along with doing the work. With other professions, like a tennis player, you’d never say to them, ‘Oh, you want to be famous!’ They don’t, they want to become the best that they can be – but they never get accused of ‘wanting fame’. I’m aware of it but it ain’t the aim. The aim is to do exciting work that reaches an audience.” She’s already put in place some strong boundaries to protect her from the noise of celebrity – she never talks about her marriage, hasn’t revealed the name of her daughter, and isn’t on any platform of social media. “I find it hard when I’m really passionate about something, that I don’t have that public voice. But you can’t pick your public voice, and I only want it sometimes.” A few years ago Jodie was asked to open the sixth form college of the school she attended. “I declined at the time, but in the future I’d love to go back and maybe talk to the students – it’s important to stress to young people that there are so many choices to make and so many differ- ent ways you can succeed.” Last week, sitting alongside my schoolboy son, I watched a preview of Jodie being spectacularly brilliant in episode one of the 13th Doctor’s adventures. As the end credits rolled, he leant over and whispered: “I knew I didn’t need to do my homework.” Doctor Who returns to BBC1 on Sunday 7 October
Britain's Best Home Cook: Mary Berry and Claudia Winkleman sit down for lunch with Emma Freud and Radio Times
The hosts of BBC1's new cooking competition explain how their new series is not like other shows: "Our contestants don’t want to be professional chefs"
My phone rang: “Radio Times here. Would you like Mary Berry and Claudia Winkleman to come to your house to chat about their new series? Hello? Hello, Emma, are you still there?” I picked myself up off the floor and whispered, “You had me at Mary.” So it came to pass that the greatest cook in the UK has teamed up with the funniest girl in the country to present a new show. Claudia is the most in-demand TV presenter in Britain, the highest paid woman on the BBC and writes a magazine column in The Sunday Times. She has an honesty and fearlessness that means she is capable of turning her hand to any genre, medium or platform. View oEmbed on the source website What Mary has is rock-hard integrity, immensely high standards and the unconditional love of the country. After Bake Off moved to Channel 4, she could probably have taken any job in the UK, possibly including being the Queen – or at the very least she could have justifiably stayed at home baking cakes with I WON LIFE written on them. But after 83 years of activity, she wasn’t finished, and the search had begun for her next challenge. Meet the amateur chefs taking part in Britain’s Best Home Cook What time is Britain’s Best Home Cook with Mary Berry on TV? Stay up to date with the RadioTimes.com newsletter So what format could be interesting enough to tempt these two giants out of their nests? The answer is Britain’s Best Home Cook – an eight-week series involving ten contestants competing to impress three judges with their culinary skills. So far, so straightforward, but what Mary and Claudia saw in this programme was a blinding mission… MARY BERRY There’s no froth. None of this stacked food. No layer upon layer and a drizzle on the top. CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN It’s a proper celebration of home cooking. Nobody’s making a jus. Nobody’s making a timbale. EMMA FREUD No one smeared? MARY No one smeared. It’s real cooking, cooking from scratch using seasonal ingredients. CLAUDIA It’s about people making their favourite family recipes. It’s cooking from the heart. EMMA Is this in some way a reaction against high concept food and fine dining? To get back to the heart of food? MARY Our contestants don’t want to be professional chefs. They’ve been cooking for their families for years and they’ve handed down recipes. The most important thing about a show like this is sincerity, it must be genuine. My aim is to get everybody in Britain cooking at home… CLAUDIA …because home cooking is really the way we talk about our lives. It might be the boss coming around for dinner, or the first time you meet your son’s girlfriend. The best meal you ever had doesn’t have to be a supper at a restaurant with a Michelin star. It might be the fish pie when your sister turned around and said that she was pregnant and everybody cried. They become the favourite meals. It’s about moments. EMMA Do families eat together enough? MARY If you sit down and feed your family round the table, they’ll talk to you. Children tell you all sorts of things when they’re happy and full and everyone is together – it makes them ready to chat. CLAUDIA I think the enemy of family cooking is probably taking phones to the table. If the programme fulfils its purpose it will be doing the nation a genuine