Performer
Scott, Selina
Category: Performer
Selina Mary Scott (born 13 May 1951) is an English television presenter, who was a major figure in the launch of breakfast TV in the UK.
Scott first came to public notice as a newsreader on ITV’s News at Ten during the Falklands War, and then became a presenter on the BBC's Breakfast Time programme with Frank Bough and Nick Ross in 1983. In the U.S., she worked on a current affairs programme for CBS, before joining Rupert Murdoch's satellite channel Sky.
In 2003, she moved from Perthshire, Scotland, to her native North Yorkshire, after buying a 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm near Ampleforth to accommodate her 27 Angora goats. The fleeces are washed, spun and dyed, producing mohair wool for her farm business.
The wool is used to create socks for the gun makers James Purdey and Sons, and she has her own company designing and creating socks. In Spring 2007, Kingfisher Productions hired Scott to co-host Tales from the Countryside. The first series showed Scott's own working farm and her herd of Angoras being shorn through to the eventual production of the socks. A second series was commissioned and shown in spring 2008 featuring rural stories.
Selina is very much involved in Animal Rescue and charity work for animals. In 2007, for example, Scott appeared as one of the dog handlers on the BBC Two dog trials series The Underdog Show, screened to highlight the Dogs Trust Charity for rescued dogs. In the same year she also presented the BBC's Animal Rescue Live Show daily from Battersea Dog's Home in central London, co-hosting with Matt Baker. Running daily for three weeks, the programme highlighted the plight of many animals at the home appealing to the public to consider re-homing.
Selina is also a very active campaigner against ‘ageism’, and took the decision in August 2008, to sue Five, a UK television station, for age discrimination. She claimed Five reneged on an agreement for her to cover Natasha Kaplinsky's maternity leave because she was "too old". On 5 December 2008 she won, with Five issuing a public apology. In April 2009, Scott wrote a two-piece article for the Daily Mail documenting her experience of ageism. Following her successful claim, Scott became a vocal lobbyist for the cause. Age UK and Equal Justice, a legal firm, commissioned Scott to compile a report investigating the employment of women over 50 years old at the BBC. The report was finally delivered to Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust and Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture and Media Secretary in April 2010. In summary the report accuses the BBC of institutional ageism against older women.
Selina “ refuses to discuss most aspects of her private life and her marital status is unknown. She has two dogs: Nip, a female collie cross and Kiki, a German shepherd she rescued from Majorca. Leisure pursuits include angling, countryside walking, wildlife conservation and countryside management.”
Why is she on the site?
In July 2015, Scott revealed during BBC Radio 4's One to One programme, while presenting a three-part series on the topic of ghosts and spirits, that she herself believes in ghosts, saying of one interviewee that he "came to see me in my north Yorkshire farmhouse, where I have a suspicion that I too have a ghost." In the first episode, Scott told her own ghost story, featuring her pet dogs.
"I used to leave them in my kitchen here at night time and go to bed, and they hated it, and would cry and howl and all the rest of it." One morning they had scratched at the doors to get out and one dog had blood on its mouth. "So I'm beginning to think that maybe in this part of the house, which is the oldest part of the house, there is something..."
The observations provide links to these interviews.
References
Selina Scott’s autobiography is called A Long Walk in the High Hills: The Story of a House, a Dog and a Spanish Island.
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.