Ruth Langsford reflects on career, from WestWard to Loose Women

Speaking to Tony Blackburn earlier this evening the Loose Women host reflected on her career.

On getting her break into television she told Tony on his BBC Radio Solent show how her continuity announcer role came by chance with WestWard Television (ITV in the South West).

“Completely fell into it, quite by chance and luck and I didn’t do very well at school with exams and things, messed about abit which is a shame as I went to a good school… my dad always told me I’d regret it but you don’t listen when your’e young. …my parents by then, my father had come out of the army and they, had moved to Cornwall which is where my dad’s family is originally from. The Langsford’s are Cornish. I was going to college in Plymouth and I lived, with my parents, in a small village and I met a lady in the village pub, we were chatting and says ‘what are you doing?’ and I said ‘Oh I don’t know, I’m doing this secretarial course…’ I was a bit lost really.

“And she said ‘Listen, I work at WestWard Television’, that’s how long ago it was, that’s how old I am, ‘I’m going to see if I can get you an appointment with the head of personel, so she obviously saw something in me that she liked and she thought I would fit in there. I worked behind the scenes. I went in using my secretarial skills.”

WestWard ran from 1961 to 1981.

On the transition from behind the scenes, secretarial work to continuity announcer Ruth explained her ‘lucky break’ in regional ITV.

“An absolutely lucky break, I ended up working in the main control room as a transmission assistant – which I absolutely loved – and I wanted to be a floor manager, that was in my head my career tradectory, I loved being in a live studio. Then I was offered an audtion for continuity completely out of the blue.

“…I went up to head of presentation, he called me up to his office on a Friday afternoon, I thought to type something up for him, I didn’t know what he wanted. And then he said ‘look we’re looking for a part time continuity presenter, I wondered if you’d like to audtion?’ You look over your shoulder, and think has somebody else come in the room, and I said me? Why me? He said I don’t know, I thought you migth be good at it’ It was an extraordinary momement.

On moving from behind the scenes to in front of the cameras Ruth recalled she took advice from her father.

“And I phoned my dad and said, ‘I don’t know what to do’, and my dad said to me ‘you’ve got nothing to lose. You’ve got a job that you love, a staff job, and you might be quite good. If you’re rubbish it’ll be embarrasing for a day or two, but not long. But I don’t think you’ll be rubbish, so just go for it, go for it. So I went back in on the Monday and said yes I’d like an audtion and went from there.”

Ruth also spoke of how coming into radio or television via local programmes and presentations is a good learning experience to lead into national network roles.

“It’s the best grounding, you do a bit of everything. Quite often you’re thrown into the deep end to just get on with it. Also I thought the West Country audience were very kind to me cos I was quite young and they could see I was new and not great, but they kind of go with you and I’d be out shopping and people would say ‘you’re doing much better now dear, arn’t you?’. Everyone was very kind, I was very lucky.”

Tony then brought us up bang up to date by discussing Ruth’s popularity on shows for network ITV such as Loose Women and This Morning.

“I love Loose Women… I like working with all the women, a very very mixed bunch and I love that. I like that no two shows are ever the same, because the dynamics of the panel is always different depending who is on, it’s a very topical show so we cover news, we cover all sorts of things. We do some very serious items, we do lots of fun stuff and sometimes people surprise you and they’ll suddenly say something on the show that they probably weren’t even thinking about saying and it just sort of comes out.”

Ruth presented the un-aired Pilot of Loose Women in 1999.

The show is almost like a second family, Ruth suggested,

“You feel very supported with the Loose Women, there have been tears. I’ve talked about my sister dying and my dad having Alzheimer’s over the years and you know, you feel very supported by them. And often you don’t mean to cry, but when you’ve got that support and people are looking at you with those kind, encouraging, faces it can bring things out in people that they weren’t expecting.”

“I did the pilot for Loose Women, the very first show way back. And I’ve been on and off the show. …People do that they go off and do other things and then come back so its a lovely mix of women and we’ve all got different views. I mean you do sometimes forget you’re on TV, that’s the danger that occationally.. especailly when you’re talking about relationships..”

Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV/STV/UTV from 12.30 pm. Tony Blackburn on BBC Radio Solent, Sunday evenings from 6 pm.

Left: Ruth presents This Morning with hubby Eamonn Holmes. Right: Ruth hosting the show with Phillip Schofield.