Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
And I say Eamonn to that!
I GUESSED Eamonn Holmes might fancy talking about something other than his headlinegrabbing life when I bumped into him at a glitzy do.
It had been 11 years since I saw him last – not in person but on screen, with a live link from my Perth Road flat to his London studio, holding my firstborn Monty.
I’d spent a decade as a regular guest talking showbiz on his Sky News show before moving home when heavily pregnant.
And there he was all that time on, as charismatic and charming as ever at the TRIC (The Television and Radio Industries Club) Awards at London’s Grosvenor Hotel.
Everyone wanted to say hello and ask how he was holding up.
As a man who presents GB News Breakfast (he won best news team with his crew at the bash) and tells stories for a living, asking the questions we want answers to, it must be odd to be the main event.
Whether for his mobility issues and pain after a back operation or breaking up with his wife and fellow presenter Ruth Langsford, fever pitch has been reached for updates about almost anything he does.
It must be draining; it must be surreal and so, when he asked me to take a seat, I thought he’d rather talk about anything else than himself – and so I did a very British thing and talked about – no not quite the weather, but football, lamenting England and Scotland’s performances.
I’ve said it here before but Eamonn is the best of the best I met in media.
His talent is a given and he makes it look easy because he’s such a brilliant broadcaster and journalist.
It’s rare for someone to be as giving – to compliment another presenter on their work on screen out of the blue or offer to help in whatever way they can.
By the by, everyone I’ve met who knows Ruth says she’s a lovely egg too.
I can’t imagine how it feels to be the news, day in and out.
Like anyone who’s experienced a Chinese whisper however, where tales grow arms and legs before they’re done, you must wish they could hear it from the horse’s mouth.
Even when from the source themselves, the stable doors can burst open and spill out nonsense.
In a very small way, I can draw on my experiences to imagine.
Like the time I posted a clip on Instagram explaining how I’d felt dizzy and odd one morning on the road for work – only to discover it was down to caffeine withdrawal after missing breakfast and cured by a stiff Americano.
Those were my words. And yet a headline in a national newspaper read: Hammer Martel’s Terrifying Health Scare – and had friends asking if I was OK.
But it’s all white noise, I realised as I applauded TRIC’S winners.
On this note, Homes Under The Hammer lost out in the daytime category to Ken Bruce who achieved a hat-trick of awards – and we were delighted to be on the shortlist.
It dawned on me how special and powerful television and radio (and of course newspapers and print which have their own awards) can be – from Ken playing the soundtrack in voice and music to our lives, to his fellow hat-trick winner, the crew and people behind TV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office.
That production changed lives and told a truth that had to be told.
It exposed an organisation which had lied, conspired and destroyed and even taken lives.
The writers, cast and crew took to the stage for the annual special award and it was incredibly moving.
I don’t mean to sound worthy – I love a bit of the white noise of celebrity gossip as much as the next.
But it’s the people who tell and make groundbreaking stories who make up the rich orchestra we can all enjoy – from Eamonn to Ken and the many partition walls in between.