WHAT I’VE LEARNED
ITV’s News at Ten’s Tom Bradby, 55, lives in Hampshire with his wife Claudia. They have three grown-up children, Jack, Louisa and Sam
The world and the media landscape is changing.
I started on News at Ten seven years ago and [now] most people know the news by 10pm, so we put a lot of emphasis on frontline reporting, but also try to make sense of the day, so the programme really puts [the news] into context.
There’s a huge body of people in the public who are intelligent but not that interested [in current affairs], which is an absolutely respectable position. When it comes to politics, [they’re], ‘I get it. I just don’t want to know any more.’ It’s really important to understand that constituency because that’s probably pretty much all floating voters.
You’re never going to be liked by everyone.
When I first joined News at Ten, I’d go on social media, and lots of people were really nice and some were disobliging. If people are being rude, it probably says more about them.
Anger is quite a stimulating emotion. Of course, if somebody really has a go at you, or a newspaper columnist tears into you, there’s a moment where you think, ‘That’s really unfair,’ but why does that really matter? It’s just about letting stuff go.
People are so charming when they come up to talk.
Maybe [it’s] because I’m part of their daily life. Aside from writing novels, I also write screenplays, and once went to America with the actor Clive Owen, who I was working with on a project. I was really struck how people responded to him in a really respectful way, whereas meeting me is like meeting your dentist. There’s no glamour involved whatsoever, but there’s complete familiarity. I like people coming up and saying hello. Occasionally, it’s a pain in the neck, but I’m a sociable person.
I wouldn’t recommend having a breakdown so bad you have to be signed off work for three months.
I had one of the more publicised breakdowns.
When you’ve got yourself into such a dire situation, your first thought is, ‘How do I get myself out of this dark hole?’ Your second thought is, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes,’ which means substantially altering how you think about the world. That is much harder than one migh
