Former BBC Breakfast presenter and now author and adventurer Louise Minchin recounts stories from her days on the screen and her new fiction thriller novel 'Isolation Island' during a women in business Christmas event held by Pink Ladies at Ribby Hall Village, Lancashire. Here, Louise chats with Pink Link's Coral Horn.
#Louise Minchin #BBCBreakfast #Celebrity #Books
#Louise Minchin #BBCBreakfast #Celebrity #Books
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00:00Today has been the Christmas regional meeting at Pink Link and we've had an awesome speaker.
00:10And I got a memo about pinkness. I mean I should have done more Christmas but I love
00:14pink.
00:15Oh it looks amazing, where did you get that from?
00:16Oh good point, I think it's from a speaker but it's like, I haven't for a while but
00:23you do.
00:24Yeah definitely, I have a lot of pink in my life but not this. So I need to see where
00:29you get that from.
00:30So Louise, your first day with us today, your first event with Pink Link, how was it for
00:34you?
00:35It's been amazing, lovely warmth in the room, great questions from the audience because
00:38I've been talking about lots of things including my journey into triathlon, why I'm passionate
00:43about women and women's voices and that we need to see role models and also about my
00:48latest passion project which is a thriller called Isolation Island. So I've talked about
00:52loads but no, it's been a fantastic atmosphere and everyone was just making connections,
00:56wanting to connect with me and talk to each other in person.
00:59So I've read Fearless and now I've got Isolation Island and I can't wait so I'm going to read
01:03that later. But whenever I've saw you, as you used to be, on the sofa doing the interviews,
01:09I noticed that with the interviewer would always ask the person two questions.
01:13Yeah, no one's asked that.
01:15No, but it's like you don't just say how was it for you, you say how was it for you and
01:20what was your best bit, i.e. they always ask two questions.
01:23Do you think in one?
01:24Yeah!
01:25I bet I didn't.
01:26Yeah, always.
01:27Did I?
01:29Yeah, you're watching the breakfast and you'll see. So, I'm going to put two questions to
01:32you as they would do if I was interviewing you properly.
01:35Go on then.
01:36So today, you've come along, firstly...
01:41I'm listening carefully because I probably won't hear them both.
01:43How was the lunch for you? And secondly, what was your favourite part of it?
01:48Oh my gosh, my lunch for me was delicious. My favourite part of it was the butternut squash.
01:52But that's been very specific about the lunch.
01:54But of course there was the company in the lunch so I'm now going to answer this in two
01:57different ways. I loved meeting the people at my table.
02:00So today, obviously, Louisa's been, she's told us all about her journey through BBC
02:06and everything else and leaving the BBC and how she champions women and talked about the
02:11global fearless and also how she is now as a Northern.
02:15Yeah.
02:16And after Isolation Island, do you see a movie coming?
02:19I'd love it to be in the movie because it's very, I think because I've worked in television
02:24for so many years and I'm so, you know, I was in a reality show on I'm 70 because I love
02:28telly so much so I think when I wrote it, it's very visual so I'd love to see it on
02:33the telly or as a movie but, you know, here's hoping.
02:36It needs to be a bestseller so it's incumbent on everybody to read it, love it and then
02:40maybe it can be a movie. But I want to write again, that's really what I want to do.
02:44So if somebody wants to buy your book, how can they pay?
02:46I should say, if they want to buy the movie rights, talk to me.
02:49If they want to buy the book, well today I had two brilliant independent booksellers
02:53called Booker and Lingham's who are here from the North West.
02:57Go to an independent bookseller if you can because they're so important.
03:00If you go in there, they'll say, if you like this kind of book, you can read this sort of book.
03:04They're absolutely brilliant.
03:05Buy from them or you can, of course, find it online as well.
03:08Great stuff.
03:09And obviously supporting small businesses is really important which is what we do at Pink Link.
03:13Supporting small businesses and women in business.
03:16So thank you, Louise.
03:18Enjoy your Christmas.
03:19Thank you very much.
03:20Merry Christmas to you.
03:21Yeah.
03:23How was that?
03:24And I had to leave the set several times because I feel terrible because I couldn't speak.
03:29If you're ever feeling sad, look up Louise Henshin, BBC Breakfast, Mosquitoes.
03:35And that was when I let Mosquitoes out live in the studio and actually couldn't present the rest of the programme
03:41because I was laughing so much.
03:42But I'm one of the big two presenters against each other.
03:45What do you think we should do?
03:47And this was a while back and it was just a...
03:51I said, why don't we do something inspired by the Olympics?
03:53And she said, I've got a great idea.
03:55We're going to go to the velodrome.
03:57I've never been to a velodrome.
03:59You're going to get on a bike, a racing bike, never sat on a bike with drop handlebars,
04:04and you're going to race in front of 4,000 people against your fellow presenters.
04:09I actually nearly vomited on the spot.
04:12I was fine.
04:13Oh, yeah.
04:14I'm sorry.
04:15Yeah.
04:16So live in front of all these people.
04:17Anyway, on the day, and actually this is a few...
04:19This is not the actual day, but it's just...
04:21That is how it looks in the velodrome.
04:23On the day, what was going to happen was that Bill and Susanna, who presented breakfast,
04:28were going to race together.
04:29They'd have their time added together.
04:31Myself and Charlie Stait would have had our time added together.
04:34And whichever team had the fastest time would win the homemade BBC breakfast gold medal.
04:41That was very exciting.
04:43And then what happened on the day?
04:45Charlie went first.
04:46He's in my team.
04:47He went so fast, he thought he was going to die.
04:50Bill went next, not in my team, went quite fast.
04:54I mean, you know, really respectfully fast.
04:57Susanna went third.
04:59They're really clever TV presenters.
05:01Susanna had cried for the whole of our rehearsal.
05:05Because it's really blimming scary, okay?
05:08That is a 45-degree angle.
05:11I didn't blame her for crying.
05:13So on the day, on the night, she sailed around looking super glamorous and very slowly.
05:21Which meant that when I went to race, basically all I needed to do was not fall off my bicycle
05:27and we would win the gold medal.
05:30Bill had said to the camera person,
05:33I'm not going to be beaten by a girl.
05:36The camera person said to Louise,
05:38Bill says he's not going to be beaten by a girl.
05:42Can you imagine how that's going to go for me?
05:44You know anything about me?
05:46Red rag.
05:47So on that day, I was sitting on my bike and holding on to the safety rail here
05:56and just thinking, I can do one of two things.
05:58I can go really slowly, not fall off, win a gold medal.
06:02Or I could go full out, perhaps die, and beat Bill.
06:08Can you guess what happened?
06:10I beat Bill by half a second.
06:14Literally.