Philippa Hall

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Ihad a very free, rural, outdoorsyupbringing on my parents’ farmin south Leicestershire. I waslucky. I did what I wanted. Iwent where I wanted to go. I

made dens in haystacks with mybrother. We climbed trees. We ran infields and I made mud pies with mybest friend, Polly.

I return to Leicestershire a lot. Myfriend Polly – of infant mud pie fame –gets married in March next year. I’mher bridesmaid. We’ve been bestfriends since childhood.

It’s the seventh time I’ve been abridesmaid. My life... it’s a bit like thatmovie 27 Dresses.

I went to Great Glen Prep School andthen I went to a boarding school inHertfordshire from the age of 11 to 18.I’m not a typical boarding-school-posh-girl, though.

I settled in quite quickly. My eldersister was there, which obviouslyhelped, but I also played a lot ofhockey, which helped, too. I shatteredthe middle finger of my right hand in ahockey game, which was excruciating.

Academically, I was quite strong. Iexcelled in all of my lessons – oh dear,that sounds bad doesn’t it? I wasstronger in science and maths, I guess,a bit weaker at essay writing.

I passed 12 GCSEs and three A-levels.I took A-level English against every-one’s advice. They thought I would bebetter to take science subjects

I was predicted ABB. I got BBC. Ibuggered up a bit. By this time, though,I knew I wanted to do something in themedia. I just didn’t know what.

I did theatre at Royal Holloway Uni,near Ascot, and spent a year inAustralia as part of the course, where Idid a lot of journalism. I did a post-gradDiploma in broadcast journalismin 2004/05 at the University ofWestminster.

I came back to Leicestershire afteruni and lived with my parents on thefarm. I know some students can findthat a bit difficult, moving back in withtheir mum and dad, but I loved it.

They’re good people, very laid-back. Itreally wasn’t an issue.

They run the farm, but there’s alsothe family business, HJ Hall, a hosieryfirm that makes socks. It was in thenews recently, for bringing productionback to Hinckley from Turkey.

We have made socks for 130 years. Ilove being part of something that hasbeen going for so long. That makes mefeel proud.

I got a placement with RadioLeicester after I returned home andthen I moved on to BBC Coventry andWarwickshire. I freelanced there for 10months. Things were going well. I wasenjoying it. It was a great experience –and then I risked it all by quitting andgoing into PR.

The Blades were an aviation aerobat-ic display team. They’d just formed andthey wanted help with publicity andsomeone I knew recommended me.

They took a gamble on me. I took agamble on them. But it worked. It was agreat job, I learned so much about PRand how it works and exactly whatjournalists want and how I could get asmuch publicity for them on TV and innewspapers.

A year later, I handed in my notice. Idesperately wanted to be a journalist,and it wasn’t going to happen if I was

There have

COUNTRY LIFE: Philippa loved growing up on the family farm in south Leicestershire

Here’slooking atyou, kid

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Philippa Hall,31, Sky NewsTV anchor

doing PR for an aerobatic display team.It was a huge risk. I had nothing linedup. I think what finally persuaded meto make the jump was the day I wasdriving home from work and listeningto Radio 1 and the guy reading thenews was someone I had worked withat BBC Coventry and Warwickshire andI thought: ‘I’m as good as him – whyam I not doing that?’

I went back to doing freelance workon local radio, but looking constantlyfor a break in London. I started free-lancing for Sky in 2008. I dideverything; reading the bulletins,reporting, producing. It was great funand gave me an understanding of howeverything works on a TV news station.

It was a huge jump, though. I’d donemy time on local radio so I had a goodbackground in journalism, but it took awhile for it all to slot into place.

I’ve been at Sky now since 2008 andI’ve been a news presenter sinceSeptember 2009.

Which stories do I remember? Ohmy, there are so many. I remembercoming into work as the news came inthat Raoul Moat was on the run afterkilling his girlfriend and shooting apoliceman. That was a memorablestory to follow. I remember I came inon a nightshift and they’d tracked himdown and were closing in on him whenI came on air.

What do we do from there? Well,we just tell the story as best as wecan. We put the pieces of the jigsawtogether.

The Moat story is the perfect exampleof that. A number of correspondents,different angles developing all the time.It was the kind of story where the storycan change every 20 minutes and fly offin a completely different direction. It’smy job to piece all that together in thestudio, ask the right questions, keep itgoing, just do your job, basically.

There were some hairy moments inthe early weeks and months.

You have to remain calm and alwaysbe ready to ask the next question –because there’s always another

question, always something else youcan ask. You need to have faith inyourself. What helped me, I think, wasthat I did drama classes as a girl andperformed in plays at university. Thatacting background has helped me as apresenter. It’s like the duck on thewater. You only show the serene part,not the frantic paddling that’s going onunderneath. It gives you an air ofconfidence, I think.

Am I ambitious? Oh gosh. I thinkmaybe other people would say I am. Idon’t think I am. I think I am determ-ined. If there’s something I want to do,I’ll try to do it.

I was at a leaving party for a formercolleague on BBC Coventry a fewmonths ago. Another former colleaguesaid to me: ‘Well, Philippa, you didalways say you’d be on Sky.’ And I did.It surprised me, but that kind ofdetermination is part of me.

I live in West London with my boy-friend – who is also from Leicestershire,he’s an old family friend and we’veknown each other for years – but Icome back to Leicestershire a lot.

I’m a big Tigers fan. We used to go toWelford Road a lot when I was a girland if I’m back for the weekend, I try tocatch a game.

Where next for me? Who knows? Idon’t know. I like that. It’s exciting, abit daunting, perhaps, but liberatingtoo. You should never be too dauntedby life.

There have been many forks in theroad, so far, in my life. Do I have anyregrets? I don’t, no. I don’t think youshould ever regret life.

Maybe I’m just lucky, but that’s theway I feel. I suppose I could choose tohave regrets. But, also, I could choosenot to. So I chose not to.

Regret is the clouding of the mind. It isthe fear of doing wrong when we shouldbe guided by the desire to do better.

That sounds profound doesn’t it? Iheard that on the radio the other dayand it stuck with me. I thought: thatwill be useful one day.

And here we are. ●M:

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been manyforks in the road in mylife, but I’ve no regrets