EXCLUSIVE LOUISE GOODMAN
The question master on life behind the microphone
Louise Goodman spent over 25 years working in Formula 1 as a press officer for Jordan Grand Prix and then as a pitlane reporter for ITV when the channel had the broadcasting rights between 1997 and 2008. Since then, Goodman has been an integral part of ITV4’S British Touring
Car Championship’s presentation line-up. Now, speaking about her journey to become one of Britain’s most well-known sports broadcast journalists, Goodman tells Motorsport News what it’s been like from being one of the only women in the paddock to being a key role model for the younger generation.
“I sort of fell into motorsport,” she says. “My entire career has sort of been a set of happy circumstances! I grew up in Hampshire where Derek Warwick comes from. As a youngster, I would walk past Warwick trailers, their family business. There was a beautiful orange Ford Capri Mk2 that was often parked outside. I always loved cars. I always love things with an engine.”
One of her first roles was working for a powerboat magazine, where she eventually met motorsport PR impresario Tony Jardine who she went to work for.
She then made the move to the Jordan Grand Prix team as a press officer. Then, during her time there, she was contacted by an independent broadcasting company who were bidding to do the production for ITV’S Formula 1 coverage.
“I was approached and offered the job basically,” Goodman says. “They wanted to have a woman on the bid to reflect the fact that there was a large and increasing number of women who were watching motorsport. I guess they either went for somebody who knew about television and taught them about F1, or they went for somebody who knew about Formula 1 and taught them about television.
So, luckily for me, they went for the latter route.
“I recognise the fact that I was so, so lucky. It’s some peoples’ life’s ambition to work in television, or to work as a reporter in motorsport.”
Goodman had a small piece of prior broadcasting knowledge. Working at Jordan, Irish TV channel RTE used to get her to do live updates from the team’s garage over a grand prix weekend. “They gave me a set of headphones and a microphone and I used to do them just live updates from the Jordan garage because that was the main focus of
Irish TV,” she says.
Question: “Do you remember your first live broadcast?”
Michael O’carroll
Via Facebook
Louise Goodman: “I was quivering like you can’t believe it and, now and then, there is one person who always reminds me of it – Bradley Lord, who’s now the Head of Communications at Mercedes. He watched my first broadcast and how nervous I was. I absolutely was. It was sort of: ‘there you go, there’s a microphone off you go’. And we had millions of millions of people watching in those days. It was slightly nerve-wracking learning on the job. I can’t say it was always an enjoyable experience. I’m not very good at not being very good at things. Quite frankly, I wasn’t very good when I first started. But, I hopefully picked up a few tricks along the way. I was in an incredibly lucky position to be given that opportunity. It never even crossed my mind that I would work in broadcasting.”
Question: “Out of everyone you have interviewed who has posed the biggest problem?”
Oliver Taylor
Via Facebook
LG: “I’ve been around racing drivers pretty much all of my working life. They’re all individuals, but I know the way that their minds work. Particularly being at Jordan Grand Prix, we got through a lot of racing drivers. I’d worked with 30 or something racing drivers as their press officer.
“On the whole, if you ask a pertinent question, a relevant question and a sensible question, and you ask it in an appropriate manner, then most drivers are fine with you. There are times they don’t want to talk and there are times they’re storming off – that’s not my fault, they’re not angry at me. My job as a reporter is telling that story or demonstrating that story. Very often a driver with a helmet on refusing to speak to you, that tells a story in itself. It’s not something that’s ever bothered me approaching a driver in that kind of scenario. It’s not something that I’ve ever taken personally if somebody has, on a rare occasion, told me to get stuffed.
“I remember one specific occasion with Eddie Irvine, who I’ve worked with as his press officer. I know him well: his sister is one of my best mates. When I was working for ITV, we were at the Hungarian Grand Prix. I can’t remember exactly what the scenario was, but we were doing a live interview and he said something. I was thinking with my press officer brain, ‘mate, you really shouldn’t have told me that’, but with my reporter’s brain thinking that was a brilliant line! He got in trouble for it. Ferrari pulled him up on it afterwards. He said ‘well, I just kind of forgot. I was talking to you, I forgot that you had a microphone in your hand’. That’s what you want to do. I’m not suggesting you want to trick the drivers into stuff, but you want to build