Selina Scott

Scott was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, in 1951. Her secondary education was at Laurence Jackson School in Guisborough, North Yorkshire where she became head girl. She read English and American studies at the University of East Anglia.

Scott trained in Dundee on D. C. Thomson's The Sunday Post newspaper, before becoming press officer for the Highlands and Islands Tourist board on the Isle of Bute. She made her television debut on North Tonight, the nightly news programme for the regional ITV station Grampian Television, in Aberdeen at the height of the North Sea oil boom.

Several months after North Tonight began, Scott, aged 29, moved to national TV, appearing as a newsreader on ITN's News at Ten. In 1982, at the outbreak of the Falklands War, Scott became a forces' pin-up.{{cite web |url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/War-and-peace.1525402.jp |title='War and peace |work=Yorkshire Evening Post |date=25 May 2006 |access-date=20 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716011105/http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/War-and-peace.1525402.jp |archive-date=16 July 2009 |url-status=dead }}

She was recruited by the BBC to launch Breakfast Time in January 1983. In contrast to Alastair Burnet and Sandy Gall, who had welcomed her at ITN, she presented the new show with an adversarial Frank Bough.{{cite news|last=Scott|first=Selina|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/selina-scott-on-frank-bough-a-tv-legend-but-frankly-a-nightmare-to-work-with-dtzf6fncv|title=Frank Bough: a TV legend, but frankly a nightmare to work with|work=The Sunday Times|date=1 November 2020|access-date=4 January 2021}} {{subscription required}} In a 2020 interview Scott said that Bough deliberately undermined her by interrupting mid-question and in other ways; when she attempted to complain she said that senior management simply wasn't interested: "they seemed to have no emotional intelligence, and they let men like Frank Bough roam the BBC without any check on them". She said that there was a very sexist atmosphere at the BBC, "this malevolence".{{Cite news |title='I did hate TV': Selina Scott on Trump, Prince Andrew, Frank Bough and the BBC |last=Hattenstone |first=Simon |work=The Guardian |date=4 January 2021 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jan/04/i-did-hate-tv-selina-scott-on-trump-prince-andrew-frank-bough-and-the-bbc}}

When she left Breakfast Time, she accepted the role as presenter of the BBC's The Clothes Show (1986–1988), and was guest host on the chat show Wogan. Here she interviewed, amongst many others, Ginger Rogers and Prince Andrew. In connection with interviewing Andrew, she says he asked her out, but she managed to ignore it.

It was at this time that Albert Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films, auditioned Scott for the role of Miss Moneypenny in The Living Daylights. "He sat me on a high stool so he and his producer could get a good eyeful," Scott told The Lady in 2013.{{cite news|title=I can rugby tackle an angora goat|work=The Lady|date=1 March 2013}}

Scott appeared on Britain's first satellite service, BSB, before moving to Rupert Murdoch's Sky when the two companies merged. There she co-anchored its 1992 election-night coverage with David Frost.

Scott has also produced independent documentaries on European royalty including A Prince Among Islands, a profile of Prince Charles which achieved 14 million viewers,{{cite web|url=https://www.filmhebrides.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828222819/http://www.filmhebrides.com/index.php|url-status=dead|title=filmhebrides.com |archive-date=28 August 2008|website=www.filmhebrides.com}} the first in-depth interview with King Juan Carlos of Spain, The Year of Spain (which also achieved record viewing figures for a documentary in Spain) and The Return of the King, returning to Greece with King Constantine and his family after 25 years of exile.

In 2007, she took part in the BBC Two series: The Underdog Show to highlight the Dogs Trust Charity for rescued animals. After six weeks of intensive training she was voted the winner with an abandoned wolfhound cross Chump, beating singer Huey Morgan and actress Julia Sawalha in the final.

