First book I couldn’t finish
An enormous number from my English degree. Middlemarch by George Eliot, anything by Dickens — sorry Charles, but it’s not vibing with me. I’m not a fan of the classics. University took away my love of reading. I only got back into doing it for fun in later life. I read 80 to 100 books a year now, including ones for work.
First memory of the radio
I was two or three, sitting in the hall of our house in Crosby, Merseyside, on a very swirly carpet in the 1960s and there was a song on the radio called Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by Marmalade. After that I remember there was a guy on BBC Radio 2 called Jimmy Young, who did a show that had a chef — a man with a squeaky voice would say: “What’s the recipe today, Jim?”
First broadcaster I admired
Angela Rippon — it being a massive thing for a woman to read the news on television. On the radio the only female presenters I listened to were Janice Long and Annie Nightingale. People have forgotten this part of our broadcasting history, but women didn’t really get a chance. Now, thank goodness, there are women everywhere in all types of radio, although I think it’s still harder for them to break through and be accepted.
First time I realised I wanted to be a broadcaster
As soon as I discovered it was a possibility, I thought I wouldn’t mind giving it a go. I didn’t get a lot of encouragement from my school — I remember telling my careers teacher that I’d like to be a BBC journalist and she said you’d need to go to Oxford or Cambridge and you’re not. In a way it made me more determined to prove to people that it was possible.
First album I bought
I wish it was a Bowie album or something, but it’s not. It was Arrival by Abba, which is a great album, but it contains one of the worst songs, Dum Dum Diddle, about lusting after a violinist. I’m still a big Abba fan and I’ve been to their virtual concert Voyage. I don’t listen to classical music and I feel awful about saying that. Who knows, I may enjoy it later in life. I’ve started going to the ballet — I’m going to see Swan Lake next month.
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First concert I attended
Blondie at the Deeside Leisure Centre in 1980 — absolutely brilliant. That makes me sound more fashionable than I was. I see myself as a bit alternative, so I liked groups like the Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen. I was extraordinarily gloomy and I would have been a goth if my mum had let it happen. I didn’t go to clubs — I was probably at home trying to finish The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
First TV show I enjoyed
I was a nerdy child. Blue Petermeant everything to me. When I was eight I wrote to the programme to say how much I enjoyed it and they wrote back thanking me for my interest, enclosing a Blue Peter badge. I felt about 10ft tall. I’m now watching the BBC series The Responder, but I’ve got a Presbyterian streak, so I don’t put the television on until 7pm, unless it’s a state occasion — and even then I’m quite reluctant.
First comedian I liked
Dave Allen. He was acerbic and dry. I didn’t know what a crush was at the time, but it felt like one. The one who makes me laugh now is Michael McIntyre … God help me, he actually does.
First time I felt overwhelmed by my job
I was on Five Live on the day of 9/11. So was Fi [Glover] actually, we talk about that sometimes. To go on the radio, on a rolling news network, and have to talk about that extraordinary and terrifying sequence of events and try and make sense of it for people — that was as close to being overwhelmed as I’ve ever been by my job and my responsibility.
First famous person I met
I did a phone interview with the singer Tammy Wynette when she was appearing in Hereford — I was on local radio there. When I moved to Radio 4 and did Woman’s Hour, the actress Julianne Moore had lovely manners and asked me the names of my children. The actresses Meryl Streep and Jodie Foster also had lovely manners.
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First film I saw
The Disney movie Fantasia, which horrified me. There’s a scene in which some mops do a dance, at which point I burst into tears.
First podcast I listened to
Serial. A really boring answer, that. I was late to podcasts, but I love them now. I recommend The Slow Newscast by Tortoise Media. I’ve got into audiobooks as well. I’m listening to Kristin Hannah’s audiobook about the Vietnam War, The Women.
First time I met Fi Glover
It must have been in the early 2000s. There were some bosses at the BBC who could not tell us apart because we’re both short, brunette, quite sarcastic, gobby women. Somebody at the BBC decided we should do a podcast together. It was probably quite a bold initiative to put two middle-aged women together and say, “Talk about things.” We bicker but we like each other so it works.
Jane Garvey and Fi Glover are speaking at Crossed Wires Festival, Sheffield on May 31 sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
