You can now nominate for the 2025 Northern Power Women Awards to be in with a chance of celebrating with changemakers, trailblazers and advocates on 6th March 2025! Nominate now at wearepower.net
Sign up to our Power Platform to check out our events calendar here.
You can now nominate for the 2025 Northern Power Women Awards to be in with a chance of celebrating with changemakers, trailblazers and advocates on 6th March 2025! Nominate now at wearepower.net
Sign up to our Power Platform to check out our events calendar here.
The Northern Power Women podcast for your career and your life, no matter what business you're in. Hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. We love our podcast because it's all about highlighting phenomenal role models, getting some of those top tips, guidance, personal professional stories that you can take with you Whether you're on your walk today, your commute today, your chill out what's a chill out, by the way, not quite sure, but anyway whether you could take those along with you, no matter what stage you are, what point you are in your sort of career extravaganza or for your personal life. That's what it's all about. We love, every week, to have a fantastic chat with a superhuman human being and this week I'm delighted to welcome to you, fresh from the purple carpet of the eighth Northern Power Awards, michelle Eagleton. Presenter, host, entrepreneur, an all-round, sparkly, awesome, human. Michelle, welcome to the pod.
Speaker 2:
Oh, what a lovely introduction. It is a pleasure to be on this podcast and it was a pleasure to be your purple carpet host. What you do with the awards is amazing. I met so many incredible people.
Speaker 1:
Oh, I don't know how you kept the conversation going and that wonderful smile on your face all night, because there's so many different stories, aren't there to the evening. Was there anything that sort of stood out for you as that sort of takeaway story or that takeaway human?
Speaker 2:
Oh, there were so many of them, but what I really found is just this this great empowerment that you felt at the end of the evening, that anything is possible. And then there are people out there who are constantly championing other people and creating ways and paths for future generations. You know, especially when it comes to gender and just being heard. So for me it was just brilliant all of it.
Speaker 1:
And you have interviewed over the years, like many people, sir David Attenborough, gary Barleth I mean literally the Dame, the Dame, joan Collins. I mean literally the dame, the dame Joan Collins. I mean amazing, amazing, amazing people. But you start we'll come to that in a second because everyone wants to know who your fave is and who the most difficult was right, but you started out in telly.
Speaker 2:
I did. Yes, you know, I was that child that was born with jazz hands in the air. So I started out life acting really. I went to a place called Oldham Theatre Workshop, which is synonymous with people who are in Coronation Street now, and I was on the stage from probably the age of three. Four went into TV. There was a program called Children's Ward I don't know if you remember was on Granada back in the day. I was in that. I was also in Heartbeat, so I was the vicar of Aidensfield daughter Karen, which you can still see on ITV3.
Speaker 2:
It haunts me. Love a plug, get a plug in there. It haunts me, simone, because my hair is very dark, I look very different and obviously I'm sporting lots of 60s get up. But it was really really fun. And yes, I mean gosh. My teenage years, my early 20s, were all kind of that acting. Then I kind of just got a little despondent with acting. I'd gone for so many different roles and got very close to getting them and it's hard, it's a very hard industry and you have to be resilient and at that time I don't think I was resilient enough to take the knocks and I remember one of my last auditions was with the wonderful Victoria Wood. I mean epic getting to read, you know, alongside Victoria Wood for Dinner Ladies. Do you remember Dinner Ladies? That was on BBC, the comedy programme? Oh my life Mrs.
Speaker 1:
Overall? Was it Mrs Overall that?
Speaker 2:
was in there, julie Walters. Julie Walters was in it. It was absolutely star-studded. And there was a part called Twinkle which Maxine Peake got, but it was between me and Maxine for that very role. So the amount of times we were called backwards and forwards, uh, for this part and and she's an an absolute powerhouse, maxine, definitely the right choice there. But I think after that I really thought I'm gonna have to have a rethink. And my mum sat me down and she said you know, you love kind of talking to people, you love writing, you love being creative. When I was at college I was the magazine editor so I decided do you know what? I'm going to take a route differently into journalism. So I got myself off to Salford University, did journalism with broadcasting and never really looked back.
Speaker 1:
You talk about, you're not having that coping strategy. At that moment in time, there'll be many people listening to the pod who are going through their own sort of promotion tracks or interview tracks or, you know, putting themselves forward for whatever performance they're going for. What advice would you give to your younger Twinkle was it?
Speaker 2:
you give to your younger twinkle. Was it I, I would have sat the younger Michelle down and said it's not about you. Don't take knockbacks and what you think as failure personal, because you know the younger self every audition I thought that it was my fault, I hadn't read good enough. I wasn't good enough when you know in hindsight and hindsight is brilliant and age and experience you can go well. No, because they were looking for a certain person. You know you got so close, which means you are talented. It's just that wasn't the right moment for you. And I should have actually looked back at times when I had got the part, because when I read for Heartbeat, I was with lots of other girls who were brilliant actresses. They didn't get the role that I got, but I looked more like the mum and dad that they cast. But it's difficult, it is really difficult. I just think, yeah, I would say just never take anything personally, because nine times out of ten it's it's not you absolutely.