favour. According to a recent YouGov survey, a third of children eat their supper in front of the TV, and 29 per cent do the same for breakfast. Adults in the UK eat 79 million ready meals and 22 million takeaways every week. The knock-on effects of these stats are deeply worrying. But mission aside, there’s a lot riding on this programme – both for the stars, and for the BBC: there’s a huge appetite for it, but also a huge expectation. EMMA Were you nervous about the show? MARY I love judging because by now I know what I’m about – but I really wanted to do it well. I asked myself if I was doing the right thing and I realised this person on my left [nodding to Claudia] would be roaring with laughter and making it all very relaxed. The bonus point for me was having her. CLAUDIA And I was a bit nervous, because I don’t like expectations. EMMA Really? Even at this stage in your career where you’ve had so many successes? CLAUDIA Oh yes. You hope people will like it, but if they don’t, we have to take it. I like to keep my head down – my bright orange, heavily fringed head – and I normally do. EMMA So why do the show? CLAUDIA They had me at Mary. I didn’t know what the show was, and it didn’t matter. I mean, it could have been a programme about ponies and I would have been like, “With Mary? Actual Mary? The Mary? I’m in.” Stay up to date with the RadioTimes.com newsletter Claudia is 46, Mary is 83. Claudia is a city girl who thinks the countryside should be illegal, Mary is a rural soul who loves her dogs and garden as much as her Aga. Yet the two dames have a huge amount in common. As I watch them go through their paces with the photographer, they are both deeply professional and adorably playful. They know their brief is to entertain, rather than to pout or pose, and neither gives out any feeling of grandeur or high status. They’ve both been through the mill of heartache in their own ways, are both deeply compassionate and passionate, both enthusiasts and enablers. When Claudia first presented It Takes Two (the sister show to Strictly Come Dancing), she had zero knowledge about the world of dance. What she had was an excitement and energy, alongside a huge vat of irony, which took the viewers along with her. She performed a similar magic trick when she took on the Film programme for BBC1 in 2010. And she’s now doing it again. This is a girl who knows less than nothing about cooking – “My favourite recipe? Marmite on toast, obviously.” But her commitment, delight and humour at finding herself heading up a culinary show means we are engaged and delighted to stay for the ride. View oEmbed on the source website Twin Claudia’s zeal with Mary’s lightness of touch – being an expert without arrogance or condescension, never making a contestant feel foolish, always judging with integrity, but somehow seeing something good in every dish – and you have an interesting recipe. Claudia has her idiot enthusiasm, Mary her unpretentious expertise. These are two magnificent women who have chosen to work – when, let’s be honest, neither of them really have to – in order to encourage people to feed themselves well, nurture their families, and talk around the dinner table rather than downing a takeaway while scrolling through Instagram. Their passion for their mission comes across in every frame. As Claudia tells me, “Chris, one of the judges, started off by saying to the contestants, ‘Show me love’. It sounds ridiculous, but when you’re cooking at home, that’s what you’re doing. If somebody comes to your house, you could just make them a piece of toast, but if you put your heart into it, it’s an expression of friendship.” At that moment, Mary asks about my massive cat Badger. She admired him the last time I interviewed her, and I’m touched she remembers him. She pats his sleek, black, shiny fur and coos, “Can you imagine what a lovely pair of gloves he would make?” She’s joking (I hope), but I keep an extra careful eye on the whereabouts of my giant house rabbit after that. We stop for some lunch. Claudia has a bag of salt and vinegar Snack-a-jacks and a handful of Haribos. Fun fact: Mary always has soup for lunch. I knew this in advance so I made her my world-famous curried parsnip soup. (TBH, it didn’t used to be world-famous, but since Mary Berry devoured a healthy bowlful, it’s become my signature dish. We get to talking about the contestants on the show.) CLAUDIA One of them was such a big fan of Mary’s that she couldn’t look at her without tears brewing. At one point Mary said to her, “That’s very good,” and she just cried and cried. MARY But it was a happy experience. From day one, I don’t know what made us laugh but we hardly stopped, it was a lovely time. EMMA Were you strict with the criticism? MARY We’re there to judge, but we’re not mean, we’re not trying to make them cry, we want to be constructive for them to