‘I’m chuffed he is here but there is a pecking order’
Having your wee brother join you at work sharing embarrassing stories would be enough to annoy most big sisters.
Amy, 31, is more relaxed about Lewis joining her at the BBC. In fact she wasn’t even irritated when he started dating her best friend of 13 years.
“Everyone expected me to be annoyed by it, they said they would hate it if their friend was seeing their little brother,” she said. “I wind Olivia up about that, she would never let me go out with her brother! But I’m delighted, my little brother is engaged to my best pal!”
When colleagues found out Lewis was joining the BBC Amy said the talk of the steamie was whether they got on.
“It’s funny, a lot of people have said, ‘how are you going to feel working with your brother on a small team?’” she said. “But that’s the thing, we have such a close relationship anyway. He is one of my best friends, I’m not just saying this for a newspaper. Genuinely, we are very close.
“I felt he had a good chance of getting the job, but I had to remind myself I’m a bit biased when it comes to my wee brother. Then I heard from people on the interview panel that Lewis smashed it out the park. He did brilliantly.
“I’m so chuffed but, now he’s in the door, I get to remind him there is a pecking order around here.” As children Amy said she dragged Lewis into her burgeoning broadcast empire. “We started making videos by borrowing cameras from relatives, and we came up with this show called Irons Lookaround. We grew up in Dumfries and Lookaround was a local news show and that was our wee version.”
She said: “Because of my dad we grew up around the world of football which, when you think about it, is very competitive and not stable.
“That gave me an appreciation for the media which is quite a similar industry. It can be up or down and you can be criticised for things out of your control.”
She also harbours ambitions for the pair to once more present their own show together for the BBC. “A show presented by the two of us would be the ultimate!” she said. “It’s crazy to sit here and talk about it because now it might actually happen at some point. Maybe Irons Lookaround will be back?”