Angela Rippon | 60 Years on Screen & Why Dance Could Change Your Life | Extraordinary Life Stories

0:00This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more.

0:42Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Who is Angela Rippon? Angela Rippon is a journalist broadcaster who has been working in radio and television now for 60 years. I meet people do things and go to places that most people would give their right arms for and I love every minute of it. My first story was about the regeneration of the oyster beds in the Tamer Valley.

1:20I still have not just the contract but also the script. I've been in the Royal Variety performance a couple of times because of Morecambe and Wise which I did back in the 70s. It's become like a party trick. After I did More Cool and Wise, you can't believe the number of times I was asked if I would do pantomime and be principal boy. You know, it's not just the love of dancing, it's the expression, it's the health benefits, isn't it? Surely dance should be compulsory in school. Barely 10 % of the schools in country now do any kind of physical activity, let alone dance, but it is in the curriculum.

1:50They don't do it. It reduces the amount of disruption you get in classrooms it stops bullying it has a knock-on effect on the academic subjects that they do because their brains are attuned at 79 being able to say yes strictly because you were fit enough I want to open that up oh yeah I was fit enough yes but that takes effort I want to know what what you've been doing and what you do what works for you do have a morning routine yeah I do

2:27sorry to interrupt i've never asked this before but if you can subscribe and follow that will allow me to keep bringing extraordinary guests onto the show now let's get back to it

2:39i have been so looking for it i feel so privileged to be able to have this conversation with you i feel like my grandma who's sadly not no longer with us would be like gosh it's angela my parents and her same for me. So thank you for joining me. It's my pleasure. Well, thank you for asking me. Who is Angela Rippon? Angela Rippon is a journalist broadcaster who has been working in radio and television now for 60 years, mostly in news and current affairs, but also in light entertainment, in all kinds of programming and having covered major, major outside broadcasts as well for mainly British television, but also American and Australian television.

3:21Over 60 years. Still so relevant, still current and still a real twinkle in your eye. And the thing is, I know it's exactly 60 years on September the 5th this year, 1960. It was 1966. So 2026. It's exactly 60 years to that day because I'm a bit of a hoarder and I kept the contract and my contract states precisely how much I was paid for what and I still have the script that went with it and I was paid the grand sum of£6.10 shillings for my very first appearance on BBC television. And what was that? The context for me, letting anyone watching, listening. I was coming towards the end of my apprenticeship.

4:06I wanted to be a photojournalist, so I'd been taking photographs since I was about six. And I'd done two years in photography with one of the local papers, the daily and the evening paper, the Western Morning News and Evening Herald. And then I went to the Sunday paper, which had two regional papers as well, to do my three-year apprenticeship in journalism. And yeah, that was, it was while I was doing that, because I was taking pictures and my stories were appearing in the newspapers, that the controller of the BBC in the Southwest at that time who was a wonderful broadcaster called Tom Salmon had the most wonderful I mean he had a voice that he was born with for broadcasting it was just brilliant and he rang me up and said I like what you write and you take pictures as well would you like to come up and see us at Seymour Road in Plymouth which is where the BBC station still is the building is still there in a big private house and I went they asked me to do a bit of an audition and afterwards he said would would you like to come and work for us?

5:08And I couldn't because I still had six months on my apprenticeship. Of course, I couldn't leave until I'd finished and got all my accreditations. And he said, well, come and work for us on your day off, which was Wednesday. And my first story was about the regeneration of the oyster beds in the Tamer Valley, which separates Devon and Cornwall, opposite the banks of Salt Ash, which are on the Cornish side. and it was, there was a fisherman who was going to try and reintroduce oysters and grow them in the river Tamer and that was my first story and I still have the, I still have not just the contract but also the script.

5:47Sad person that I was. No, not at all and I love the fact that you still remember that and articulate it so beautifully. You know, there's an alertness to you, if you like, that just, you know, it's inspiring, you know, the longevity piece to you, you know, what keeps you fired up you know you just seem to love what you do well that precisely i do love what i do i mean i'm for whatever reason having wanted to be a photojournalist take pictures write stories i've ended up in television which i obviously had no intention of doing originally which is the ultimate in photojournalism and i love what i do i i mean i can paraphrase it very easily because I say this so often.