In October 2008, Scott presented a four-part series for the Sky Arts channel and ITV, Edward Seago — The Forgotten Painter, and included interviews with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; who described how he and Seago explored a pristine Antarctic abroad {{ship|HMY|Britannia}} soon after the first official royal tour to Australia.{{cite news|first=Richard |last=Eden|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/2696092/Mandrake-Edward-Seago-and-Prince-Philips-art.html |title=Mandrake: Edward Seago and Prince Philip's art |newspaper=Telegraph |date=6 September 2008 |access-date=24 March 2012 |location=London}}{{cite web|url=http://www.skypressoffice.co.uk/skyarts/News/showarticle.asp?id=2508 |title=Selina Scott returns to our TV screens this October to reveal The Forgotten Painter|publisher=Sky Arts |type=Press Release |date=15 July 2008|access-date=21 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716020356/http://www.skypressoffice.co.uk/skyarts/News/showarticle.asp?id=2508|archive-date=16 July 2009}}

In 2018 Scott appeared in 4 episodes of the BBC's The Real Marigold Hotel, shot in Rajasthan, which she had always wanted to visit as her great-great-grandfather (a soldier surgeon) survived the Siege of Lucknow.

In December 2021, Scott was one of the four walkers travelling with a 360-degree camera, in the first series of BBC Four's Winter Walks. Scott's episode featured a walk through Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales.

CBS in the United States hired her for their news show West 57th, which on one assignment took her to Kenya. For CBS, Scott gained exclusive access and revealing interviews with, amongst others, George Harrison, Prince Charles, Bono of U2 and the world chess champion Garry Kasparov.

Whilst in America, Scott interviewed Donald Trump.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33936773|title=Selina Scott on her long-running feud with Donald Trump|work=BBC News|access-date=22 January 2016}} Her 1995 documentary{{cite web |title=Selina Scott Meets Donald Trump |url=https://stvfootagesales.tv/series-id/selina-scott-meets-donald-trump/ |website=STV Footage Sales |access-date=3 May 2025}} for ITV about Trump was the first investigation into his honesty. Owing to a technical issue with the camera, Scott interviewed Trump twice, the programme intercut them.{{cite news |last1=Scott |first1=Selina |author1-link=Selina Scott |title=I was stalked by Donald Trump |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/i-was-stalked-by-donald-trump-5kbttgd22mn |access-date=3 May 2025 |date=August 16, 2015 |work=The Sunday Times }} When it aired on ITV, Trump was shocked by its critical tone and threatened Scott with legal action and sent her numerous angry threatening letters, an issue which partly became public knowledge at the time.{{cite news|last=Moyes|first=Jojo|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/trump-blasts-sleazy-selina-scott-1591811.html|title=Trump blasts 'sleazy' Selina Scott|work=The Independent on Sunday|date=16 July 1995|access-date=4 January 2021}}

Trump warned ITV that if they sold the rights to any of the American television stations that were bidding for it, he would tie them up in the courts. ITV complied, meaning the US press and public were unable to see the documentary. It also started a long-running feud between Trump and Scott.{{cite news|last=Borchers|first=Callum|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/26/long-before-megyn-kelly-donald-trump-battled-with-another-female-journalist-selina-scott/|title=Donald Trump's feud with Megyn Kelly looks a whole lot like his feud with Selina Scott|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=26 April 2016|access-date=4 January 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Schreyer |first1=Natalie |title=The Trump Files: Donald Attacks a Reporter Who Questioned His Claim to Own the Empire State Building |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/trump-files-another-woman-insulted-by-trump/ |access-date=3 May 2025 |work=Mother Jones (magazine) |date=9 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910004642/https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/trump-files-another-woman-insulted-by-trump/ |archive-date=10 September 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Carrell |first1=Severin |title=Great Scott! It's Trump v Selina round two … |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/aug/06/donald-trump-selina-scott-golf |access-date=3 May 2025 |work=theguardian.com |date=6 Aug 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106062716/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/aug/06/donald-trump-selina-scott-golf |archive-date=2021-01-06}}{{cite news |last1=Scott |first1=Selina |author1-link=Selina Scott |title=Donald Trump used his power games on me |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/selina-scott-donald-trump-used-his-power-games-on-me-rpg3cdpr6 |access-date=3 May 2025 |work=The Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241116025232/https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/selina-scott-donald-trump-used-his-power-games-on-me-rpg3cdpr6 |archive-date=November 16, 2024}}{{cite web |last1=FInucane |first1=Marian |title=Donald Trump - Selina Scott |url=https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/20930401/ |website=RTÉ Radio 1 |publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |access-date=3 May 2025 |date=February 16, 2007 |quote=14 Mins • Selina Scott joins Marian on the line to talk about meeting the man and making a documentary about him in the 90's.}}{{cite web |title=Look inside The Mad World of Donald Trump |url=https://www.channel4.com/press/news/look-inside-mad-world-donald-trump |website=Channel 4 |access-date=3 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241118083536/https://www.channel4.com/press/news/look-inside-mad-world-donald-trump |archive-date=November 18, 2024 |date=25 January 2016}}{{cite web |last1=Wax |first1=Ruby |author1-link=Ruby Wax |title=Donald Trump tells Ruby Wax of his distaste for Selina Scott and his love of the Hebrides |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqEoKkTyc0 |website=Ruby Wax |access-date=3 May 2025 |quote=|via=youtube}}

