THIS SPORTING LIFE
Despite the glamour of covering everything from Wimbledon and the Commonwealth Games to Formula One for the BBC and Channel 4, reporter Lee McKenzie keeps it real with regular Scottish pit stops
F1’s Lee McKenzie goes back to her idyllic Ayrshire roots
‘ If I decide to do something, I am 100% committed – whether it’s jumping out of a plane or joining the circus for the day’
Igrew up in Alloway. It was a pretty idyllic childhood. We had a big field behind the house so we could walk the dog and play there. I have wonderful memories of going down that field to the river. You would literally follow it along there with the family dog, skimming stones or chucking sticks in.
We had a Welsh springer spaniel called Dex and he would swim in the river. There was always that moment when you thought, ‘I’ve thrown that stick too far, the dog’s not coming back.’ I’d have this huge panic and think, ‘Why is no one worried?’ Then the dog would eventually swim back a bit further down and run back to you. It was the same every day, you’d have the same panic that you were going to be responsible for the loss of the dog, but every day he’d surprise you, run up to you and shake. I have such fond memories of that.
It was just a lovely existence and it was safe: you could walk around, you could play and have fun. I had friends – and still do – in this area, and it was just really nice in that respect. I used to do a walk that went over the Brig o’ Doon which is absolutely fantastic. The banks of the river are so special – I can’t think of anywhere that’s more beautiful, especially when you see it on a snowy winter’s day. It really is gorgeous.
I went to Doonfoot Primary, rather than Alloway. The catchment cut-off is a tree halfway along the road and my house fell on the Doonfoot side. The school was right on the beach, which was lovely. I love the beach – I try to get home a week a month and it is where I go as soon as I come back, just to unwind.
I went on to Ayr Academy, which is where Robert Burns went in one of its first guises. I’m passionate about Burns; he can inject emotion into the most simple subject. I really love his works and I pop into Burns Cottage every now and again, or go into the museum next door. They’ve got a big statue celebrating his poem
To a Mouse now, and kids will come and have their photos taken with it, and it makes it feel special, more than just a cottage.
I enjoyed horse-riding as a child. My brother
‘I knew most of these drivers before they got to Formula One, so they just see me and they’re like, ‘ Oh, it’s Lee again’
‘When I was 15 I started at the Ayrshire
Post – for some reason they let me be their rugby correspondent’
was a much better rider than I was – he has a sort of natural affinity to the whole thing. It was a bit harder for me, but I loved being around them. My mum used to ride around here when she was young. She had a bad accident on a beach in Maidens and has two breaks in her back, but she was always great with us. She never said, ‘Don’t do that,’ and I think actually I’m most grateful to her that I’m quite good at a lot of things. I’m not very good at anything, but I went to swimming and to tennis lessons, I went ice skating, to pony club, because she wanted me to be involved in so many things, so we could pick what we wanted to do. When you get older you think all that rushing around is incredible, but it doesn’t cross your mind when you’re a kid.
I always wanted to be a journalist. My father is a journalist and I was the annoying child who turned up everywhere with him. I spent most of my Saturdays in the Borders watching rugby with dad. I did a lot of work experience, then when I was 15 I started at the Ayrshire Post – for some unknown reason they let me be their rugby correspondent. I would walk down – because I couldn’t drive – to Millbrae to report on the rugby. The best bit was being given two hours off school on a Monday to write it up. I also did an equestrian column called ‘Horsing around with Lee McKenzie’. I still have cuttings of every piece I wrote. That sounds like I’m a hoarder but I’m not – it’s just because at the time I knew it was unusual. And I think back to those rugby captains who must’ve thought, ‘Who on earth is this kid?’
I knew it was what I wanted to do, so I went on to study journalism at Edinburgh Napier University. I didn’t work in a bar or anything, I worked as a sports reporter. I’d phone up the Edinburgh Sports Agency and they’d say, ‘This week you’re going to Boroughmuir versus Edinburgh Accies,’ or whoever it was. By that point I had bought my first car, a Ford Fiesta, and I’d zoom down there and report on the game, then phone it in, sitting freezing in my car, or get in the queue for the phone in the bar with everyone screaming and shouting. I’d maybe have 50 words in the Sunday Post, 100 words in the Sunday Mail, that kind of thing. It seems like a whole different world but it wasn’t that long ago. When I tell young people about it now, they’re like, ‘You had to do that?’ and I say, ‘I’m not old, let me make this clear!’
When I left university I worked for Bernie Ecclestone, then I took a job as a trainee at Border Television. I never wanted to be on TV, but that was just how things ended up playing out after a few years there. You can’t fight against
these things at the time, but you can always go back if you need to. I still love writing.
