When the phone call came, it was quite unexpected. It was 2011 and the nuptials of the now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were approaching. On the end of the line was ITV’s head of news and current affairs. “Can I talk to you about the Royal wedding?” he asked. “We’d like you to anchor it, with Phillip Schofield.”
This came as a great surprise. I had been hosting the channel’s News at Ten for three years by this point but had never anchored an event on the scale of a royal wedding before. Naturally I jumped at the chance. The idea was that I would bring my news background to the table and Phillip his entertainment background, an acknowledgement of the two strands of the story we were telling:...