do better next time. EMMA The show has a very spontaneous feel… MARY There’s no script to learn. Claudia was told what was needed, and then she got down to it. Mostly she was there as a friend. EMMA Well, you certainly weren’t there for your cooking tips, were you… CLAUDIA It’s not my forte, no. I once bought mince pies and pretended that I’d made them. I put flour in my hair and popped on an apron. Someone came round and asked “How did you make these?” I said, “You take some minced beef and you sweat it down.” I was confused. As they leave my home, I find some marmite flavoured chocolate and give it to Claudia, who is so excited she tries to take out shares in the company. And I give Mary a loaf of what my children affectionately call my “disgusting home-made bread”. It looks good, but if I am to be entirely truthful with you, it’s not that great. Later that night Mary texts me a photograph of her eating my bread, saying how much she loves it. Maybe she’s not quite as honest as I thought… Britain's Best Home Cook is on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC1
Emma Freud: We can’t abandon those in need after the recent charity scandals
The Comic Relief trustee outlines why charities need our help more than ever – and how Red Nose Day is safeguarding the vulnerable people they serve
After two years away, Sport Relief finally hits the tracks running on 23 March. It’s turned out to be one hell of a time to be launching a major campaign, as the charitable sector is still reeling from the recent revelations about the actions of some of its workers. I’ve been with Comic Relief for 27 years now, and feel incredibly lucky to have seen so many of the astonishing projects funded by Red Nose Day and Sport Relief. Sport Relief 2018: everything you need to know How to get involved in Sport Relief 2018 How to donate to Sport Relief 2018 View oEmbed on the source website In my work as an interviewer, I’ve glimpsed the inner workings of many industries in this country – and the aid sector has more integrity, purpose, dedication, and unsung heroes than any I’ve encountered. But in recent weeks we’ve heard shocking reports of some people in the aid sector exploiting the very communities they are meant to help – which is clearly unacceptable. The wrongs need to be righted, and stringent measures need to be put in place to make sure they never happen again. It’s crucial that charities rise to this challenge – and it’s something Comic Relief takes extremely seriously. In recent weeks we’ve written to all the organisations we work with to discuss how we can be completely certain we’re safeguarding the vulnerable people we serve. However – and this is a big however – we can’t let the recent news stories lead us to abandon those who need our help. It would be a tragedy if charity money goes down or the country becomes wary of charitable organisations. The sector does extraordinary, difficult, complex, life-changing work, and the people whose lives are the hardest shouldn’t end up being punished because of this scandal. Kevin is an ex-soldier with chronic PTSD from his active service. He attends a project that is funded by Sport Relief and about which he says, “If it wasn’t for this place I would be dead. It’s given me something to live for.” One of our projects in Peru found a nine-year-old girl working for 12 hours a day in a brick mine; she’s now only working for six hours a day… at school. In the time it’s taken you to read this far in my article, two people will have died from malaria. These are the people we serve, for whom we are permanently trying to find new ways to raise money. These are the people that Radio 1 presenter Greg James was raising cash for when he fought through the Beast from the East to conquer Snowdon and Scafell Pike. And these people are the reason Zoë Ball agreed to cycle from Blackpool to Brighton, during which she publicly opened up about what she’d lived through since her boyfriend took his own life last year, sparking one of the most honest debates about mental health I’ve ever heard. These are the kinds of people whose lives will be changed by your TV donations. I believe the charity sector is now going to do everything it can to get its house in order. Meanwhile, I know that the money we raise during Sport Relief this week will be spent on important projects – half at home, half abroad – to help people living unimaginably tough lives. Charities owe it to us all to show they always put the people they seek to help first – but meanwhile it’s great to have your support fighting to solve the problems of the people on the planet who have been dealt the toughest hand. That’s what Sport Relief is and always will be for. Sport Relief will air on BBC1 on Friday 23rd March from 7pm to 10pm and from 10.35pm to 1am. BBC2 will air A Question of Sport Relief between 10pm and 10.40pm.
