Selina Scott

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Selina Scott

Selina on the ITV News Channel, celebrating 50 years of ITV.
Born Selina Scott
13 May 1951 (1951-05-13) (age 57)
Scarborough, Yorkshire,England
Nationality British
Occupation newsreader, television presenter.
Known for News at Ten, Breakfast Time, The Clothes Show

Selina Scott (b. 13 May 1951 in Scarborough, Yorkshire) is a British newsreader and television presenter.

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[edit] Early life

Her father was a police sergeant and she was educated in her teen years at the Laurence Jackson School in Guisborough, North Yorkshire where she was head girl, she then continued her education at the University of East Anglia, reading English Literature.

[edit] Career

Initially resisting the temptation to continue a family trait working in journalism Scott succumbed and went to work on the Sunday Post in Dundee, Scotland for 2 years. She then took up the post of Press officer for the Tourist board on the Isle of Bute. She then began broadcasting as a continuity announcer with Grampian TV in 1978 and progressing to Grampian Today, presenting from a North Sea oil platform and at the summit of Cairn Gorm. (A common story among rig-workers was that the unwashed bed-linen from her cabin was auctioned amongt the crew). She later was one of the launch team for North Tonight.

By 1980 aged 29, Scott progressed to national television; appearing first as a newsreader on ITV's News at Ten. She then went on to launch Breakfast Television in the UK joining the BBC's Breakfast Time programme in January 1983. She presented the show with Frank Bough and Nick Ross. Ironically, Scott had been hired by ITN to replace Anna Ford who had defected to launch ITV's Breakfast Television channel TV-am. Before TV-am began broadcasting in February 1983, Scott had already quit ITN to launch the BBC's rival show. She later went on to present The Clothes Show, and to be guest host on the chat show, Wogan (named for its regular host Terry Wogan).

1988 saw Scott cross the Atlantic to join the US channel CBS hosting a current affairs programme - West 57th.

Back in the UK she joined Rupert Murdoch's satellite channel Sky, co-anchoring its 1992 election night coverage with Sir David Frost.

Scott has also produced documentaries across two decades on the Royal Heads of Europe including A Prince Among Islands, a profile of Prince Charles, a film with King Juan Carlos of Spain (which achieved record viewing figures for a documentary in Spain) and The Return of the King, which involved traveling with King Constantine of Greece after 25 years of exile.

By 1995 in the US she had her own chat show on NBC. By 1997 she was back in the UK signing a contract said to be worth £1 million with Sky. She anchored the breakfast programme, later switching to the 5pm news. Latterly she had her own chat show but this was halted after 8 weeks.

In 2001 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, creating socks for the gun makers Purdey, growing into her own company designing and creating socks - Selina Scott Country Socks.

October 2006 saw a new departure as Scott was chosen to launch the new season's fashion campaign for Country Casuals, or CC as it is now known, part of the Austin Reed clothing group previously occupied by the model, Erin O'Connor.

In 2007, Scott appeared as one of the dog handlers on the BBC-2 dog trials series The Underdog Show screened to highlight the Dogs Trust Charity for rescued dogs. After six weeks of competition, she was voted winner, beating singer Huey Morgan and actress Julia Sawalha in the final.

July 2007 - Scott fronted the BBC's Animal Rescue Live Show daily from Battersea Dog's Home in central London, co-hosting with presenter Matt Baker. Scheduled to run daily for three weeks, the programme highlights the plight of many animals at the home appealing to the public to consider re-homing. Daily appearances by celebrity rescuers helped boost the programme as well as showcasing other rescue centres around the British Isles.

[edit] Personal

Scott is from a family of journalists: her mother Betty was and her grandfather was editor of the local newspaper in Malton, North Yorkshire. She is the eldest of five children; she has a younger sister, Fiona, an artist, who has exhibited at the Royal National Portait Gallery in London summer 2007 with a portrait of her famous sister. Scott bought it.

She has been linked with various names including Prince Andrew but she has always been single and has no children[1][2]. Scott is a dog lover; her first memory of her first pet is that of Toby, a male German shepherd cross. She has two dogs, one of which is Nip, a female collie cross and Kiki, a German shepherd she rescued from Majorca.

Her grandparents came from Aberdeen, Scotland.

Scott has a home on the island of Majorca near to the Tramuntana mountains.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Scott was the subject of Dundee band Saint Andrew and the Woollen Mill's 1980 song Selina, on the album The Woollen Mill Story. According to interview excerpts included on this album, the song was written by the band after learning that Scott was to leave North Tonight to take up a position with the UK independent national news network ITN.
  • Selina Scott is working on a television documentary on the history of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
  • Selina Scott was mentioned in British comedienne Victoria Wood's song "Count Your Blessings" and was described as being "permanently knackered". The song is on YouTube.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Times 13 Jan 2007
  2. ^ Interview in The Observer 27 August 2006

[edit] External links