6:28I meet people, do things and go to places that most people would give their right arms for. And I love every minute of it. And I love the variety of it. I love the opportunities I've been given that have ranged from covering major royal events, massive outside broadcasts, working abroad, making programs that we now call reality television, doing the original come dancing before strictly come dancing I mean when I look at the sort of programs that I've done mostly news and current affairs that's been the bedrock of everything that I've done being a journalist but other things have come from that and I've I suppose I've often thought that I don't want to die with the words if only on my lips and so when someone says and what do you think would you like you should do so and so I can immediately make a judgment and think, actually, no, I wouldn't be any good at that or whatever.

7:22Or what a challenge. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. I'd love to have a go at that. And if it works, that's great. And if it doesn't, you learn from it and move on to the next challenge. And that's what it's been for 60 years. There's been no, I mean, I know people in broadcasting who have very clearly defined career progression, if you like, usually ending up by being on the greasy pole to, you know, some kind of senior administrative job. Never had that. When I was in the early days, when I was working for Westford Television in the West Country, and I was editor of women and children's programs and my own current affairs program.

8:00So I was an executive producer as well as presenter and everything else. I was moving in that sort of direction. And I thought, I'm spending too much time behind the camera as a director as well not enough in front of it and there was this advert in broadcast which is the the magazine for um journalists and it said there's a vacancy for a reporter at television news and so I applied for it and got it and moved up to London there's so much there to learn from the whole like you've got to put yourself in the frame you've got to you've got to back yourself I know what you're good at and Actually, be honest with yourself, I think.

8:42There are things that I know I can't do, things that I know I could be better at. And so, yes, let's have a go at it and see if it works. But there are other things which really are a challenge. And I think, yeah, I'd love to have a go at that. Let's do it. That's where growth comes from, isn't it? It does. This was a challenge for me. It was something new. It was a pivot, which is why it's an absolute pleasure and inspiration to be able to talk to someone who's such a pro in what you do. But the growth... You get it wrong at times, mind you. I have got it wrong, but yeah. you've done. I mean, this isn't even live, right?

9:12So we can, I can make a mess up of something and then re-record it, what have you. Whereas, you know, you were live for so much of what you've done. Did you thrive from that? Oh, I know. If you've ever blasted synth beats from your boom box or burn CDs for your besties, this one's for you. As people get older, much like their music tastes, their health needs change. AG1 is the simple daily health drink designed to deliver over 75 essential daily nutrients in pre and probiotics to support energy, digestion, and mood. So you can make the most out of every decade and dance break. Learn more at drinkag1.com.

9:50Love doing live. Love doing live. I mean, I've done lots of it. The programs that I was doing at the BBC were live, apart from when I started to do the documentaries in the region, obviously. Then when I went to Westwood Television, the programs that I was doing were live. I was editor of women's and children's programmes and I presented them as well. They were live. And every week we had something called Westwood Report. It was Westwood Television based in Plymouth. And I was one of three producer, director, presenters on that. So every third week I was doing a major 45 minute late night on a Friday news and current affairs live programme.

10:35um so I mean it was just a joy to learn my craft if you like as as a broadcaster communicating um and remembering and as I have done for 60 years what my father said to me after my very very first broadcast when I got home after doing the salt ice oysters and said to my parents well what do you think of that and my dad said it was it was all right sweetie but you didn't look a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights. And I said, well, you know, Daddy, I've been a journalist now. I have a byline, but nobody knows who the heck I am. And suddenly I am doing my job in front of however many thousands of people.

11:16And still so young. Yeah. And my dad said, my father, who was a Royal Marine engineer, no broadcast experience whatsoever. But my dad, all the way back 60 years ago, said, well, the next time you go in the studio, when you look at the camera, he said, talk to me, tell me the story. And that's what I've been doing for 60 years. And when you think about it, Terry Wogan, a great broadcaster, when he was doing his radio program, was always referred to listener. He talked to his listener in the singular. Because when you think about it, that's, I mean, it's you and me having a conversation. And a program could be, it might have been watched by a family in the early days, but these days people tend to listen to the radio or watch television on their own.