Nadiya Hussain: "I’m lucky – and I’m also unlucky – that I’m part of lots of different worlds"
The Great British Bake Off winner tells broadcaster Emma Freud about her fears of being labelled the "token Muslim" and her new series Nadiya's British Food Adventure
Imagine being Nadiya Hussain. Imagine getting married at 19 to a man you first meet at your engagement party and then see for the second time on your wedding day. Imagine being a Yorkshire housewife with an anxiety disorder that gives you regular panic attacks and discovering your husband has entered you for the highest rated TV show in the UK to help you get over them. And now imagine winning that show in front of 15 million people – and, as a consequence, discovering that your baking abilities have been deemed an important step toward shifting stereotypes about the Muslim community and that you have become a symbol of cultural diversity in Britain today. Nadiya Hussain expected her “shelf life” following The Great British Bake Off to be a few months, possibly a year, before she returned home to a lifetime of being asked by strangers why her face looks vaguely familiar… but it hasn’t turned out that way. Since her victory in August 2015 she’s written two cookery books, made a documentary tracing her culinary roots in Bangladesh published a novel, baked the Queen’s 90th birthday cake, appeared on Desert Island Discs, begun writing a weekly column in The Times and is now practically a fully qualified National Treasure. Today, that Treasure is joining me for a picnic. She arrives at my house, early and instantly adorable. She meets my dog Posy, the cats, the tortoise and our new, controversial giant house rabbit, Big Sue. I’m not sure if she actually likes them (nobody likes Big Sue apart from me), but she pats most of them and sits down to chat. I offer her a piece of home-made cake. “It’s Ramadan, I’m fasting,” she explains. It was my youngest son’s idea and he just did really badly in his Religious Studies exam – I now see why. Her fourth book is about to be published, to accompany her new BBC1 show Nadiya’s British Food Adventure. In her privileged position as flavour of the year, she could probably have written a book on road-kill recipes and still broken existing records. View oEmbed on the source website But being the most interesting 32-year-old in the UK, she has decided to explore her cultural legacy. “I’m lucky – and I’m also unlucky – that I’m part of lots of different worlds. I’m Bangladeshi, I’m Muslim, I’m British. “The question I’ve often asked myself is, ‘What is British food?’ For me British food is a korma and Mr Kipling, because my parents are from Bangladesh and my mum didn’t bake, but the interesting thing is everyone seems to have a really colourful answer. And now here I am with a series and a cook book, both trying to address that question.” But as the programme progresses, it reveals its depths. On the surface, it sees Nadiya travelling around Britain exploring the relationship between British produce and our culinary traditions; but go a bit further, and it explores multicultural Britain and the rainbow of influences that have brought about the way we eat and live, and our current national identity. “You’re right, it’s not just about the food. I spent my whole life asking where I belong. And the big reason I did this programme is to ask who we are and what we all bring to this country. Britain’s going through a really tough time at the moment – and we take our comfort in food. “For me, a meal isn’t something you just ‘whip up’, it’s about love, it’s giving and sharing. And when different cultures and worlds collide, it becomes really colourful – because that is the Britain we all live in.” She’s really not your regular reality-show winner. This is the woman who grew up eating every meal on a rug on the floor with her fingers, and turned down a degree at King’s College London because her parents asked her to stay at home. This is the woman who taught herself to cook from YouTube videos, and who went on to make Mary Berry cry with pride when she won Bake Off, saying, “I’m never going to put boundaries on myself again. I’m never going to say, ‘I don’t think I can.’ I can and I will.” And this is the woman who has now become the most high profile and influential Muslim in the UK. How does that sit with her? “I certainly didn’t enter a baking show in the hope of representing anyone. Being a Muslim for me was incidental, but from the day the show was launched, I was ‘the 30-year-old Muslim’ and that became my identity. “I struggled at the beginning, because I thought, ‘Am I the token Muslim?’ I’d never, in all my years, been labelled like that. I heard it constantly, ‘Oh, she’s the Muslim, she’s the Muslim.’ And I was so shocked by the amount of negative comments I got.” There was a lot of hostility online during that series – and not just about the moment when Iain Watters had a diva fit and threw his arctic roll into the bin. Social media had a field day with Nadiya, and her home had to be police checked after she was threatened by anti-Islamic trolls, angry she had won the “not-so-British Bake Off ”. For someone with an anxiety disorder, that must have been frightening. “I was really apprehensive at the beginning because of all the aggressive comments, but I realised by the end what a lovely country I live in. I hear the negativity, I see it, but it doesn’t affect me because, my goodness, they’re the minority – just a few keyboard warriors who say what they want in the middle of the night. We are so much more accepting than that: I never realised Britain had such open arms.” This was the moment I fell in love with Nadiya: she was attacked by the one per cent of this country who trade in hatred and it made her appreciate the 99 per cent of people who don’t. If Nadiya is putting that heart into her new series, it’s a heart we really do need in our lives. “OK, great, can we go and have fun now?” she asks. So we haul Big Sue into the park and lay out our picnic… Nadiya Hussain with broadcaster Emma Freud and 'Big Sue' the rabbit All the food comes from her new cook book, a one-world mix of multicultural sources: the Asian fusion pork pie of duck and Chinese five-spice; an Anglo-Indian scotch egg made with salmon and mustard seeds; a European Union quiche that contains a layer of Branston pickle between the cheese and the pastry; and a uniting of UK and USA values in the mother of all cakes, a deeply moist chocolate sponge on the bottom layer with biscuity, marshmallowy rocky road on the top. All as unexpected as she is. While we’re talking, I notice people photographing her from behind trees – she is now recognised everywhere. Even the gynaecologist performing her last smear test asked her what Paul Hollywood is like. “I said: ‘Can I answer that once you’ve taken out the speculum, please?’’’ I eat double portions because she is fasting, but we chat incessantly about food, including this gem: “My favourite meal is still the dish my dad made for us when we were ill, a bowl of Smash instant mashed potatoes covered in half a tin of tomato soup.” Most impressive of all, Nadiya positively welcomes Big Sue to the table, unlike the rest of my family, who have taken against her as being one giant pet too many. I decide I like Nadiya more than my children. We talk families; despite the insane glamour of the past two years, her home is her purpose. “My life is solely to be a role model to my children,” she says. “Everything else that comes with it is a bonus. I was one of six – and two of my siblings were ill for most of their childhoods. My parents were endlessly at the hospital, so we were looked after a lot by our grandparents. Family is everything.” How many grandchildren do your grandparents have, I ask. “72,” she replies. She gives me the rest of the cake to feed my kids later, even though they don’t deserve it, and we move back indoors. We’d sat in the sun for an hour and while my face has melted into the duck pie, Nadiya still looks like a perfect, tiny supermodel. I ask her to sign our loo wall (it’s a thing in our house) and I think the hunger is beginning to get to her as she puts: “For heaven’s sake, eat more cake.” She says a little goodbye to Big Sue and as she leaves I ask her what the plan is now. “I don’t actually know what I’m doing or where I’m going, and I like that. I didn’t know I’d do Bake Off two years ago, I didn’t know I’d be making a TV series this year – I didn’t know I’d be here in your house until yesterday. “That’s the state of my life. I get the joy of all this, and then I get to go home, feed my kids, clean my toilets, eat a big bag of crisps and watch EastEnders.” As I said… we’ve got ourselves a new National Treasure. Nadiya’s British Food Adventure is on Monday 8.30pm BBC2
Miranda Hart: "It’s not fame that brings you confidence that’s for sure"
Her hugely popular sitcom is coming to an end – but Miranda Hart is happy to find her star waning, finds Emma Freud
Miranda Hart walks into my house and apologises for her wind. I assume she’s being funny, but it soon becomes pretty obvious she isn’t kidding. By way of distraction I offer her a small cuddle with my son’s guinea pig, Ron Burgundy. “Well, you’re handing him to the right woman,” she says. “When I first started doing comedy, I completed a small animal care correspondence course in case it didn’t pan out.” Guess what reader, it did pan out. It’s been an astonishing rise since we first met when she worked as a personal assistant at Comic Relief in 2003. Check these figures: she was the first woman to sell out all 14,000 seats of the O2 this year on her 40-date stand-up tour. She’s received five Bafta nominations, won three British Comedy Awards, sold over half a million copies of her first book Is It Just Me?, has 1.68 million followers