My dad was adamant that I needed to do news and not just sport to make me a better journalist. I ended up covering the Lockerbie trial. I was at my Primary 7 school party when the plane came down. I got home that night and my mum said, ‘Your dad’s had to go down to Lockerbie because there’s been a big plane crash.’ I was really annoyed because it was our Christmas show, The Pied Piper, the next day and I had the part of the King Rat. I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe you’re missing this.’ You just don’t think at that age.
My dad was a big influence on my career. I think it was brave of him, taking a kid around everywhere, probably cramping his style, but he was very supportive. Sometimes I would go with him into the Express offices on a Sunday up at Park Circus and pretend to write stories. He and I were both at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and he was at Wimbledon last year for the Sunday Times when I was there with the BBC, so that was very nice.
I cover a lot of sport. There’s Formula One, of course, but also Wimbledon and Six Nations rugby. I also did the Commonwealth Games and there’s the Olympics coming up this year.
When presenting, I don’t wear little dresses or heels in the pitlane, but I will wear heels to present programmes. When I present on Saturdays I will be in heels in the studio and then change to trainers for the pitlane for safety, and I then change again to close the show. They are two different jobs and requirements.
I’m known, especially in Formula One, as being quite a tough interviewer, but that’s okay because there’s respect there. I’m not doing it
‘I’m known as being quite a tough interviewer’
to be controversial, I’m not doing it to get an amazing answer, but I don’t shy away from an issue if there’s an issue. I knew most of these drivers before they got to Formula One, so they just see me and they’re like ‘Oh, Lee again.’ I have good friendships with some of them. You sort of share life experiences – I went to Jenson Button’s dad’s memorial – and you spend times that matter with each other, not just interviews.
I’m lucky. I get to go to a lot of nice parties and am invited to a lot of good places. Sometimes you look around and think, ‘ How on earth has this happened?’ It’s special, but it’s not real life; you shouldn’t use that as the benchmark, but you can appreciate it.
Sport is great because it really unites people. You could see that at Glasgow 2014, which was a huge success. In many ways it was a relief, because when you’re Scottish and working in it, you so want it to go well. I absolutely loved it: I presented at the closing ceremony and it was really emotional. Everyone had bought into it. I was doing a five-hour show on BBC3 and then the highlights at 9pm on Clare Balding’s programme, and I’d say to friends, ‘I’ve got two hours, do you want to meet for a coffee?’ and they’d say, ‘Oh no, I’m going to the table tennis’. I was like, ‘The what? When did you start liking table tennis?’ But it was so nice from that point of view. It was just a pleasure to be involved.
I want to do the Olympics this year but after that I don’t know. I love sport and I would never stop sport completely, but of course I would like to try other programmes. I did Landward
for a little while with the BBC, and I used to do features for them. I never presented it, but I would go off and do things and I really loved that. I hope to do more of that type of thing in the not-too-distant future. If I decide to do something, I am 100% committed – whether it’s jumping out of a plane or joining a circus for the day when I was doing news.
I love having nothing to do, but then I’m always busy thinking about things. I have my own production company and shoots involve a lot of planning, so sometimes I can be found working from home in a tartan onesie up to my neck in pitches for glamorous shoots!
I’m a patron of World Horse Welfare and I’m also involved with the Anaphylaxis Organisation – eight years ago I had an anaphylactic shock, which really threw me. It was shellfish. My throat closed up and I was in hospital for a while in Monaco. I have to carry adrenaline wherever I go.
I’m always busy, even when I’m not. I have written a children’s book and had illustrations done for it. It’s about deforestation and the animals getting together with some kids to stop it. It hasn’t been taken up by a publisher yet, and maybe it won’t be, but I found it quite therapeutic to write. It’s doesn’t have a specific location, but it probably comes from me running around as a child and loving being outside.
I’m still like that – if it’s raining, you put on a coat, put up an umbrella, you can’t hide away. You’d achieve nothing on the west coast of Scotland if you stayed in every time it rained. At home we had gorgeous views over the sea and whenever I went back I’d say to my mum, ‘I’m just going to have a coffee outside,’ and she would say, ‘Outside? You’ve been away too long.’ I’d have two fleeces on, but I’d be like, ‘I’m home; I’m outside.’ She’d look at me out on the patio and just shake her head. But I don’t mind. I’ll always wrap up, I’ll always be outside.
I stock up on things from Scotland, even if I’m just going back down to Oxford. I’ll always take stuff from here, even if it’s only Scottish Blend teabags – which, really, is just a psychological thing – so I’ve got a connection to home.
I make tablet to take to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone because there are so many Scottish people – well, there’s David [Coulthard], Allan [McNish] and myself. Instead of saying, ‘It’s our home Grand Prix, it’s going to be amazing,’ people go, ‘Oh no, is Lee going to bring that melted stuff again?’ I normally leave it in my car and it’s a disaster, although some people love that! I’ve got the Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo into tablet. He loves it.