Cover story
Broadcasting veteran Fiona Bruce opens up about partying, why she’s hungry to get under Donald Trump’s skin and feeling relaxed about leaving the BBC
Thirty seconds into her woman&home interview and Fiona Bruce is almost speechless.
‘No. Is it?! Oh my gosh, I think it is! Oh my God!’ she splutters, mid-mouthfuls of halloumi salad. She’s struggling to digest the opening query:
How does she feel about 2024 being her 35th year working for the BBC?
Recruited as a researcher for Panorama in December 1989, Fiona went on to become the first female newsreader on BBC News at Ten before going on to present a host of flagship shows. ‘Do you know, I had not clocked that, at all. You’re just busy getting on, doing your thing,’ she says. ‘When I started at the BBC, I took out a private pension and I remember thinking, “Well, I’ll never be working past 50. No one will ever have me past 50.” I’m astonished!’
Celebrating her 60th birthday at the end of April – another milestone this year, along with her 30th wedding anniversary to her advertising boss husband Nigel Sharrocks in July – Fiona is absolutely in her professional prime.
The host of Question Time – she replaced David Dimbleby in 2019 to become the programme’s first chairwoman in its 40-year history – she’s a regular BBC News at Six and Ten anchor, is in her 16th year presenting Antiques Roadshow and fronts the BBC’s art investigation show, Fake or Fortune?. What’s more, Fiona – a statuesque 5ft 10in – is also a natural, if not slightly reticent, cover star.
‘I’m totally out of my comfort zone because I’m not in control at all,’ she admits post-shoot, when we’ve multiple cover-worthy photos.
Unafraid to mince her words, with Fiona, what you see is what you get. Confident in her opinions, she’s clearly crazy about her TV producer son Sam, 26, and universitystudent daughter Mia, 22, and is joyously candid about her life away from the lens.
What I love the most about Question Time is what is most terrifying – its unpredictability.
You’ve no idea what the audience is going to say. The day the latest James Bond movie came out – Daniel Craig’s last, which we didn’t know how it would end – an audience member decided to ask, ‘Which politicians would make a good James Bond and a good villain?’ Then a guy put his hand up and told us all how the film ended! Fortunately, then we recorded the programme at 8pm and it went out at 10.45pm. Now we’re live on iPlayer, so can you imagine if we had broadcast that? Barbara Broccoli [James Bond producer] would have gone crazy! It could have finished Question Time off!
I travel a lot and I love what I do, but there
