'The Queen said WE WERE COOL

Angela Rippon on her career, why she's not ready to retire, and Strictly

- STEVE CAIN

In February 1975, a fresh-faced 30-year-old reporter was asked to stand in as presenter of the BBC's Nine O'Clock News while Richard Baker was on holiday. She agreed, and rapidly found herself covering one of the biggest stories of the decade – the election of Margaret Thatcher as the first female leader of the Conservative Party. That woman was Angela Rippon.

I could never have imagined that I was entering a vintage period in my career, which quickly led to me becoming a household name,' says Angela. 'As far as I was concerned, I was just filling in.' Later that year, she was offered the role of newscaster on the Nine O'Clock News on a permanent basis. 'I knew it was a great opportunity, but I was still surprised by the massive impact it had with the press and the public,' she admits. 'I didn't grasp just how much of an impact my appointment had made until the year after, when I won the Newsreader of the Year award for the first time.' It was an award she would win consecutively for three of the five years she spent in the job. Although the tabloid red tops dubbed Angela 'the first female newsreader', both Barbara Mandell and Nan Winton had appeared briefly, on ITV and BBC respectively, in the previous two decades, before being unceremoniously dropped. 'I was, though, the very first woman journalist newsreader – a position I'm proud to hold,' says Angela.