“I was asked to do BBC Breakfast News and I love it, as I get to go out on location, meet so many people and show off our beautiful country. “You have to earn your colours before moving up to the most prestigious spots,” she explains. Since then, the Met Office may have fallen from BBC favour – losing its contract with the Corporation after 93 years in 2015 – but Carol has gone from strength to strength, presenting an array of major bulletins on BBC Radio and TV. I learnt all the basics – what a weather front is, how to read pressure charts, how and why the oceans influence our weather, and so on.” So, when I rejoined, they sent me off to study meteorology. “In those days you couldn’t be a BBC weather presenter without Met Office qualifications. The Weather Channel folded within two years, but for Carol the BBC beckoned once again. You’ve got the green screen behind you – which requires a lot of simulation, as you can’t see the graphics that the viewers are watching – and you have no script. “I fell in love with the weather on the spot!” she says emphatically. In 1996, Carol went for interview at ITV for The Weather Channel, which was about to set up in the UK. Thanks to that lovely lady, I gave a good show and got the job.” ![]() As a result, I didn’t give my own nerves a second thought. “I was lined up with another lady who was so worked up with nerves that calming her down became my main concern. I didn’t give my own nerves a second thought and got the job” “I was lined up for my first presenting job with another lady who was so worked up with nerves that calming her down became my main concern. During my production days I’d had some experience on radio, so I went to audition. “She told me there were plenty of aspiring presenters, but that they weren’t able to talk live confidently and to time. For a while she worked in recruitment and management consultancy, before an old BBC friend asked if she still fancied being a presenter, as there was a role going in the training team. I ended up becoming a BBC secretary instead, before moving into production as an assistant.”Ĭarol left the BBC when she married her now ex-husband, Jimmy Kirkwood, a successful entrepreneur whose work took them across the country. ![]() “When I got to the age at which I was eligible to apply to Blue Peter though, I had become far too shy. So, after boarding school, Carol enrolled at Napier University in Edinburgh. They kindly replied to say that I was too young, but that I should go back to them with a degree.” So, when I was 12, I wrote to Blue Peter asking if I could come and be a presenter. “But my interest in weather was accidental it wasn’t something that I set out to pursue. ![]() We have tropical trees, plus the shortest fresh water river and the deepest loch in Europe. “The movie Local Hero, with Burt Lancaster, was filmed up there. “The area is stunningly beautiful,” she enthuses. In fact, however, Carol’s career owes nothing to these unusual climatic roots. Washed by the warming seas of the Gulf Stream that travel up from the Caribbean, Morar – famed for its silver sandy beaches – enjoys much milder temperatures than the rest of Scotland. Born in 1962, in the small North-West Scottish village of Morar, the young Carol MacKellaig grew up in a rare microclimate. One is tempted – if you’ll forgive the amateur psychology – to put it down to her childhood. “I love the weather and the fact that no two days are ever the same.” “I love my job,” she says happily, down the line from her Maidenhead home where she has lived for some 20 years. Little wonder that she has captured the nation’s heart. As the weather anchor on BBC Breakfastand The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Radio 2, it’s Carol who greets us each morning, steering us through tempest, storm and wind with her disarmingly sunny smile. The Scottish vowels of Carol Kirkwood, the nation’s favourite forecaster, ring out with their usual good cheer. Here she tells Emily Horton about pressure charts, early starts and dancing days Windsor, Ascot & Maidenhead Magazine December 2016Ĭarol Kirkwood is the BBC’s first lady of weather.
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