‘Because everything’s mad, I haven’t got room to be nervous’
After broadcasting from her home, Steph Mcgovern is back in the studio for her new show, she tells Georgia Humphreys
Not many of us have been as productive as Steph Mcgovern during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The journalist filmed The Steph Show live from her front room for six weeks from the end of March.
Now, the 38-year-old former BBC Breakfast presenter is returning with the magazine show – but this time it’s called Steph’s Packed Lunch and is airing for 100 minutes every weekday on Channel 4.
Broadcast live from Leeds Dock, the upbeat series sees Mcgovern – who gave birth to her daughter last November (her first child with her girlfriend, whose identity she protects) – joined in the studio by a variety of well-known TV faces.
She also takes a look at entertainment, lifestyle, and consumer stories making the headlines, while chefs Jack Stein and Doctor Rupy Aujla rustle up lunchtime treats in the kitchen.
Here, Mcgovern opens up about career highs, new challenges, and family life.
How does it feel to be back on our screens with Steph’s Packed Lunch?
What’s been brilliant is being able to do a show in lockdown, and for that to go well, and then for us to have a break, re-group, and then work out what worked and what didn’t, and then try and make it even better for the next one.
It’s going to be very different because obviously we’re out of the house – I’m going to be allowed near people. So that’s exciting, to have an audience and have that interactivity and just for me to chat to people because I’m much better when I’m with lots of people than I am just talking to myself in the house.
This series must feel a lot less challenging than The Steph Show…
Lockdown was so surreal for all of us, and nobody knew what was going to happen next, and, to be honest with you, I didn’t think lockdown was going to be that for long.
So I never expected to do a show from my house for that long. I’m really glad we did it, but I was also glad we stopped.
It was definitely time for the family and me to get the house back and for us not to have somebody permanently in the drive – we had someone there 24/7 because of security. Every night, I would take a little bowl of food out to the guy in the van – obviously, we had to do that safely, but it became really surreal just to have a man living in the driveway.
How have you found having a small baby during lockdown?
I think it’s been brilliant because I’ve got to spend so much time with her, but obviously there were times when it gets really hard because you just need a bit of a break. And it’s made me really, really appreciate how hard single parents must work. Me and my partner have tag-teamed the whole way through and I genuinely just don’t know how people do it on their own.
Can you explain how Steph’s Packed Lunch is different from The Steph Show?
Lots of content will be driven by who’s sitting in the studio. We are going to have lots of different community groups in the audience.
I want to break that fourth wall; I might want to go to another part of the studio, and I’ll be like, ‘There’s so-and-so on camera’ or, ‘There’s our floor manager’. I just want it to be a bit more organic – a bit looser than normal polished telly.
Have you been feeling nervous about being on telly again?
The world’s so mad at the moment, nothing is as scary as it normally is, because everything’s scary. So it’s like, ‘Ah, it’s another thing to be nervous about’. My partner said that to me the other day, she was like, ‘God, given it’s only three weeks until launch, you don’t seem very nervous’ and I was like, ‘I think it’s just because everything’s mad, I haven’t got room to be nervous’.
I’ve always been a workaholic. And then this lockdown has really calmed me down. So to suddenly be out working again is going to be weird.
How does it feel to be a role model for young women in journalism?
If someone had said to me, when I was a kid, ‘One day you’re going to get to do the business news on the breakfast telly’, if someone said, ‘One day you’re going to get to host Have I Got News For You’, I’d have not believed them.
I do a lot of mentoring, particularly for people from tough backgrounds in my hometown. It’s really important to be vocal about what young people can do. It’s not all about who you know, or how much money you’ve got. You’ve got to be determined, you’ve got to work hard – but you’ll get there.
I get lots of people who message me or email me saying, ‘I’ve got an accent too, I didn’t think I’d be able to do well in my career and you’ve shown that you can’. It’s really important to be like, ‘Keep your accent!’ That is a strength, it’s not a weakness.
● Steph’s Packed Lunch airs on weekdays on Channel 4