‘I can pick myself up faster. Maybe it’s age or I’m just used to knocks’
● Angela Scanlon on landing one of the biggest jobs in UK radio and refusing to quit
She has just been given one of the most high-profile jobs in British radio broadcasting — and now Angela Scanlon says it’s her resilience that helped her get on in the ultra-competitive world of UK showbiz.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent after taking over Virgin Radio’s 7-10am weekend breakfast slot recently vacated by Graham Norton, the Meath native says there isn’t a big difference when it comes to her experience of working on both sides of the Irish Sea.
“Whether it’s here or there, you show up with enthusiasm and hope for the best. I don’t think it changes that massively.
“Obviously here [in England] is the bigger market, which means it is certainly more competitive — by nature of the size and the amount of people living here.”
After a decade of broadcasting in London, she adds: “Resilience is the thing – and I didn’t really realise it. I haven’t always been resilient actually. I have really recognised that I have had to work very hard on that in the last number of years.
“I thought I was quite well able for rejection and for those inevitable hard knocks and disappointments — but what I observed is that my bounce-back rate was quite slow.
“So I’d get a knock, pin all my hopes on something, feel really confident and it may or may not have gone my way and it really deflated me. But I just don’t feel bruised in the same way now.
“I think I’m able to pick myself up faster. I don’t know whether that is age or getting used to knocks, but I think there is an element of ‘last man standing’, you know?
“And a lot of the time it is people [in the business] going: ‘Do you know what? I can’t do this anymore.’ And it is really, really hard — but, to be honest, I don’t think I have really ever entertained a notion of quitting. It’s just never entered my mind.
“It’s just always been like: ‘Yeah, that’s part of the gig.’”
Now she says she has learned to appreciate the quiet times — because “as humans we are not supposed to be in the ring 24/7. Periods of quietness are not a cue to panic that work has dried up,” she adds, “but time to actively take a break — because when work comes, it comes like a freight train”.
Meanwhile, reflecting on fellow broadcaster Doireann Garrihy’s recent decision to take a step back from RTÉ FM, she says: “I don’t know the motivation for her going. I imagine getting up every morning like I used to do early on BBC radio is very hard. On your body, on your mental health. Who knows? There could be loads of reasons. But going by her podcasts I am sure she has loads of other things in mind.”
For herself, the mother-of-two says she has learned that it’s best to keep her options open.
“For me, I set up a jewellery business. I think as a creative person you want to have outlets that don’t depend on a single person deciding if you are flavour of the month or not.
“I don’t know if it’s particularly women going: ‘Do you know what? I can do it myself, thanks very much’ — but there is a sense of empowerment in making decisions that work for you, rather than passively responding to other people saying what you should and shouldn’t do.”