I was a Politics graduate Leeds University. 1978. Professor Ralph Miliband was my tutor and also Head of Department. David and Ed came in a couple of times. To fund my MSc course at University of Bradford, I managed to get a Research Assistant post with the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Combine Committee. Thousands of…
Read MoreVanessa Kirkpatrick describes her induction weeks
The Induction weeks I was to start on Granada Reports and would be shadowing Judy Finnigan – ‘my mother’ for the two weeks induction. My unassigned ‘brothers’ were the three amigos: superstar editors, Oral, Dave and Kim who adopted me on the recommendation of a mutual friend. Everything was a haze, maybe because I was…
Read More
Vanessa Kirkpatrick remembers working on Granada Reports
One of my first assignments on Granada Reports was covering a large demo about public sector low pay. Some of my new Manchester friends were extreme left – and there they were on Bury New Rd. with their banners, some emblazoned with accusations of right wing media bias! One of them spotted me and shouted…
Read MoreVanessa Kirkpatrick on the different programmes she worked on at Granada
Between 1982 and 1989, when I left temporarily, I had worked on a whole swathe of regional and network programmes as a researcher/reporter. Granada Reports; This Is Your Right; A Place to Live – whereunder the energetic and scrupulous eye of Jack Smith (Head of Schools programming), we roamed North Manchester industrial estates for rare…
Read MoreVanessa Kirkpatrick on racism, sex and ‘Blond Blue Eyed Girls’
The first week of my induction at Granada wasn’t especially welcoming. After one of my first news conferences, a senior journalist frenziedly wheeled their chair to my desk (Hamilton couldn’t have done it faster) and whispered in my ear ‘you do know don’t you that you’ve only been taken on because you’re black.’ – then…
Read MoreVanessa Kirkpatrick on heart-stopping moments – and camaraderie
It was the Granada canteen that introduced me to the irresistible but heart disease inducing cheese and onion pie. The canteen filled me with trepidation but you could star gaze – and create opportunities. It was a bit like speed dating. It was supposed to be rest time for an hour or so but it…
Read MoreVanessa Kirkpatrick talks about Marjorie Giles, her mentor
Working for the gorgeous, sexy, sensational, witty ,bright eyed, intelligent, terribly posh and motivational producer Marjorie Giles, This Is Your Right(TIYR). Journalists and ‘serious researchers’ were very condescending to researchers who worked on TIYR. We had been cast into the wilderness of ‘programme making on pitiful budgets.’ But Marjorie didn’t care. She nurtured us,…
Read More