Speaker 1:
It's just. I always think it's like, you know, sometimes it's it's a bit like it's not. No, it's just not now, you know, and it might not have been for you at that given time. So see, then you, you went into this broadcast journalist career, um, and then into um, you know, like you said, you like talking to people and I don't suppose it's by any surprise now that you host so many different things and you, I do feel like you, you, you migrate and navigate towards some of those like really kind of positive events as well, I feel like, because that's you bring that twinkle and sparkle to that. But how, how do you manage to to sort of look at both, you know, from a journalist side and then a hosting side? Do you have a favourite child?
Speaker 2:
Oh, that's really interesting. I love live, whatever it is really. I just feel I get the buzz. So live TV and live radio for me is perfect. I'm in the moment. I actually do like the fact that anything can happen and being on your toes and being kept on your toes and ready for anything. I just feel like that's the time that you're tested. So again, I suppose that's what I like with live events, because you don't know what people are going to say, how they're going to react, and you know it's real, you know there's nothing really scripted. I feel one of my best talents is for ad-libbing. You know, because I've done so much live things in the past, that nothing really phases me anymore. I'm going to say that with fingers and toes crossed, because I know it'll come and bite me on the bum now, won't it? Simone?
Speaker 1:
Never, never, never at all. I think, one of the things as well. You talk about, the kind of the ad-lib moments. I think we call it innovation, do we not? I think that's what it is it's innovation and improvisation. What is the sort of the biggest moments, I suppose, like where you're waiting for Ant and Dec to come. What was one of those moments?
Speaker 2:
Oh well, you're asking what holes I've had to dig myself out of Simone.
Speaker 1:
Indeed innovation. Yes, where have you had to?
Speaker 2:
innovate, michelle. Oh, a number of times, you know, when I've done live telly before and for people who are unaware of how live telly works, you have an earpiece and that has people in the gallery like your director and your producer talking to you in your ear. And there's been so many times where things have happened where a guest is running late so then you're having to fill or something is going on behind the scenes. Technically wise, you've just not got to show it on your face. You're that swan. To be honest with you, in the moment you are being calm and collective. Nobody knows, apart from you, that chaos is ensuing. You know, because a swan, obviously it looks glamorous and beautiful on the top but underneath that water is flapping its legs 100 miles an hour. You know, but as long as that person is unaware, then yes, I'm just trying to think of a particular point, really that that has happened to me. I think mainly it is with timings, because that is so crucial, especially if it is, you know, tv or radio. You've got to hit the spot.
Speaker 2:
I remember actually working for man United Television. I used to do their 60 seconds news and it was one of my husband's favorite jobs because he's a red for his sins, and that that was hard work because you'd write your script. You'd go up into the studio, which I've got to say was like a cupboard. So it's you the cameraman. I've got my five inch heels, because I'm only very small, as you know, and I'm trying to work the autocue with a pedal. So you've got your foot on the pedal, you're reading the autocue, you're trying not to push down on the autocue too fast because it just starts flying up and then in the gallery, in your earpiece, they're telling you that actually a player has just scored. So everything that's on your autocue is now wrong. Those are moments where you're like, okay, just be calm and go with it. It's like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time.
Speaker 1:
I've never been good at that. I've never been good at it, and what's been your favourite interview we talked about touched on some of the celebrities that you have interviewed over the years. Is there a standout one there?
Speaker 2:
And why there definitely is a standout one. I got asked to interview Dame Joan Collins a couple of years ago and I mean she's an icon, wow, absolute icon. And it wasn't just an interview where you get 10, 15 minutes, this was an audience with Dame Joan Collins, so it was in front of, you know, a fully sold out audience. It was an hour and a half with Joan and me on stage. It was pretty epic, I've got to say, and it was one of those times which felt a little bit out of body. And I was glad that it was an out of body experience because at the start she came out to the dynasty music.
Speaker 1:
So it's going, and that was still yeah, crystal carrington, is that? Who?
Speaker 2:
she was. She was alexis alexis carrington.
Speaker 1:
Oh, alexis, sorry, that was it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, no no crystal was a rival. You're there, you're there. I'll never forget the fight that they had in the mud and everything. Anyway, she came walking through the audience to that music and I am stood on the stage thinking, oh my God, I think I've just in this moment, lost it. Hold it together, hold it together. And then I just like intake of breath and thought, come on, let's go for it. And she was just.
Speaker 2:
I mean, this woman has, you know, been around so many stars. She was telling me about when James Dean offered her a lift in his Porsche and she said he was really nice. Marilyn Monroe took her under her wing when she arrived in Hollywood and said you know, there's a lot of predators out there. You really do need to look after yourself. And I think what I got overall was a sense of such a strong woman who had really fought for her place in the industry in a time when there were men out there who were very much if you want to be nice to me, you can get further up the ladder and she blatantly just said not a chance, you know, and really stood her ground on that and gave as good as she got with the men.
