Clare Balding
Clare Balding speaks to Sophie Farrah about books, broadcast and the BAFTAs
When I speak to Clare Balding early one Monday morning, she sounds remarkably chipper considering that she’d spent the previous evening at the glitzy BAFTA Television Awards.
“Well, it’s a beautiful morning in Chiswick” she beams, ever the professional.
“And I made Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Killing Eve and Fleabag creator) be my new best friend, so it was a great night!”
Clare Balding OBE may be one of Britain's leading broadcasters, but a career on the small screen wasn’t always necessarily the plan. Having grown up in a family with close links to horse racing, Clare herself was, for a time, a leading amateur flat jockey, but soon after reading English at university she was offered the role of a trainee in the BBC Radio sports department.
“I was always interested in sport, not just racing. It’s the competition and the way that human minds are tested, as well as talent. I love seeing how a team bonds together, and how people react and respond to pressure situations” she explains.
And of course, seeing how Clare herself masterfully responds to such situations is something that most of us have witnessed several times, thanks to the unpredictable nature of the live broadcasts that she so often fronts.
“Sometimes things happen that you just have to deal with” she says matter-of-factly.
“I love the unpredictable and I like variety in life, and sports gives you endless variety. The way my brain works means that I need a lot of stimulation, and I need to be doing different things all the time”
Testament to this, Clare’s broadcasting back catalogue is seriously impressive. In 1998 she became the face of the BBC’s horse racing output and since then she has worked on dozens of major sporting events, including six Olympic Games, five Paralympic Games and five Winter Olympic Games, as well as several major Royal events. She has worked on Wimbledon since 1995, hosted walking series Ramblings on Radio 4 since 1999 and has presented Crufts since 2004. She has won dozens of awards for her work and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2013 for services to broadcasting and journalism, and in the same year was presented with BAFTA’s Special Award for her expert coverage of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 2012 was home to another very memorable event for Clare; The Boat Race, which that year was dramatically interrupted when a man jumped in to the Thames at Chiswick.
“Whenever I look back at 2012, I always think - ‘what a year’!” she laughs.
Quite, but it seems that whatever Clare is tasked with presenting, from major sporting events to the world's largest dog show, she always manages to demonstrate almost-encyclopaedic knowledge of the topic. This is in part due to her considerable experience, but also down to meticulous preparation.
“I’m quite old fashioned and I have a different hard back book for each sport. I put all my tennis notes in the same book so that when I get to Wimbledon, I can refer back to something that happened at the WTA Tour Finals or the Fed Cup. The same with cycling, swimming and so on” she explains.
“I’ve got good with family names now too and I’ll always research before. I think - ‘if this person wins, who is likely to be with them?’. Dog breeds are tricky though! And you can’t offend someone quickly enough if you get the breed of their dog wrong!”
When she isn’t busy brushing up on dog breeds, Clare is also a best-selling and award-winning author of five books. Her memoir, My Animals and Other Family, was published in 2012 and won biography of the year at the National Book Awards, followed by Walking Home in 2014. Clare has also penned several popular children’s books known as the Charlie Bass series, the most recent instalment of which was released last month. The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance is the third and final heart-warming tale of overcoming adversity and following your dreams, as seen through the eyes of Charlie Bass, her racehorse Noble Warrior and best friend Polly.
“My dad trained a very good horse who was fantastic on a race course but at home she just wouldn’t go on the gallop. She fell in love with my dad’s hunter who was called Quirk - a big fat furry thing! And she would follow him everywhere. So that’s where the idea for the books came from” explains Clare.
“The latest book has a very strong theme of Polly, who was badly injured in book two, and really this book is about her and what she still wants to do. She’s going to have mobility issues and she’s going to have to learn to ride again in a different way. Having presented the Paralympics for a long time I wanted Polly to have a sporting dream, but the journey to that kind of goal is never straight forward” she adds.
“I’ve re-written this book probably four of five times - I wanted it to be right. I don’t want to churn out rubbish. I want it to mean something and for the characters to be believable, and I also wanted strong women in it, and they are.”
As an ardent campaigner for better coverage of women’s sports, championing strong women is an important topic for Clare outside of her books, too.
“I think this year will be the real gear change” she explains.
“This summer we’ve got the Women’s World Cup, Wimbledon and the Netball World Cup – basically two months of wall-to-wall amazing female athletes being championed on television, which is great! But for me it’s not just about covering women’s sports but making them feel fun and engaging for all age groups. I want girls realising that being fit and healthy is a really aspirational thing, and that if you progress through sport, you’re going to get way more opportunities in life”
Rare time off is spent in Chiswick, where Clare has lived for 16 years with wife Alice, their beloved dog Archie and new kitten, Button.
“When Alice and I got together and I asked her to live with me she said – yes, we can live anywhere you like as long as it’s Chiswick!” she laughs.
“We walk around the area a lot, and you get to know people. I like seeing the same faces and saying hello, and having a dog really helps that happen. We love going Chiswick House and down to the river, and Archie loves just walking around the streets, mainly because he likes to find food that people have abandoned!”
And much like Archie, Alice and Clare are also keen foodies.
“We love Villa di Geggiano, and Casa Dino is also very nice, and I love the outdoor courtyard at The Crown, especially in the summer” she smiles.
There’s currently little time for dining out however, as Clare has been tasked with organising a very special celebrity and legends netball match for Comic Relief. Taking place during this month’s Netball World Cup final, comedy legend Jennifer Saunders will captain one star-studded team, whilst Strictly Come Dancing’s Oti Mabuse heads up the other.
“I am currently very busy recruiting two teams of fabulous women!” Clare enthuses.
“That’s why I was trying to talk to Phoebe Waller-Bridge last night, not just to tell her that I think she is brilliant, but also to ask her if she plays netball!”
Published in the June 19 issues of The Chiswick Magazine, The Wandsworth Magazine and online at Essential Surrey and SW London
