00:00Marvareen, it's lovely meeting you today. You've just been awarded an honorary doctorate.
00:09Tell me about that and how did you feel when you found out the news?
00:13Being awarded an honorary doctorate, the honour of my life, I've never been awarded like this,
00:18in this way. And I've been a journalist for 23 years now and you just do your job.
00:23You find the news stories, you report on the stories and through the years and I've gone
00:27and to be a presenter in London. I'm a Brummie born and bred, by the way. It's just mind-blowing.
00:32And for me, it's a full circle moment because Birmingham City University, let's think about
00:38this, in the early noughties, it was UCE. It was University of Central England. And it's
00:44the place where I studied journalism.
00:46No way.
00:46Seriously? Yeah, yeah. I went and studied journalism the first time. It was a career change for
00:51me. So I did that in 2003. And then I ended up going back to what's now BCU to actually
01:01teach journalism.
01:02Isn't it amazing how things go full circle?
01:05It's crazy. So for them to send me this email and just go, we would like to award you
01:09for your work in journalism and media diversity and for my services to education, like educating
01:16the graduates, the journalists, rather, of the future. Got my teeth in. From a young
01:22girl, I used to watch Moira Stewart.
01:24Yes.
01:25Right? Remember Moira? So I used to see her when I was very young, in the 80s. And I went,
01:31oh my goodness, look at her. Could I do that job?
01:36Is there any particular part of your career that you feel that this doctorate particularly
01:43recognises?
01:44I've just been told this on Wikipedia that I'm one of only 10 black women in the UK
01:50over the last 40 years who have presented news on national TV. And I saw that and I
01:56was like, whoa, is that? That sounds like quite an accolade. So I'm like, I'm proud to be
02:01part of this cohort of incredible women.
02:05On a personal level, not just as a broadcaster, but a woman, a black woman, this is really
02:10quite a milestone, isn't it?
02:13It feels like it. Yeah, it does. And to me, you know, I'm just, I'm a little male from
02:18Bartley Green, right? I grew up in Bartley Green. And I was really quiet and shy. But
02:24inside, seeing Moira, I just thought, oh, yeah, is that possible for me? And I've always
02:30kind of tried to get there, never knew how to get there. I was doing secretarial jobs,
02:37temp jobs. And it was, you know, BCU that said, here's this journalism course. We're
02:44going to teach you how to be a TV reporter, radio reporter, be a presenter. And I was like,
02:49that's my course.
02:50You new straight. I was like, that's what I've got to do.
02:53Yeah. Yeah. Marvarine, as always, it's been lovely talking to you. Thank you very much
02:58indeed. Thank you.
Comments