After 12 years fronting The One Show you might think presenter Alex Jones doesn't get nervous hosting live TV anymore. But having just come off a stint as part of the line-up of BBC big names fronting the coverage of the Queen's death, the Ammanford star is keenly aware of her privilege of being involved in such events, as well as realising that without the nerves in place you'll have lost your edge.
That 'edge'', the buzz, the excitement, will certainly come in handy when Alex finally returns to the stage at St David's Hall to host the Bafta Cymru Awards in person this Sunday, October 9 - the first time the ceremony has been held with a live audience since 2019. It's been a busy autumn so far for Alex, though, the end of the summer saw her return to the BBC One nightly show after the summer break, front segments for the aforementioned royal coverage, and have time to spend with her 'brilliant' family, whose support she values in buckets.
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"It was a huge privilege, really, trusted with that sort of level of coverage," said Alex. "For years and years there's been a plan in place of what was going to happen and that plan was only revealed to us on the day the news was announced. I had no idea I was going to be part of the coverage. Then my boss said 'Listen Al, you're going to be central to the coverage. We are going to change the name of the show, It's going to be called A Tribute to Her Majesty, you now need to come with me to Manchester.'
"Those 10 days were madness, I think I went up and down to Manchester about six times. I think the BBC really reminded everybody why they are so important in British culture. When events like that happen, everybody turns back to a channel they trust and on those occasions, it's 100% the BBC." You can get more celebrity news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Alex was just one Welsh voice front and centre, she flagged Huw Edwards as doing an 'incredible' job and also, it was sitting alongside fellow countryman, Gethin Jones, she had a moment of realisation, which you could say shows she still has that edge, that love for presenting.
"I was presenting with Gethin, me and Geth have known each other since we were 18 and that's the hilarious thing, God, we remember us dancing in Clwb Ifor Bach, presenting our first show together at 22 and we turned to each other that first show we did, on the Saturday night, when everything was a bit weird. He said, 'I know what you're thinking.' And I said, 'I know what you're thinking.' And it's that, we'd never have thought, all those years ago we'd both be sitting there about to go on air for an hour's broadcast, in the wake of the Queen dying and it's bizarre how life turns out, really bizarre."
Bizarre it may feel to Alex and Gethin, but the pair have earned their stripes over the past two decades, with Alex a nightly presence, Gethin a daily one on daytime show, Morning Live, and it all comes back round to keeping that buzz alive, keeping the audience engaged and giving it 100%.
"I guess I'm less nervous than I used to be," added Alex, who is looking forward to being in Cardiff for the Bafta Cymru Awards this weekend to reconnect with friends, some of whom are nominated. "But again, you know, I still feel whatever I do, it doesn't matter. If it's an audience of five people, 10 people or three million, I still want to do the best job I can do. And of course, there's a sense that, there's always going to be a sense of nerves and anticipation there. I think when that completely disappears you've probably lost the edge for it.
"For me, I just, whatever I do I want to give it 100%, I want to be at my best. I want to be in front of people that I've worked with for years and years, and give them a really good, slick show. Everybody looks forward to this night [Baftas], especially this year because it's the first time in a long time, and so I want the event to be the best it can be. It's a real honour to be hosting the event, too. I still remember going to my first Bafta Cymru when I was probably around 22, 23, and I thought, 'oh my goodness this is it' and now to be hosting it... "
The Bafta Cymru Awards will see a full ceremony back on the calendar after virtual ceremonies during the pandemic and Alex is looking forward to meeting up with friends and colleagues she's not seen for a long time. "It'll be nice to have it back in its full splendour at St David's Hall, it'll be such a nice evening. There are more nominations than ever before which can only be good thing. And since 2019 there's been such a lot of production coming out of Wales, especially in drama and this reflects that."
And aside from the millions of viewers Alex reaches each evening, there's one little group who are undoubtedly her biggest fan club, her family, including husband Charlie Thomson, daughter Annie and sons Teddy, 5 and Kit, three, with the former thinking everyone's mummy is on TV, Alex revealed, while skateboard-loving Kit is 'having the time of his life' at his forest school, where children learn through hands-on experiences.
"Teddy's five, so he's still really little and I think he thinks that's basically what work is," she laughed. "He does watch the show and he loves it. We were watching, it was the morning of the funeral actually. and he said to me 'mama, you know King Charles, do you think he has those socks on that are made in the factory by gu and da?' And that was actually something he'd seen on the show, we featured the Corgi factory which is near Ammanford and they'd been making socks for the jubilees. It's really interesting that it resonates, he remembered. And I'm super proud that it's a show he can be in front of without any worry that there's going to be anything unsuitable. I'm not there at their bedtime, so the deal is, if he has a bath first, he can watch.
"And Kit is having the time of his life, it's incredible [the forest school], he was in a conventional nursery and he just wasn't settling at all and we found this Forest School and they do skateboarding lessons and he absolutely loves it. I mean, he's only three, he's tiny, but he loves anything that's dangerous and this is just on the right side of dangerous. He's really happy."
Alex Jones is hosting this year’s BAFTA Cymru Awards on Sunday, October 9, at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff.
Watch the ceremony live on YouTube, here.
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