Shortly after the interview with Trump, Scott signed a deal reportedly worth $200,000 to host her own talk show, The Selina Scott Show for NBC Super Channel. By 1997, she was back in the UK, signing a contract with Sky reputedly for £1,000,000. She hosted the breakfast programme, later switching to the 5pm news.{{cite news|first=Paul |last=McCann |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/is-selina-scott-really-worth-pounds-1m-a-year-1268574.html |title=Is Selina Scott really worth pounds 1m a year?|work=The Independent |date=22 April 1997 |access-date=24 March 2012 |location=London}}

Scott lives on a {{convert|200|acre}} farm in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Yorkshire where she has created a "nature haven" for threatened species.{{cite web|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/My-Yorkshire-Selina-Scott.3728886.jp |title=My Yorkshire: Selina Scott |work=Yorkshire Post |date=30 January 2008 |access-date=20 September 2010}}

She has established a natural fibres business, Naturally Selina Scott, sourcing sustainable cashmere from the Gobi Desert in Outer Mongolia (to where she went in 2016 to see for herself how the fibre is produced and animals raised). Scott lived with the nomads in their gers and traced the entire process from the rearing of the cashmere goats to the making of the finished garment in Ulaanbaatar before launching to the public.

She is the eldest of five children: her brother Robin is editor of Britain's best-selling shooting magazine, Sporting Gun and her sisters are Angela, Vanessa, and Fiona, the last a fine-art portrait artist, who regularly exhibits at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition in London. In April 2007 Fiona exhibited a long-awaited portrait of Selina, who purchased it.{{cite news |url=http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Profile-on-Selina-Scott-Age.4466472.jp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921080423/http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Profile-on-Selina-Scott-Age.4466472.jp |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 September 2008 |title=Profile on Selina Scott: Age shall not wither her |newspaper=Scotland on Sunday |date=6 September 2008 |access-date=24 March 2012 }}{{cite news|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/Portrait-of-the-artist-who.2178892.jp |title=Portrait of the artist who captured her sister at last|newspaper=Yorkshire Post |date=26 March 2007 |access-date=24 March 2012}}

At the time when Princess Diana was, like Scott, having problems with the press, Michael Shea, press secretary to the Queen, asked Scott if she would befriend the princess. He thought that Scott might be able to advise her on dealing with the press; Scott commented "the trouble was I was going through just the same as she was". Scott did befriend Diana, but they did not discuss the press.

In a departure from broadcasting, Scott wrote her first autobiographical book, A Long Walk in the High Hills: The Story of a House, a Dog and a Spanish Island, published in 2010. This book describes how Kendi, her rescued German Shepherd, came to live with her. Scott also has another dog, Nip, a female Border collie cross.

With her continuing interest in literature, Scott became Patron of the Charles Dickens Society, based in Malton, North Yorkshire,{{cite news|url=http://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/3544310.Dickens_group_unveils_plan_to_trigger_the_best_of_times/ |title=Dickens group unveils plan to trigger the best of times |newspaper=Gazette & Herald |date=24 July 2008 |access-date=24 March 2012}} raising a public appeal to buy a rare signed edition of A Christmas Carol at auction in New York. The story of the rescue of the book found in a refuse bin in New York, and its homecoming to the market town of Malton (where the character of Scrooge and his Counting House was reputedly based) made national headlines.

