Changing career and going into media at a time when a lot of women are leaving it has been challenging, extremely hard work, very frustrating at times but also great fun, creative and very rewarding. There are some things that are easier with more life experience behind us; for example we have fought hard to keep our own style and try to be creative and original.....ever hopeful! Also we know what we like and what makes us feel happy, so we try to bring that into the radio show. Our motto is: "a problem shared is a problem doubled"......so on that theory "laughter shared is laughter doubled".
As our own producers, we write the show, and get all our own guests. We are often asked about our guests, how we get them and how we get on so well with them a lot of the time; in fact our 'address book' is often commented on and we put it down to chatting to anyone and everyone. We think that being women of a certain age means we are not impressed too much with things like status and position ; things that impress us are a kind heart and a good spirit. We often play the Shania Twain song "That Don't Impress Me Much' on the show as a kind of reminder to not get carried away with it all. We are really lucky though to get to meet some fascinating people, and we'd like to tell you a bit about them, starting with our top ten list, which includes Smokey Robinson, Rt. Hon. Ed Miliband MP, Rt. Hon. Nick Clegg, Dep. PM, Bryan Ferry, Sir Bob Geldof and The Jackson Brothers.
We think it is very important to make a good connection with a person we are interviewing and aim to create an intimate atmosphere, even in a busy studio.....it's then surprising what happens and what comes out in the interview. The judges in the Radio Academy Awards said we had 'an innovative approach to topics interviews' and we like to bring in an unexpected twist, or a new angle.
When Ed Miliband came into the studio for an up close and personal interview, it had been quite a stressful lead up to the interview with several political hoops to jump through, but he was very relaxed and seem to be happy to open up and talk about the man within the politics......the conversation moved movingly from the Holocaust and how he appreciated the refuge the UK gave his family......he said without this country he would not be here today and how this has shaped his view on his politics and the purpose of politics to him. With all the interviews we like to give it the Livvy and Chrissie twist......so when we asked Ed about having more women on bank notes he said "Emily Pankhurst" ......."Suffragettes"....well, at that point obviously we had to ask "What about Us - Livvy and Chrissie - on the new bank note?" Well, after a lot of laughter he played along brilliantly......he did declare on tape that he would talk to the Governor of the Bank of England and put us on the reserve list.....it hasn't happened yet......wonder who will be spending frantically so they won't have to see our faces in their wallets! He also, when asked directly who won the arguments at home, him or his wife, seeing as he was a politician and she a barrister and both of them could argue well and were trained to argue......he readily admitted she won..... and of course Livvy got him to repeat that! It was a fascinating and interesting interview......we all lost track of time.....but his people hadn't, and the interview was brought to a stop as time had run out. As Ed was leaving he said he would have loved to have kept talking as we hadn't covered Woody Allen films yet, and a promise was made for next time!
Next blog - how we met Smokey Robinson on a red carpet and ended up with our photo on his office wall.
Listen to the latest show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p020kzq5