FEATURE:
Station to Station
Part Fifteen: Jane Garvey (BBC Radio 4)
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SOME may say that…
IN THIS PHOTO: Jane Garvey alongside her Fortunately… co-host, Fi Glover
Jane Garvey is more associated with podcasts now, rather than presenting on the radio in a live capacity. This feature does spotlight hugely influential broadcasters across various stations. Having stepped down presenting BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour recently (Garvey presented for many years alongside Dame Jenni Murray), she has definitely influenced a lot of broadcasters and left her name in the history books! I also feel that we will see Garvey return in a more full-time capacity to BBC Radio 4 in the future. I will mention a book that she has co-authored with her Fortunately… with Fi and Jane friend, Fi Glover. I also need to mention the podcast, as it has a growing, passionate and loyal fanbase. Garvey’s Life Changing podcast is one where “(Jane Garvey) talks to people who have lived through extraordinary events and discovers how these moments have reshaped lives in the most unpredictable ways”.
Radio Today spotlighted the series in March and gave us some details regarding (a series) that is so fascinating and compelling:
“In this new programme, Jane meets people who have experienced extraordinary moments that have set their lives on an entirely different course.
Each of the seven episodes in this first series will offer Radio 4 listeners a personal insight into some of the darkest and most uplifting moments in human life.
Jane Garvey said: “You can talk to some of the most famous people in the world but everybody knows the best stories come from real life. Hearing this astonishing range of experiences has been a great privilege.”
The series starts at 9am on 7th April with the story of Grace, who was 22 when her life changed in an instant. Grace was walking through the atrium of the Stratford Westfield shopping centre when a man fell from several storeys up and landed directly on top of her.
She woke up hearing screams and slowly realised they were her own. She was urgently telling those around her that she couldn’t feel her legs. Her extremely serious injuries meant she spent weeks in hospital coming to terms with her new reality. Whilst everyone around her was full of opinions and fury about what had happened to her, Grace’s reaction was entirely different.
In episode two Jane meets Tony, who in 2012 was convicted of stealing 1.75 million Euros in Ireland to feed an out-of-control gambling habit. He never told anyone about his addiction and lost his house, his job, his marriage and his freedom. When the auditors arrived on a Wednesday morning at the postal branch where he was the manager he went on the run, spending four days holed up in a hotel room ultimately deciding whether he would take his own life. Tony spent time in prison and went into rehab, he now works as an addiction counsellor.
Harriet is the subject of episode three. She grew up between the UK and Ethiopia where her father worked. She was eight in 1972 when she waved goodbye to her two older sisters as their flight took off from Addis Ababa airport – they were heading back home to school in England. The aircraft set off down the runway but shortly after one of the front tyres burst.
The plane lifted into the air briefly before crashing down and bursting into flames. In total 43 people died in the crash. Now a human rights consultant Harriet has recently decided to try and track down other survivors and relatives of the crash and find out how their lives were also changed in that moment.
In episode four Jane meets Keith aka Keith ‘y Glo’ or ‘Keith the coal’ who grew up in a small village in South Wales. Keith knew he was adopted from the age of 13 but didn’t look into his family history until he was in his 40s and expecting a grandchild. He eventually tracked down his birth mother and when he asked her about his birth father, she told him that Keith’s father had been a young Malaysian prince who had also been studying in London.
They had fallen in love and started a relationship but he was forced to return to Malaysia, where he later became one of the country’s nine Sultans. In another life Keith could have been royalty, but he reflects that he wouldn’t have had what he has now: a large family of his own in Wales and the strong relationship he was able to have with his birth mother”.
Even though she is no longer presenting Woman’s Hour (I included one of the new Woman’s Hour presenters, Emma Barnett, in this feature last week), it seems like Garvey is busier than ever! Although the pandemic ahs not been ideal for someone who, I suspect, prefers to be out and interviewing people at the BBC (in London), she has had to adapt. The Fortunately… podcast is closing in on its two-hundredth episode. I am not sure whether a special guest is booked…through I am sure something special has been planned. The one-hundredth episode featured the legendary Ken Bruce. Whilst the connection and friendship between Garvey and Glover is real and one of the reasons why the podcast is such a success, I wanted to single out Garvey for now (I may include Fi Glover in this feature soon), as she has enjoyed a long and rich broadcasting career. Not to take the spotlight too far away from Jane Garvey. In 2019, she and Fi Glover were interviewed by The Guardian - as part of a feature where they met the country’s most candid podcasters:
“Broadcasters Jane Garvey and Fi Glover are the co-hosts of Radio 4’s hit podcast Fortunately... Each week they share musings on their lives, from pet deaths and garden hose repairs to the trouble with HRT patches, before being joined by a radio, TV or podcast star such as political journalist Laura Kuenssberg or actor and comedian London Hughes. It’s like sitting in on a tipsy conversation in a BBC green room.
Radio 4 listeners will be familiar with both hosts – Garvey presents Women’s Hour and Glover The Listening Project – but the podcast is far more intimate than the station’s usual output, earning it a devoted fanbase.
What is the story of your friendship?
Jane: I knew of Fi for a while before we met. We both worked at 5 Live but I avoided her. I didn’t like her because I was quite jealous. I thought Fi was a bit of a metropolitan know-it-all. But I knew she was good.
Fi: Well, I’ve always loved and admired Jane. We worked in the same station but were at different ends of the day. Then we hosted the Radio Festival together in 2013. We just had such a laugh.
J: There’s a low bar set for women being funny, so I think the fact that we didn’t need scripts and were moderately amusing was enough to gain us a reputation as a pair of wisecracking broads. Eventually, we recorded a pilot.
