If You Read One Thing…
Jackie Bird’s determination and hard graft led to an exciting and varied career which has earned her place in the nation’s hearts
Make it this exclusive interview with Scotland’s favourite news
reporter Jackie Bird
AS one of Scotland’s most beloved reporters, Jackie Bird has reported on politics and culture, triumph and tragedy, retaining composure and impartiality throughout each and every broadcast.
Through political scandal, national heartbreak and countrywide celebration, Jackie has been one of the most trusted voices in news.
Born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Jackie had the world of journalism in her sights at a young age. After leaving school at 16, and with a course in journalism at Napier College on the horizon, Jackie’s career path was accelerated by good fortune and supportive colleagues.
“When I was 16 I had a Saturday job in one of the first Primark shops,” Jackie says. “It was called Penneys at the time, and all the women I worked with knew that I wanted to be a journalist. One day they handed me a tiny newspaper clipping that they had found in The Sunday Post and it was an advertisement from DC Thomson, looking for editorial assistants.”
From the west coast, Jackie made the move over to Dundee to begin her career on the staple teen magazine, coincidentally also called Jackie. Nominative determinism at its finest, the magazine had a host of notable writers over its 30-year run including children’s author Jacqueline Wilson.
“DC Thomson did a very clever thing by filling the staff of Jackie with very young writers. I had only just stopped reading Jackie myself when I started writing for them. Rather than try and get a load of middle-agers to come up with ideas, they left it to us, the ones that were in touch with what was going on!”
Jackie worked her way up the ranks to take on the glamorous sounding role of pop, film and TV editor, which saw her tracking down some of the biggest names for backstage passes, photos and interviews.
“We used to work three months in advance so I would have to bring ideas to my Editor of people I
thought were going to be big in three months’ time, to use on the cover and for posters. I remember going to my Editor once and telling her about this band called Duran Duran who should be the centre spread and she just replied, ‘Well I’ve never heard of them.’”
Luckily Jackie’s Editor trusted her instincts and she was sent down to London in pursuit of the soon-to-be new wave sensations. Her predictions were spot on, and by the time Duran Duran appeared on the cover of Jackie magazine, they were a hit. After forming a solid friendship with the band, Jackie went back and forth to London every month as the magazine’s girl on the inside.
Most people would be understandably star struck in the presence of such fame, but Jackie’s newsreader composure is obviously something she was born with.
“Because the people I was interviewing were my contemporaries, struggling along just like me, I didn’t really become overawed by any of them. They weren’t that different from me really.
“I remember on one trip, they were recording in AIR Studios on Oxford Street, and we were beside ourselves with excitement because Paul Mccartney and producer George Martin were recording in the studio next door. We were all jumping up and down and going crazy, so my chum John Taylor convinced me to go out into the hall with him to have a game of pool, in the hope that Paul Mccartney might just come past.”
On this one occasion Jackie did let her cool composure slip – the presence of a Beatles icon surely being enough to ruffle even the most seasoned of music correspondents.
“We went out to play some pool and Paul Mccartney just ambled into the room. He was a lovely man, very down to earth, and he said ‘Oh what’re you doing, can I have a game?’ and to cut a long story short, I lent Paul
Mccartney 10p to play pool. We were all pretending that this was such a normal thing, but behind the pool table, our knees were quaking!”
Jackie’s career story has one very strong theme throughout – determination. After starting work with DC Thomson at such a young age, she quickly had her eye on positions further up the ladder.
“I knew that I wanted to be a reporter on Reporting Scotland since I was about 14, it was the show with the most gravitas and with the most highly polished reporters. So, I blagged my way into a meeting with the head of news at the BBC.”
Jackie instantly made an impression, proving her enthusiasm and determination, but she was new to the game and was sent away with the promise of another meeting once she got some experience under her belt. With the aim of getting into news, Jackie went from teen magazines to radio reporting.
“I was very green because I had spent all my time in London with rock bands. So I would be sent to interview people and I would have no idea why – or who they were! I had no idea about things like how the courts worked, anything about politics, where an industrial tribunal was held – or, come to think of it, what an industrial tribunal even was!”
Three meetings with the head of BBC News later and she was still instructed to seek more experience, but Jackie was undeterred. After time at The Glasgow Evening Times, The Scottish Sun and finally getting in front of the camera with English company Television South, her opportunity came – again sparked by a newspaper advert.
“I spotted in the newspaper one morning that the presenter at Reporting Scotland had left so I got in touch with the chap again for the final time and I was taken on, not just as a reporter, but I found myself as the presenter.”
Jackie started as the presenter of Reporting Scotland in 1989, already with 10 years of journalistic experience under her belt at just 27 years old.
“You will never feel as invincible as you feel when you are young. If you’re a certain type like me, you think you’re God’s gift to everything! I put myself out there again and again, I got the experience and made the mistakes so I was ready.”
From October 1989 to April 2019, Jackie hosted the programme every weekday at 6.30pm – clocking up more than 7000 shows in almost 30 years. Some do stand out in her memory, Jackie says, but she was always firm in her duty – to report not react.
“We went out to play some pool and room” Paul Mccartney ambled into the
“The nerves left me very soon but of course there were events to report on that were harder than others. As a reporter you are not paid for what you do, but what you can do, handling the nights with breaking news and continuously developing stories.
“If a news story took the presenter out of the studio, where I would be reporting live from the scene, then you know it would be a major event. Unfortunately by their very nature these would most commonly be human disasters: explosions, murders – essentially man’s inhumanity to man.”
Outside the studio, Jackie has been posted all over the globe both for reporting and documentary filming – from the bright lights of Hollywood reporting from the red carpet, to Korea where she filmed her own documentary on the lost soldiers of the Korean War. A career highlight was the three stints she did reporting from Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
“If you remember one thing about your entire career it has to be this ”
“One vivid memory was being laden with a ginormous backpack at dawn and having to do a running start up a 45 degree ramp to get into a Chinook helicopter and thinking ‘Bird, do not blow this. Do not fall!’
“We flew so close to the ground across the Afghan countryside, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘If you remember one thing about your entire career it has to be this.’
“I was embedded with the Royal Marines and it meant living cheek by jowl and sharing the same shower block as all the officers. And let me tell you, having to watch some of the most amazing examples of the human form walking up and down with towels around their waists – that was the most difficult part!”
Jackie also hosted Scotland’s televised Hogmanay celebrations for many years, and these broadcasts could be quite a white knuckle ride as well. From scheduled guests who had perhaps overindulged, to celebrations being cancelled all together, each and every Hogmanay threw something new Jackie’s way.
“The adrenaline does definitely kick in when things go wrong – that’s the thing with live TV, you have to be prepared. I must say, hearing that countdown in my ear before we go live is my drug of choice!”
Jackie’s surprise departure from Reporting Scotland in 2019 left many shocked, but after striving so hard in her youth by putting herself out there time and time again, and finally gaining more than 40 years of journalism experience, the world of journalism is now her oyster.
She has more than earned the right to take her pick of journalistic opportunities, and rest assured whatever it is she puts her hand to next, it will be with the signature Jackie Bird composure, good-humour and dedication.
Listen to Jackie Bird’s For The Love of Scotland podcast, made in conjunction with the National Trust for Scotland – available on all podcasts apps.