Fast forward to 2012. I’ve learnt my lesson. I understand the bosses are not looking for a stand up comedian. They are looking for someone who can assimilate information and repackage it for an audience in accessible language. They are looking for someone engaging and trustworthy.
Meteorological qualifications are not strictly necessary, according to the
initial advert. Which is great, because I have absolutely none (unless you
count my stint as Weather Monitor). I can barely pronounce the word
‘meteorological.’ Though I can spell it confidently.
I know there will be an expectation of at least a basic understanding of
the weather and that I may even be required to deduce the forecast from
some synoptic charts, so I practise deciphering the wiggly lines with
triangles and semi circles attached to them which are sent down by the Met
Office to all BBC regions daily, matching them to the weather scripts sent
in to the station.
In addition, I buy myself a copy of the Dorling Kindersley Pocket Guide to
Weather and start the process of memorising it in its entirety.
It is true to say that, even when all you’re doing is reading a weather
bulletin at the end of the radio news, people assume you have a background
in meteorology. I like to think the skills I developed on my MA in Theatre
and Performance studies are what has convinced my colleagues that I am in
fact a fully paid up member of the Royal Meteorological Society. I can
bluff my way in most areas convincingly: “Occluded front? Think of that as
a warm air mass sandwich. Anti cyclonic? Clockwise winds, naturellement!” I
trill.
But occasionally I come a cropper. From time to time I am asked questions I
cannot answer. Once, following a period of high winds, a listener had sent
in a picture of her mobile home. It was extensively damaged. The roof had
caved in and there was debris all around.
“Sam!” came a voice across the newsroom, “Woman’s sent in this photo. Wants
to know if there’s been a tornado at the caravan park at Milford-on-Sea?”
Hm. A tornado.
My knowledge of tornadoes at this point is derived entirely from The Wizard
of Oz.
“Tell her to look out of the window,” I yell back. “If there’s a pair of
sparkly, ruby slippers poking out from under the shed, then yes, there’s
been a tornado!” A little mirth travels around the office.
“No, but really? Has there been one?”
In my spare time I browse the internet, boning up on why the south east of
the UK is drier than the south west. I learn about the impact of seasonal
variation in the water uptake patterns of vegetation. I force myself to
read scholarly articles about the jet stream. I do not remember any weather
presenters in my childhood ever referring to the jet stream. It’s quite
possible, it seems to me, that we didn’t have one back then. That it is an
invention of the new millennium, like iphones and gluten free brownies.
There certainly was no magnetic jet stream icon to stick on the steel map
of the British Isles. Or if there was, I never saw Bill Giles wrestle with
it.
I analyse the ways in which local topography influences temperatures and
precip. I start using the term ‘precip’ instead of ‘precipitation’ to make
myself sound more authentic.
I only have to keep all this stuff in my head for the duration of the
interview, I reason. Then it can all just drop out to be replaced with my
preferred content, namely The Archers’ storyline, new West End musicals and
what Saga Noren is wearing in the ‘The Bridge.’
The day of the interview approaches. My brain is aching with detail. When I
go to bed each night, I close my eyes and occluded fronts pass before them.
I have a picture of Ian McCaskill on my bedside cabinet. I kiss it every
night in the week leading up to the ordeal.
I have bought myself a new outfit for the screen test. It is a purple,
fitted dress with an asymmetric neckline.
I do not know it yet, but, of all the preparations I have made, this is the
most important.
Because at the end of the interview in which I have managed to regurgitate
huge tracts of weather related science (met, I might add, by a bewildered
silence from the two - just two this time - men conducting the exercise) I
receive feedback.
The then TV Editor nods approvingly at me and tells me that, not only do I
tell a good story - he’d never heard that stuff about spring vegetation
before - but that I ‘look good in that dress.’
It is my turn with the bewildered silence. I stare at him, speechless.
I have been a feminist since 1986.
Yes, I get this is telly and looks inevitably play a part in who makes it
to screen, but I wasn’t expecting my appearance to be, you know, actually
commented on. Openly. In the twenty-first century. Admittedly this is not
yet the #MeToo #HarveyWeinstein twenty-first century - that will come in
five years’ time - but it’s still, you know, THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY.
In the seconds during which I am fixed to the spot looking at my reflection in his glasses, the following thoughts fill my brain:
1. Is there some kind of feminist hotline I can call to get the appropriate
and definitive response to this comment? (No.)
2. Will the appropriate and definitive response reduce the likelihood of my
being offered the job? (Yes. Although it is the BBC so possibly no.)
3. Am I a female educated in Catholicism to submit to the will of men in
authority? (Yes.)
4. Have I been raised by working class parents whose primary concern will
be whether or not I have been polite and respectful to somebody who clearly
has magical properties, given that he is a senior manager in the BBC?
(Yes.)
5. So, do I accept a compliment graciously? (Yes? No? I don’t know.)
6. Is this a compliment? (It might be. He thinks it is?)
7. Should I start a hashtag on twitter? (How do you even do that?)
8. Am I a real feminist if I’m not offended? (Oh god, my credentials are in
tatters.)
9. Am I offended? (I’m confused. Is that the same thing?)
Taking my nervous laughter as gratitude, my boss tells me he’ll book me in
for training at the BBC weather centre as soon as possible. I’m to be the
‘stand-by’ weather presenter for the region.
I recall that this is how Ulrika Jonsson’s career began. As a stand-by for
TV AM back in 1989. Ulrika Jonsson. The charismatic Swede who made the
weather forecast addictive. The smiling blonde who revolutionised weather
presentation. The woman who gave the UK a stereotype. Ulrika Jonsson: the
original weather girl.
I was joining an exclusive club and it felt exciting and unsettling at the
same time. Beneath the asymmetric neckline I’d broken out in hives.
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