Selina Mary Scott (born 13 May 1951) is an English television presenter who co-hosted the first dedicated breakfast television programme in the UK before crossing the Atlantic to join ''
West 57th'', a prime-time current-affairs show broadcast from New York. Scott continues to write, and run her lifestyle brand ''Naturally Selina Scott''.
Early life and education
Scott was born in
Scarborough, North Riding of 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
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
.
Journalism
Scott trained in
Dundee, Scotland
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
on D. C. Thomson's ''
The Sunday Post
''The Sunday Post'' is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland, by DC Thomson, and characterised by a mix of news, human interest stories and short features. The paper was founded in 1914 and has a wide circulation across Scotland, N ...
'' newspaper, once lauded in ''
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' as having the "highest per capita readership in the world", before becoming press officer for the
Highlands and Islands
The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles).
The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1886 ...
Tourist board on the
Isle of Bute
The Isle of Bute ( sco, Buit; gd, Eilean Bhòid or '), known as Bute (), is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom. It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault.
Formerly a constituent isl ...
. She made her television debut on the weeknightly news programme for the regional
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
station
Grampian Television
Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands (except Fort William and ...
, ''
North Tonight
''North Tonight'' is a Scottish nightly regional news programme covering the North of Scotland, produced by STV North (formerly Grampian Television).
History
During the late 1960s and 1970s, Grampian's regional news service consisted of daily ...
'' in
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
at the height of the
North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea.
In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and ...
boom.
British television
Several months after ''North Tonight'' began, Scott, aged 29, was headhunted by
ITN, appearing as a newsreader on ITN's ''
News at Ten''. In 1982, at the outbreak of the
Falklands War
The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...
, Scott became the Forces' pin-up.
Eighteen months after she first anchored ITV's ''News at Ten'', she was poached by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' in January 1983. In contrast to
. In a 2020 interview Scott said that Bough would deliberately undermine 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".
When she left ''Breakfast Time'', she accepted the role as presenter of the BBC's ''
''. Here she interviewed, amongst many others,
. In connection with interviewing Andrew, she says he asked her out, but she managed to ignore it.