What can you get away with on the podcast that you can’t on the radio?
F: Quite a lot actually. They’d never let us take the piss out of each other if we were doing the Today programme together.
J: Not much joshery on that show is there?
F: That’s the joy of podcasts. There’s a very clearly defined structure to a radio show. Podcasting zigs and zags all over the place, and I think that suits the way lots of women talk to their friends.
Did you expect the show to become so popular?
J: Yes, we were expecting massive success. Absolutely massive.
F: Come on, let’s leave it Jane.
J: OK, yes, sorry. To be perfectly honest, I’m angry that I didn’t spot the obvious gap in the market. We talk about serious things, but we also talk utter shit, as you do with your female friends down the pub. The fact that no one spotted that’s what women wanted – because for years, women had to put up with just men talking at them – is almost a failure of radio.
Who is your dream guest to have on the show?
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F: I’d do Debbie Harry.
J: Deborah, she prefers. I know because she was on Women’s Hour. I couldn’t speak, I was agog, one of the worst interviews of my life.
F: Was she worth it?
J: I don’t know, because I couldn’t think of a single thing to ask her. So yes, I could make amends for that terrible interview.
Do you show different personalities in the podcasts?
J: I’m substantially more restrained on the Hour. On the podcast we give away more of our real selves. Like that I’m a hopeless case, a nervous wreck, I’m riddled with anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, single.
You have become these unlikely role models…
J: Unlikely! Seems a bit harsh but OK, I really don’t mind. [To Fi] She’s younger than us, isn’t she?
F: I don’t think either of us would say we’re role models but we’re working women who have managed to produce families in various shapes and sizes. There’s nothing perfect about either of our lives – and perhaps that’s refreshing”.
With several different and must-hear podcasts to her name, she is reaching new audiences. Not only is Garvey one of the funniest broadcasters you will hear. She is compelling to listen to, and she is effortless and adept when interviewing a range of different people through different walks of life. Just before moving on, Garvey and Glover have written a book, Did I Say That Out Loud?: Notes on the Chuff of Life. Out on 30th September, it is one that you should buy and immerse yourself in:
“'Joyous, wise, reassuring and laugh-out-loud funny. I love these two women so much.' Elizabeth Day
Award-winning broadcasters Fi Glover and Jane Garvey don't claim to have all the answers (what was the question?), but in these hilarious and perceptive essays they take modern life by its elasticated waist and give it a brisk going over with a stiff brush.
They riff together on the chuff of life, from pet deaths to broadcasting hierarchies, via the importance of hair dye, the perils and pleasures of judging other women, and the perplexing overconfidence of chino-wearing middle-aged white men named Roger.
Did I Say That Out Loud? covers essential life skills (never buy an acrylic jumper, always decline the offer of a limoncello), ponders the prudence of orgasm merchandise and suggests the disconcerting possibility that Christmas is a hereditary disease, passed down the maternal line.
At a time of constant uncertainty, what we all need is the wisdom of two women who haven't got a clue what's going on either”.
Just to circle back to Woman’s Hour. I think Garvey’s time there was hugely successful. I tuned into the show. One of the reasons why I listened in was her presenting style – and, from there, I found the Fortunately… podcast. I want to bring in a feature from The Times, where Garvey explained her departure from Woman’s Hour:
“Woman’s Hour should devote more time to “real life” issues such as social care and accept that most listeners are not greatly interested in the trans debate, according to Jane Garvey, the outgoing presenter.
Garvey, 56, will anchor her last episode of the Radio 4 programme this month after 13 years in the chair. She said she was bored by celebrity interviews and beginning to lose enthusiasm after so long in the job, adding that the programme deserves “fresh voices”.
Woman’s Hour has attracted controversy in recent years with its coverage of transgender issues, with Dame Jenni Murray, her former co-presenter, prevented by the BBC from covering the topic after she breached impartiality rules by stating her personal view that trans women are not proper women.
Garvey told Radio 4’s Feedback that she had faced criticism from both sides of the debate, being accused of being anti-trans as well as anti-feminist. The average listener to Woman’s Hour cares much less about the transgender question and identity politics than activists do, she suggested. “Is this the issue that vexes our audience more than any other? Do they think of it as the most controversial or the most important thing we could be talking about? No, I honestly don’t think they do,” she said.
“If I’m thinking about a listener to Woman’s Hour I picture a woman in her early 60s, possibly still working, quite possibly still caring for her parents, whilst also caring for a grandchild a couple of days a week. I think there are thousands of those women. Without them, Britain would just buckle”.
I will wrap up in a minute. I have been a fan and follower of Jane Garvey for a while now. The broadcaster, writer and author is a radio legend whose podcasting career is giving her fresh outlets. I think the work she is doing now is among her very best. Check out Life Changing and, if you are new to Fortunately… with Fi and Jane, check it out ahead of the two-hundredth episode. Her partnership with Glover is a delight! Let’s hope that the two can take the podcast outside and return to the BBC piazza (or ‘pizza’, as they call it). Looking ahead, and this year is going to be busy for Garvey. Alongside her broadcasting and podcasting, there is the book promotion for Did I Say That Out Loud?: Notes on the Chuff of Life. Let’s hope that 2022 is a year where things are fully open and we can return to normal. At such a difficult time, Garvey’s work and dedication has helped so many people. I will leave things there. This feature normally zeroes on those working on radio. I think the ‘broadcaster’ term is quite broad. As a legendary radio presenter and hugely influential broadcaster, I felt compelled to salute Jane Garvey. She is certainly…
ONE of the absolute greats.