12:04You know, there's televisions all over the house, you know, the kids are watching one thing, the husband's watching something, the wife is watching something else. I can only think currently of two programs where people either sit together in a room or are on WhatsApp collectively all over the country together watching something collaboratively and that's strictly come dancing and traitors apart from that you're talking to one person at the time i had them both in my head i was wondering if you're going to say clarkson's farm as well but that's a streaming one that's a streaming which means but it's amazing how that brings a family you're absolutely right traitors at that moment that's what people are doing all over the country and you know when i was doing in the early days when i was doing television particularly when i started reading the nine o 'clock news you know families would sit down and watch the news in those days collaboratively, which is why we had anything between eight and 11 million people watching the news, which, you know, if you get three million watching now, you're lucky.

13:01You're right. But to use that as 11 million people and you overthought that as someone in your younger years, how intimidating is that to have your dad's voice? Yeah. Just think of me. Just think of me. And that personalizes it. And it's beautiful. And how lovely that I know from all sorts of things I've listened to, watched and read about you before we we speak today that one of the hardest things you've gone through was your father dying and the circumstances of that but actually there's a there's a longevity to you person there's a longevity to your father's relationship with you that actually you're talking to him not not necessarily right now but in context of when you are talking to a camera yeah i remember when i was i used to work on the the bbc's holiday program they used to send me off to do some wonderful things i mean i've done you know traveled the world for them and done some amazing things, like, I suppose, outstandingly diving with great white sharks, and then two weeks later, being in the Arctic Circle, diving with killer whales.

13:59I mean, wonderful things I've done with them. But I remember when I was in South Africa, and they came up with the idea of asking me to wrap down the front of Table Mountain, not abseil down, which is relatively easy, you know, you just bounce off the face of the mountain, but to do what the SAS and the Royal Marines do, which is wrap, which is you stand on the edge and you go down and then you go down, you know, at 90 degrees. And I had no chance to try it and see if I could do it. No test run. No, no, no test run. No test run at all. So they put me in the harness and said, this is what you do.

14:34You know, you just lean over and when you feel comfortable, you just start to go down. So and I do remember then in my head saying, all right, Dad, you must have done this. Here we go. I mean, you don't mind a challenge, do you? I mean, Top Gear, all these different programs that have given you exposure to learn so much. Your brain must be an absolute feast of knowledge taken from all sorts of things. I didn't even know about that experience. No, it's a sort of rag bag of stuff up there. There's all sorts of things going on. Is there a favorite thing you've done? It's a bit of an unfair question because you've done so much.

15:08Oh, lots of them. I mean, loads and loads and loads. But the thing that I suppose most recently that I've done that I absolutely adored was doing Strictly Come Dancing. It was a joy to do it because I was sent to dance classes when I was five years old because I had mock knees. And in those days, you know, the family doctor said, built up shoes or dance class. And fortunately, my mother said dance class. And I've loved dancing just for the joy of it all my life. And to get to work, to work on Come Dancing, as I did, of course, which was wonderful to be surrounded by live music and dancers and all of that.

15:47I loved it in the middle of being a news reader at the same time. It was wonderful, yin and yang. So to be asked when I was 79 if I would do Strictly when I originally said no because I thought it was too old. You originally said no. Oh, I said no. They only asked me when I was 79. I mean, it was on for years. And my original my original answer was no I'm a I'm too old and b why didn't you ask me you know 10 years ago I'm too old I'm 79 um and I I find and again I thought don't want to die if only that would have been a regret I'm gonna it'll be a regret but please please please I hope that I don't get thrown out on the first week you know as long as I don't as long as I can survive the first week that's fine.

16:34And as luck would have it, I had the most wonderful partner in Kai Whittington, who's remained a great friend, a great dancer himself, great teacher, but just a wonderful human being. And he and I just, as you do sometimes, just clicked. We laughed a lot when we first met. We still laugh a lot when we meet each other. And he was just a wonderful teacher and partner. And we got through wonderfully. We sort of closed the circle because we ended up in Blackpool. And it was in many, many respects, just such enormous fun. I mean, I would do it again if they'd let me do it. You can tell. But one thing that hasn't stopped is your love of dancing.