on Twitter, regularly gets nearly 10 million viewers for her sitcom Miranda, and won Comic Relief’s Celebrity MasterChef in 2011 when she became the first person to make an “Eton Messy Trifle” in the Downing Street kitchen for David Cameron. Miranda is now one of the most successful comediennes in the UK. She puts the guinea pig to one side and we sit down to lunch – a huge cheese and bacon pie. Miranda and Emma with Sanjeev Bhaskar for Comic Relief 2011 Miranda Hart Excellent. May I carve? Half each? Emma Freud Did you always want to be a comedienne – even when you were working at Comic Relief? MH God, yes... The first time I saw Richard Curtis [Emma’s partner] at the office, I was outside the building kicking a football around with some other people. They all knew I wanted to be in comedy and said, “Go on... say hello”. So I kicked the ball right at him. And it hit him. I ran over and said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Hi, I’m Miranda – I work as an assistant to Liz and I want to get into comedy. Are you all right?” EF Did he help? MH Yes he did. Do you think he knew I hit him on purpose? EF Yes, he did. Miranda splutters with embarrassment, spraying food all over the cardboard cut out of Kate Moss that lives in my kitchen. EF Are you going to clean that? MH No. EF I have temporarily lost sight as to why we are, as a nation, so fond of you. Can you explain it? MH Rude. Well, I think it’s because Miranda the Sitcom Person is living out the inner turmoil of most people. The biggest surprise was that she is greatly loved by teenagers. Why? I’m a middle-aged woman who goes to bed at 9pm. But the thing is that being a teenager is so nightmarish because you haven’t found yourself yet – you don’t really know who you are, or what makes you interesting, and the world is just baffling. And that’s who Miranda the Sitcom Person is. She’s terrified a lot of the time, she struggles with little things, she does the wrong stuff at parties. EF So do you think Miranda the Sitcom Person holds a mirror up to her audience? MH Maybe – but then I hope the entire show has been a bit of a journey. Miranda starts by thinking she’s fat and ugly, and ends up by realising that a) she’s not, and b) it’s not about that... That the key thing is that you have to love and accept yourself – for three series, she doesn’t. EF People openly wept when you announced Miranda would be finishing this year. Why would you end something so fabulous? MH She couldn’t stay in that “getting it wrong” place perpetually. Well, she could, that’s the sitcom, but I feel it’s time for her to learn a bit and grow a bit and start to like herself a bit. And when she knows what to do, she’s not funny any more. She’s come into her own – and once she’s come into her own, we’ve done her. It’s over. EF Won’t you miss her? She’s been so good to you. MH I will really miss her – she has been so very good to me. But I’m terrified of not leaving on a high, plus I think in some way I’ve grown out of performing it. When I trip over, or sing, or do fruit people – I think, “Oh come on Sitcom Miranda Person, that’s a bit embarrassing now”. We have left the remains of the pie by now. Miranda returns to manhandling Ron, who in turn wees on her. I promise not to mention it. EF Are you personally happier now than you were when you started the series? MH Much happier, I like getting older, I know how to be me these days. I don’t care if I’ve got the wrong shoes on... I do less of that going home at night saying, “What did I say?” I have more confidence. EF Is that because the show’s success has made you more confident? MH I don’t think that’s it. I was more self-assured before I was in sitcoms – a lot of my worries about my looks only started when the media got interested. When I did Hyperdrive [the 2005 sci-fi sitcom, above] it was always written up as: Starring Nick Frost and the massive Miranda Hart. I thought to myself, “Nick Frost is not a slim man, but it’s me who’s described as larger than life.” That really skewed my perception of myself. In the first two series of Miranda I was very low on my looks – it’s only now I’m beginning to think I might be allowed to consider myself attractive. It’s not fame that brings you confidence that’s for sure. We leave the house at this point and walk down the road to pick up my son from school. When we arrive, three small girls see Miranda standing outside their classroom, open their mouths and involuntarily scream, the way girls screamed at the Beatles in the 60s. It’s a strange thing to witness and I can’t quite work out why the sight of her caused the astonishing noise... Is it shock, joy, adulation, incredulity, general euphoria that Miranda actually exists? Maybe relief? We pick up my son and go to a café for a snack. EF Have you always wanted to be well known? MH When I was a teenager I used to want to be famous – I thought it would justify my whole