Speaker 2:
And yeah, she was just incredible, yeah, through the middle of the interview, because she she loves her skincare routines and her makeup and her beauty. And she just looked at me at this one point and she went look at you, look at you, you know why. Why are you wearing a nude lipstick? You should be wearing red what? There's no point in wearing a nude lipstick, michelle. You're blonde, red lipstick. And I just turned around and I went well, if Dame Joan Collins tells you to wear red lipstick, I'm going out and I bought myself a lipstick the very next day and I've. Yeah, it's great, it does the job, joan.
Speaker 1:
Do you know what we talked about? What's the best advice you've ever received? And I love that, be more red lippy. And if, dame, the best advice you've ever received and I love that be be more red lippy from and if Dane Jones telling you to do that, then you've got it. And I know you are very passionate about giving back, paying forward. Uh, you naturally have that aura around you that. I think that makes people open up and feel supported. But I know you do a lot of work with students, um and and and. Indeed, on the purple carpet, you brought two of your brilliant students along with you to kind of anchor with you and they were fantastic. What advice would you give to any aspiring students out there who want to get into broadcast journalism and are looking to really get that way but don't know how?
Speaker 2:
I think it's about trying to learn as many skills nowadays as you can do. Back in the day, when I started out as a journalist, it was very much. It was all about the research and the questions. Now you do have to be multi skilled to be able to get ahead, and we are in a time when the industry at the moment is making cutbacks, so you haven't got as big teams as you usually have. So I would say learn, keep learning. Get yourself trained in editing, in camera work as well as being a good journalist, and also listen to things you know.
Speaker 2:
Listen to people know on podcasts on television. How do they interview I? I learn all the time. I just love listening to people who are doing interviews, because you're never too old to stop learning and picking up little details here and there. And what I would say to anybody going forward and and it's something that I regularly want to do and will continue to do it's we need to champion everybody. Let's be each other's cheerleaders, because there's room for everybody in the industry and that's it. And the only way that we can progress and get up that ladder is by people lifting us, and I think we need to see more of it 100% is that you know using your power for good to support other people, giving people that leg up, not forgetting and taking people with you.
Speaker 1:
And finally, tell us about your project, the Bad Mums Club. I love the title of that.
Speaker 2:
Do you know what I love it? It is a bit of my passion. Bad Mums Club was born a couple of years ago and I watched a film called Bad Moms American film with Mila Kunis.
Speaker 1:
I love that film.
Speaker 2:
It's great, isn't it? And I had had a couple of glasses of wine after watching it and I thought this is so me. This is me. I'm one of these bad mums, but I'm not bad. We're not bad, we're good, we're just normal people. So my husband came home, he'd been out watching football and I went I'm going to start a club up. He's like you've had a couple of glasses of wine, michelle, what? And I went no, no, it needs to be done next day. You know I am a go-getter, I will do things.
Speaker 2:
I created Bad Mums Club and it's basically, you know, a regular meetup and we have bad mums from, you know, early 20s. We've got bad grannies in their 80s. They drink more Prosecco than the ones in their 20s and it's a safe place where people can come together, have a night off from being mum, and it's not competitive. It's just about. You know, I'll invite different local companies that they can kind of have a look at. They have like a little bit of a social. But it's very much of the reason that I again not just a film. It's because, as a mum myself, I think we have all these things put on us, especially with social media. Um, instagram versus reality, isn't it really? Um, I remember seeing one of my friends. She put loads of pictures on Instagram with her family in Dubai and I was watching Coronation Street at the time in my pajamas with my bro looking over at my husband who's on the other sofa, going look at that, they're in Dubai. They've all got the same outfit. So we could never have done that.
Speaker 2:
When Daisy was two and, uh, I was I was kicking myself thinking, oh, we're not those people. Anyway, met up with her two weeks later and I was like your holiday looked amazing. She went oh, don't tell, don't even go there. Me and my husband fell out the second day. The kids were a nightmare. And I was like your holiday looked amazing. She went oh, don't even go there. Me and my husband fell out. The second day, the kids were a nightmare. And I was thinking that's you know it's not representative, is it? So I think sometimes, when we get together and share those moments with other mums, we believe that we are all normal and we're all dealing with the same type of thing in different ways, and that's how we can support each other. Really. I mean, I'm there in the playground looking very glamorous because of what I do. But then you know, someone will be looking at me thinking I've got it all together, I haven't, I can't do a gingerbread house.
Speaker 1:
It's not being deceived, isn't it Not? Looking at the gloss, listen, but we will put details of your bad mums club in the show notes as well. Michelle, you're a legend, you're a rock star. I could keep on chatting. Let's come back for episode two. It'll be amazing. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Thank you, it was a pleasure. Oh, I Please do keep the conversation going. Drop us an old school email podcast at northernpowerwomencom and stay connected on all of our socials Facebook, linkedin, we Are Power, tiktok, instagram, twitter, wearepower, underscore net. And please leave us a review. We love those too. They're ace, and thank you so much for joining us. My name is Simone. This is the we Are Power podcast and what goes on media production.