‘ Glasgow grit has helped me stay strong in my TV career’
Presenter thanks upbringing for surviving harsh and fast world of glitz and glamour
GL O B E T R O T T I N G presenter Jean Johansson admits the world of TV can be a hard place at times – but it was her Glasgow roots which helped her cope.
“There’s a toughness that comes with growing up on the west coast of Scotland, and it has served me well in this industry,” says the star of A Place in the Sun, Animal Park and The One Show.
“It can be pretty harsh at times, this job, so you have to be tough, and I know my steeliness comes from my upbringing.”
She adds: “I’ve used that grittiness to stay strong.”
Jean grew up in Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde, and spent her “formative years”, she says, travelling up to Glasgow with her pals.
“Glasgow is my favourite city in the world,” she says, smiling. “I live in Largs now, but Glasgow is still where I head with my pals for something to eat or a night out, or Saturday shopping. I love it, and I love the people.
“And it’s funny, but wherever you go in the world, there’s always a Glaswegian ready to chat to you.
“I remember we visited this beautiful big luxury property on A Place in the Sun, a stunning villa worth about £ 5m, and when the owner came out, he was chatting away in this broad Glaswegian accent.”
She laughs: “It was so lovely. He gave us a look round the place and we’re chatting away so much it all got a bit too colloquial, and I actually had to rein it in a bit. No- one else could understand what we were saying.”
Glasgow will always be a bit special, Jean says, because it was where she got her first job in telly.
“Queen Margaret Drive, BBC Scotland – it was great,” she smiles. “When I was growing up, it seemed like every teenager in the 90s wanted to be on the telly, so yeah, I wanted to do it, to be a Blue Peter presenter, to get on the CBBC Broom Cupboard – those youth TV shows were massive for my generation, they were a big part of our lives.”
Jean became a fresh new face of children’s TV when she won a nationwide talent competition in 1999. The prize was a presenting job on UKOOL, a lifestyle programme for 10 to 16- yearolds, which ran until the early noughties.
It opened the door to a whole range of roles on children’s TV, both at CBBC and at the Disney Channel – a period she describes as “some of the best years of my life” – and a dazzling array of career highlights, including going behind the scenes on many of Disney’s big animations and hosting the BAFTA- winning Disney Channel Awards from London.
After a spell as a weather presenter on Scottish Television, and a stint presenting the Euromillions lottery draw, Jean moved from children’s TV into the mainstream, where she has had appeared in a diverse range of shows, from the aforementioned Channel 4 flagship A Place in the Sun, in which she helps househunt er s find their dream home abroad, to a series of films for Sport Relief tackling postpartum depression and children with spina bifida; and from Celebrity MasterChef to fronting a documentary about racism in Scotland.
Jean describes 2022 as having been her “busiest year yet”.
“It’s been so crazy, so I’m looking forward to spending Christmas at home, walks on the beach, lots of rest – some quiet time with the
boys,” she says, referring to her footballer husband Jonatan and son Junior, who is 11. “It’s easy to relax down here.”
Next year, Jean is presenting a new show for Channel 4 called Key to a Fortune, which unites families with homes – and relatives – they didn’t know they had.
“It’s what we all want to hear, isn’t it?” she laughs. “That your second cousin’s sister’s aunt has left you a house. It’s been such a privilege interviewing people who find themselves in that position.
“We follow them as they make their decision about whether to keep it, or sell it, or turn it into a business – it’s really interesting, a proper feel- good show, and I hope people love it. We filmed all over the UK, from Wales to Orkney, and it was actually quite emotional. For some people, finding out this person they didn’t know even existed had left them, was really life changing. It was very moving.”
Jean will also be part of a star- studded line- up on Bringing in the Bells, the 2022 Hogmanay special on STV. Paired up with wrestler- turned- actor Grado, with whom she “giggled her way through” the show last year, she says she is delighted to be back.
“How can that have been a year since we did that?” she laughs. “This year has been another crazy one, with so many interesting moments both personally and in the world of news, so I’m excited to be taking stock of it all over a glass of fizz with Grado.”
Jean is now a household name, but despite the fame and glamour, this unstarriest of stars says her feet remain firmly on the ground.
“My friends and family keep me grounded,” she says. “Being described as an unstarry person is a compliment. I don’t really take that whole idea of ‘ celebrity’ very seriously – I think that’s probably a Scottish thing too, being self- deprecating and looking for the humour in things.”
She adds, with a grin: “I mean, we’re not doing open heart surgery, are we? It’s just telly.”
It’s been so crazy, so I’m looking forward to spending Xmas at home