existence. I imagined that if I was famous, when I tripped up in the street, people would just think, “Bless her, she’s famous, that’s fine”. EF And do you like the attention? MH Actually, I find it vaguely embarrassing. I’m not into fashion or the right look or going to the right places so it’s quite hard being scrutinised and judged. Ultimately I’m an introvert. If an extrovert wants to wind down, they’ll call some mates and go to the pub, whereas an introvert will stay on their own and watch TV. If I go to a party I need two days to recover. EF And now, when you fall over in the street – DO people say “bless”? MH Well, that’s the thing... I don’t think I’ve ever really fallen over in the street. Except for the classic little pavement trip and we’ll all do that to our dying day. I hope. I find it funny, not embarrassing now. We drop my son at a friend’s and wander into a shoe shop where I try to extend our time together by forcing Miranda to buy some winter boots and a bag. It’s the first time she has been shopping this year, and possibly the first bag she has ever purchased. EF It all happened quite late for you, didn’t it? You’re no Jack Whitehall. MH Well that’s the thing isn’t it... Virtually all the famous funny women are older. I think men have an innate confidence in themselves at a younger age – whereas women don’t mature into themselves till later. EF Is that a bad thing? MH Really it’s a blessing to be able to apprentice in your 20s and develop and hone your craft and then blossom into comedy in your 30s and 40s. Melissa McCarthy, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Katherine Heigl – they all battled for years, so when it happened for them their star shone brighter. EF Do you like being older? MH I love being older. I don’t need a job to define me. Part of it is realising that no one really cares what you wear, think, do and say. Everyone is too worried about what THEY are wearing, thinking, doing and saying. And actually insecurity is quite selfish – it stops you seeing a bigger picture, or having more time to care about other people, or do your work or whatever it might be. It’s only when you get older that you can peel away some of the self-doubt by realising your energies are better spent elsewhere. And whose approval are you looking for anyway? She goes to pay for the shoes and handbag, and remembers she has failed to bring her credit card with her. I end up paying for her purchases, which bizarrely come to exactly what I’m paid by Radio Times for this interview. MH Hooray – you’re only down the cost of the lunch. That’s OK then. EF So what’s next? MH Going back to your house for the rest of that big pie? EF I mean professionally. MH I suppose I’m at a bit of a crossroads. In a nice way, I feel like my star has waned. My “Oh my God” moment has been and it was lovely. Some people are terrified of that moment going – but another thing about being a bit older is that I’m fine with that, I always knew it wouldn’t last. Dawn and Jennifer are the Queens of Comedy and will always be national treasures – but their moment of, “Oh my God” has been and gone too. Everyone only gets the initial “Wow” thing once. EF Where does that leave you? MH The end of the series is the end of this chapter, and I have to decide what I’m going to do next. Taking a step back from the pressure of making people laugh will be a good thing, then you can find the joy of it again. This is the first year for seven years I haven’t had anything in my diary. I don’t think I could have done another year. For me, I need a bit of a fallow period. Also I need to see some friends. And buy a guinea pig. Three days later I receive a cheque in the post from Miranda to reimburse me for the shoe-shop debacle. She adds a £1 tip to thank me for my trouble. A week after that she comes over again, this time for Halloween. Brilliant. I think, the children coming round trick-or-treating are going to go crazy when they see her on my doorstep... this will do wonders for my standing in the community. At 6pm a big group of 12-year-old girls dressed as scary cats knock on my door. I’m in full “mad witch” outfit when I open it and Miranda pops up behind me holding the sweets. As she starts to hand them out to the girls she’s face to face with her target audience – just the type of girls I saw screaming for her at the O2 and my son’s school. But these little pussy cats are passive, accepting the sweets from the legend that is Miranda Hart without a flicker. “Wow,” I think, “maybe her moment in the sun actually IS passing?” As they pad off down the street we both hear one little girl say to another, “Did you see the lady dressed up as Miranda?” As Miranda prepares for part two of her extraordinary story as one of Britain’s finest female comics, she can take comfort in the fact that she is already mythical. The Miranda Christmas special will be on BBC1 at 7.15pm on 25th December