17:15And I know when we met a few weeks ago and that came into the conversation, and I want to open up what, not just your love of dancing, but what you're doing to try and amplify and ripple that out, because it's got, it's not, you know, it's not just the love of dancing, it's the expression, it's the health benefits isn't it I mean it was again strictly that really sort of triggered this because I've danced all my life one way or another or been involved with dance not not professionally I've never danced for oh yes I did sort of um yes sort of once just one I've been in the Royal Variety Performance a couple of times because of Morecambe and Wise which I did back in the 70s it's become like a party trick um but I did take six weeks off and do something that was a complete off the wall and appeared in a musical.

18:03I mean, I'd had, after I did The Morecambe and Wise, you can't believe the number of times I was asked if I would do Pantomime and be Principal Boy, to which I said no every time. And then in the sort of late 80s, Bill Deamer, a choreographer and a friend of his who's a producer, they were doing a national tour of the musical Anything Goes. And they said, would I play the mother? And I thought, it's only six weeks. I've never done this before. Wouldn't that be fun? So I said, yes. And so I played the mother in that and there was dancing in it. And Bill gave me, and I was not only taking part in the group routines, but he gave me a solo in one of the tap routines, which was great.

18:46So that's the only time I've actually danced and been paid for it, doing it professionally. But no, I've loved it always. And I've been involved with dance through English National Ballet, Royal Ballet, Royal Academy of Dance, all sorts of dance organisations over the years. And when I did Strictly, and I had so many amazing comments from people, mainly from older people, saying that I'd inspired them at 79, if I could do that, why didn't they have a go at it. And I heard Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, talking on radio about how we could all help the NHS by taking more responsibility for our own health.

19:24And he said, we should all do things that keep us fit and active. So play football, go on a park run, go dancing, he said. And I was about to be interviewed on the Today programme immediately after him. And I thought, what a great idea. So when I started my interview, I said, I don't know if Chris Whitty is still listening, but here's one pensioner who thinks that she'd like to take him up on that. And so I rang him afterwards and said, look, if I can get the nation to think in terms of dance being what it is, which is without question, and all the research proves it, the best form of exercise you can do collaboratively for your mind and your body.

20:05There's no other form of exercise that makes your mind and your body work together in the way that dance does because you release things like dopamine and endorphins and serotonin and all of those feel-good factors. You may come out of a gym covered in sweat after you've been on a cross train of half an hour, but you don't come out with a grin on your face saying that was fun but you do come out of a dance class feeling like that so anyway I got in touch with all the dance organizations that I knew all the big ballet companies all the big dance companies and all the individual dance companies like the Royal Academy of Dance the National Association of Dance Teachers Imperial Society all of them and said look you all do brilliant things in silos individually if I can bring you together in one organization, not a charity, but a project that we call Let's Dance and work collaboratively to try and get the message out that dance is the best exercise you can do if you don't want to go to the gym or do a park run or whatever.

21:05And it doesn't matter about your age because you can do it when you're three, you can do it when you're 90. And it's a great way of making an investment in your wellbeing pension plan because if you take up dance at whatever age, You could still be doing it when you're older and you will have built up all that wonderful core strength and balance and coordination, which will carry you through. To expression as well, isn't it? There's a social element there. So a lot of people, particularly in the world growing up with social media, which is actually quite antisocial. So it puts people together.

21:37It gets people to express themselves and come out of their shell. Isolation and loneliness, two of the curses of the 21st century. and a dance class eliminates that. You know, you laugh together. Nobody will judge you. You're not trying to win the glitter ball. It doesn't matter if you haven't got any technique. You just go to do it and enjoy it and be supported by the other people in the class. Make new friends, have fun and you're never going to be isolated and lonely if you go to dance. So we started that. It's now been running for two years and the great thing is not only do we have a National Day of Dance every year where we, again, get the message out and more people think, all right, I'll have a go at that.

