A Blue Peter presenter has revealed she was spotted via TikTok while a veteran sports broadcaster ruled herself out of replacing Gary Lineker on Match Of The Day, at the Bafta Scotland awards.
Abby Cook, 20, a wheelchair racer from Falkirk, who now lives in Manchester, told how her career on Blue Peter was launched via social media.
Cook, who wore a Blue Peter badge pinned to her ballgown, said she grew up watching the BBC children’s show.
She said she does not have an agent and was approached for the role via Instagram direct messages.
Cook said: “I would love to come up to Scotland, I just need to get myself an agent. I got my job through social media. I was found through TikTok and was contacted via Instagram direct messages.
“They asked if I would send a 1.5 minute video.
“I was studying occupational health in Glasgow, then I was on TV. The way I earned my first Blue Peter badge was through abseiling off a viaduct.
“I watched it religiously growing up. They did a programme called Blue Peter You Decide, I was voting for Linda Russell every week, when I was 11 or 12.
“Then I ended up being a Blue Peter presenter – it’s like the stars aligned.”
Cook, who missed out on the Audience Award at the ceremony, said that being an influencer is harder than people believe.
She added: “It is really difficult to put so much of your life out there.”
Meanwhile, sports presenter Hazel Irvine, 59, advised aspiring broadcasters to “read, read, read, and write, write, write” and pursue their dreams.
But she ruled herself out of replacing Gary Lineker on Match Of The Day, saying: “I think my days doing football are over.”
She recalled her stint reporting on the World Cup in Italy in 1990 as “a thrill and a half”.
Irvine said: “I have dispensed a lot of advice to young women – read, read, read, and write, write, write.
“If you want to do it, you will do it.
“There are things to do if you want to be a broadcaster which weren’t open to me when I was young. I think there’s a myriad of opportunities for young people to launch their careers.”
Irvine received the Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television award at the Bafta Scotland awards on Sunday.
She was praised by broadcaster Andrew Cotter for “making it look easy” and for her “graft” over nearly 40 years.
Clips were shown of the pair sheltering under tarpaulin as they broadcast from Paris while another featured Irvine dressed in a knitted jumper with a thistle.
Snooker commentator John Parrott praised her as “always immaculate and well-rehearsed” while fellow pundit Alan McManus said it “should have happened way before now”.
Lineker said he “learnt so much” from Irvine, who is “one of the very best in the business”.
