Louise Minchin celebrates women in business at Pink Link

Blackpool Gazette

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

Transcript

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.

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