Jill Douglas: On the day of the game you get there quite early, about...

I was always interested in sport. My family are big sports' fans. We always had all the locals round watching big sporting events. I wasn't particularly sporty myself. I played a lot of hockey and rode, still do ride, but I just had a general interest in it. When I was given the opportunity to do sport stories I used to grab them.

Jill Douglas

hockey opportunity sports

I think it's something that you learn to deal with the more experienced you become. When I first presented live news, which was 12 years ago, I was very inexperienced and probably didn't deal with the pressure as well. I used to breathe very shallow when I was presenting and you could hear it in my voice and see it in my face.

Jill Douglas

voice years thinking

If you've done your preparation and you know the team of people that you're working with, then it makes life an awful lot easier. I still get nervous all the time. I think the best thing to do is to take a deep breath, make it simple, know what you're talking about, don't try and be fancy, don't try and be clever and just enjoy the experience.

Jill Douglas

team simple clever

The more you get, the better you become' and therefore over the years you become more experienced and you learn how to deal with it. You know what can go wrong, and you also learn how to react if things go wrong.

Jill Douglas

deals knows years

TV depends very much on the pictures that you see on your television, and all the other things that come up on the screen, whether it be GFX, the studio or the pictures of the game.

Jill Douglas

tvs games television

As a presenter, while I might suddenly want to start talking about something completely different, I have to stick to what we've agreed in order for all these other people to get their bits into the programme. So you have to be quite disciplined.

Jill Douglas

talking order people

Leading up to a live event you need to do your homework and go to bed early. Sometimes it's very tempting to go out with everybody else, They're all going to a party or going out for a nice meal and you think 'oh well I'd like to go', but sometimes you think 'no, if I'm going to be sitting in front of a camera under a light in everybody's home tomorrow I don't want big bags under my eyes and not really know what I'm talking about'.

Jill Douglas

party nice home

If I had to pick one exact moment when we were live on air and something very, very special happened it was at the Athens Olympics. Chris Hoy won the Gold Medal in the kilometre time trial and that was incredible.

Jill Douglas

gold special air

I really enjoy doing what I do. I enjoy seeing live sport performed at the highest level. What's wonderful about sport is that it involves everybody, everybody has an opinion.

Jill Douglas

levels opinion sports

As long as I'm working in sport, enjoying it and getting to see some wonderful sporting events, I'm quite happy. I don't want to be really famous. I don't want people to stop me in the street. I want to just enjoy the work, work with lovely people, work on good quality sport and get to experience some more of these amazing moments.

Jill Douglas

sports long people

I don't know if other people have found it difficult relating to me, certainly that's not the feedback I've had. I don't think of myself particularly as a woman working in sport. I think of myself as a broadcaster, a journalist, and the right person for the job, regardless of whether I happen to be female or male.

Jill Douglas

jobs sports thinking

At the other end of the scale I was there with a whole lot of young British athletes so I was getting to see them take their first steps on the international ladder. I'd like to think maybe in five years time I'll look back and I'll forget all about the lost luggage and I'll forget about the horrible hotel, but I'll remember these wonderful athletes stepping onto the track for the first time.

Jill Douglas

athlete years thinking

I was in China this year and I spent three weeks there with no luggage, in a really not very nice place and without anything except my passport and my wallet. You're a long way from home and you've got no phone and you can't get in touch with anybody.

Jill Douglas

nice home years

The lowlights... Sometimes you're away from home quite a lot, which can be difficult. It's not first class all the way, you don't stay in exotic hotels and have people running after you.

Jill Douglas

home class running

I didn't go to university. They offered me a job as a junior reporter and I went off to work for the Southern Reporter. They sent me to college to do my NCTJ, which is a professional exam for journalists, and I started work as a print journalist purely because I was just a pest. They couldn't think of anything other than giving me a job to stop me hanging around.

Jill Douglas

college jobs thinking

It's a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time, that's what I think. Obviously you need to be noticed by people to be given the opportunities, and I think you do have to work hard.

Jill Douglas

hard-work opportunity thinking

I worked very hard as a young journalist learning the trade and asking questions, understanding what a story is and being able to present that in a way that people would find interesting.

Jill Douglas

asking-questions people interesting

Whether you work in news, sport, politics, whatever, it's exactly the same; a story is a story, is a story. I consider myself first and foremost a journalist.

Jill Douglas

news sports firsts

Try and maybe write a couple of articles for your local paper. Perhaps you need to go to college to learn some things that might help you on the way. If you've got enthusiasm, determination and you love your sport - why shouldn't you be doing my job?

Jill Douglas

determination jobs sports

You're there right through the match, thinking all the time, making it up as you go along. We don't have anybody write our scripts. You're basically presenting to the people watching at home off the top of your head.

Jill Douglas

home writing thinking

On the day of the game you get there quite early, about 10 o'clock for a 3 o'clock kick-off, because you do a little bit of filming early on. You need to meet the crew and they need to have time to get a cup of tea and all those things the crew like to do before they go out filming.