In March 2012, Scott was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Journalism degree from the University of Hull.{{cite news|url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/scott-doffs-hat-doctorate-1896026|title=Scott doffs hat to doctorate|work=The Yorkshire Post|access-date=10 June 2020}}

Scott is an active campaigner for causes such as animal welfare and wildlife conservation, spearheading a campaign to ban the live transportation of animals in Europe after Brexit, which achieved over 100,000 signatures to initiate a debate in Parliament.{{Cite news |title=Turned blind eye to cruelty inflicted on sheep |website=BBC News |date=26 February 2018 |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-43202334}} She supported Brexit because of this issue.

In August 2008, Scott announced her intention to sue Channel 5, a UK television station, for age discrimination.{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a128669/selina-scott-to-sue-five-over-ageism.html |title=Selina Scott to sue Five over ageism |publisher=Digital Spy |date=2 September 2008 |access-date=24 March 2012}} She claimed Five reneged on an agreement for her to return to News because she was "too old". Scott hired Simon Smith of Schillings,{{cite news|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Top-lawyers-to-fight-over.4462689.jp |title=Top lawyers to fight over Selina Scott age claims |newspaper=Yorkshire Post |date=5 September 2008 |access-date=24 March 2012}} and Five denied the claim. A preliminary hearing began on 24 September 2008 with a full five-day hearing scheduled for December 2008.{{cite news|url=http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/63111/Here-s-the-news-girl-who-got-Selina-Scott-s-job- |title=Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | Express Yourself :: Here's the news girl who got Selina Scott's job |newspaper=Express |date=25 September 2008 |access-date=24 March 2012}} On 5 December 2008 she won, with Five issuing a public apology and making a confidential out-of-court financial settlement.{{cite news|last=Khan |first=Urmee |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3567738/Selina-Scott-reaches-six-figure-settlement-with-Channel-Five-over-age-discrimination.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208032311/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3567738/Selina-Scott-reaches-six-figure-settlement-with-Channel-Five-over-age-discrimination.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 December 2008 |title=Selina Scott reaches six figure settlement with Channel Five over age discrimination |newspaper=Telegraph |date=5 December 2008 |access-date=24 March 2012 |location=London}} It was later reported that she accepted the offer, despite publicly declaring she would have her day in court, as her father had become seriously ill in December. He died on Christmas Eve and she wanted to be at his side and felt unable to continue the action as planned.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4001477/Selina-Scott-settled-ageism-row-out-of-court-because-her-father-was-dying.html |title=Selina Scott settled ageism row out of court because her father was dying |newspaper=Telegraph |date= 29 December 2008|access-date=24 March 2012 |location=London}}{{cite news|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/obituaries/Charles-Scott.4841004.jp |title=Charles Scott |newspaper=Yorkshire Post |date=3 January 2009 |access-date=24 March 2012}}

Following her claim against ageism, Age UK and Equal Justice, a legal firm, commissioned Scott to compile a report investigating the employment of women over 50 years old at the BBC. The report was delivered to Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust and Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture and Media Secretary in April 2010. The report accused the BBC of institutional ageism against older women.[http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7086823.ece The Times 4 April 2010] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611220522/http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7086823.ece |date=11 June 2011 }}

In 2014 the Telegraph newspaper reported that Scott was considering standing for election to Parliament as a Conservative MP; Scott commented that this was nonsense, she was not even a Tory.

• President: Malton Food Lovers Festival{{cite web|url=http://www.coutts.com/news-and-insights/coutts-woman/2012/june/regulars/24-hours/|title=Insights|access-date=22 January 2016}}
• Patron: Charles Dickens (Malton) Society
• Patron: Animals Worldwide{{cite web|url=http://www.animalsworldwide.org/ |title=Home |publisher=Animalsworldwide.org |access-date=13 June 2012}}
• Patron: National Star College

{{Reflist|30em}}

• The Observer (Tim Adams) [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1858944,00.html TV go home] 27 August 2006
• {{IMDb name|0779781|Selina Scott}}

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Category:1951 births

Category:Alumni of the University of East Anglia

Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists

Category:British radio journalists

Category:English reporters and correspondents

Category:British television newsreaders and news presenters

Category:English radio personalities

Category:English television journalists

Category:English women journalists

Category:ITN newsreaders and journalists

Category:ITV regional newsreaders and journalists

Category:Living people

Category:People from Guisborough

Category:People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire

Category:Reality show winners

Category:STV News newsreaders and journalists

Category:Television personalities from Yorkshire

Category:British women television journalists