22:17And even if only a quarter of them, after having tried it once, decide to go to a class, that's still more people dancing. But the great thing that's come out of it, which has been terrific, is I got the backing of the NHS. I went to the NHS and said, look, dance really does help people with serious medical conditions and I gave them lots of examples and they said all right we will we will back you so I can now say you know we've got NHS backing on this so I now work with various hospitals and just started working with the Royal Marsden for instance which is the great cancer hospital doing stuff for cancer patients in bed if you're in bed for a long time your muscles will atrophy you know you get out of bed and your balance is probably gone you're not strong so Scottish Ballet years ago started doing something called Bedside Ballet in three big hospitals in Scotland I got them to give the teachers that I had working with me to take that build a program out of it and we now do it in various hospitals all over the country but we're certainly doing it now in the Royal Marsden and also when you look at the research that's being done into dance and the way that it helps medical conditions Parkinson's I've been doing some amazing work with Arlene Phillips, the English National Ballet, who have been looking after Parkinson's patients for 15 years, because it is core strength, it's balance, it's coordination.

23:47And the woman who is the chief executive of Parkinson's UK, Caroline Russell, she always refers to dance as being the miracle. It's not a cure, because of what it does. If you've ever met anyone with Parkinson's, they're very often uncontrolled, and their gait changes, their balance is altered. They don't have the same control over their bodies. When they start to go to dance classes, not all, but a good 80 % of people who have Parkinson's, and especially those in the early stages of Parkinson's, because you are building all of that strength, that balance, that coordination, and most importantly, taking back control of your body, what that does to you psychologically is extraordinary.

24:33I mean, we just did a thing in March with Arlene where she choreographed a special piece for the Parkinson's dancers with English National Ballet. And they have classes all over the country. Now, I mean, we're not just talking about London. The joy that it brought, I mean, it was just extraordinary. And you cannot believe how wonderful it is to watch when you're talking to them. Perhaps they have a bit of a shake, You know, they shuffle a slight bit, but then the music starts. And we have one dancer, Colin, whose right hand never stops shaking. But the left hand, when the music starts and he begins to dance, this one may shake, but this one performs.

25:17And you get quite, I get quite emotional thinking about it. It's wonderful. I'm passionate about it. It works. people who have mental health problems and lord knows we're in an epidemic of mental health at the moment for all sorts of reasons which i won't go into but so we want to get more dance into schools because it reduces um all sorts of things among school kids this is where i was going to go with it why on earth is it not being brought in so just listening to you now the the the advocacy for dance is that and we were at lord sebco's talk at the csj a few weeks ago precisely uh PE's being phased out of school, less kids are playing sport and they're just listening to you now.

25:56And everything that goes downstream from school, mental health challenges that develop into all sorts of things. PTSD, MEEPS. Surely dance should be compulsory in school. It is. But you look at schools across the country, barely 10 % of the schools in country now do any kind of physical activity, let alone dance. but it is in the curriculum. They don't do it. So I'm working hard at the moment with Simon Ofer, who is the MP and chair of the APPG, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Health and Welfare. The new APPG on dance has been started, and it has two members of the House of Commons who are co-chairs with a member of the House of Lords.

26:45And we're hoping to have a major roundtable in the autumn when they get back after the summer break to talk specifically about getting dance back into schools because I can't tell you the amount of research that exists. You know, when people say, well, prove it. Well, I mean, I could produce a booklet this thick, which has got research references in it to the way that dance, arts in general, singing, the poetry, drama, painting, pottery, all the arts in general, but dance in particular, it reduces the amount of disruption you get in classrooms. It stops bullying. It reduces the number of children who get excluded because they start to work as a team.

27:31They understand about teamwork. It really does make a difference to the way that they absorb information because they have to remember about what the routine is, work to the music, make their brains react to the beat of the music and because they're retaining information they do it and they keep it longer they they it stay they they accept the information and they retain it not just in dance but in all the other academic subjects that they do suddenly their brains building a habit latch on it becomes a habit and in all the schools and I'm thinking of a couple that I've been to um a absolutely amazing schools where they have fabulous dance that goes you know right through from primary right the way through to senior.

28:15It has a knock-on effect on the academic subjects that they do, like English and maths and history and geography, because their brains are attuned and disciplined to listening to and absorbing information, retaining it, and then being able to use it when they take their exams. And I mean, there are lots of schools that do it in primary, but you can carry that on if you've then got children, less children being bullied, more children having a discipline in their life, doing something that gives them self-expression. I filmed at one school in the southeast, which is a part of a group of three independent primary schools.