|
 |
Promising career leads to scrapheap
It was all going so well.
Lisa Rogers has become a familiar face on British television. She's had a long association with Channel 4's Big Breakfast, has been presenting the weekly football show Match Day on the ITV Sport Channel and also regularly reports for ITV1's On the Ball. She's presented Carlton TV's motoring series Pulling Power, BBC1's Football Fever and BBC Choice's 45 Minutes of Football. She has also been a regular presenter on BBC Play UK's Top of the Pops at Play and BBC2's Top of the Pops Plus. And she starred in the new TV drama series Lock, Stock – her acting debut.
Lisa began her television career working as a researcher. She has a degree in drama.
So, on the surface at least, Lisa does not seem particularly stupid or self-destructive. So why? We wanted to get some idea of what drove this talented and personable person to risk life, limb and reputation in the fiery crucible that is Scrapheap Challenge ...
Lisa gets a grilling
What is your favourite spread to have on toast?
Home-made plum jam.
Do you wear slippers round the house?
Only in the winter.
What's your favourite book at the moment?
Brother Nature, the new novel by Robert Llewellyn. (You owe me a tenner for that Rob.)
Have you ever built anything Scrapheap style?
My wardrobe.
Tell us an embarrassing secret about yourself.
Where do I start? – there are so many. I'm terrible at throwing, and for one Scrapheap I had to throw mud at a target. I could barely get the balls of mud in the right ball-park, never mind on the target.
What were your first impressions when you started to work on Scrapheap?
'This is going to be a right laugh!' – and it was.
Did you find it a bit scary to be taking over from Cathy Rogers?
Yes, very scary. Cathy's the grandmummy of Scrapheap and very clever, so they were difficult shoes to fill. I tried to make sure I didn't try to be Cathy – I've tried to be myself and see where me, Robert and Scrapheap go from there.
Are you really not related to Cathy? Are you sure?
I'm not officially related to Cathy, but we're surrogate sisters in the world of scrap.
Did it ever come close to disaster on Scrapheap Challenge this year?
Are you joking? It comes close to disaster every week on Scrapheap, although this year we've built more potentially dangerous machines, so the notion of disaster could mean not getting the machine finished in time, or it could mean personal injury. Makes great television.
What is the most important attribute that teams need to succeed in Scrapheap Challenge?
Ability to work as a team; ability to get on with the job without faffing about; good with tools; forward-thinking; and an ability to make me, Robert, their team and the production team laugh.
If Scrapheap was the World Cup, and regions were nations, which area of Britain would be Brazil?
The South-West, with the Midlands a close second.
How come Scrapheap is so totally puntastic?
You'd better ask the producers, but I suspect it's because they like laughing at Robert and I when we get our words in a twist.
Do you think they could build a machine on Scrapheap Challenge that could help make the world more beautiful?
Have you actually watched the programme?
Do you think they'll ever run out of challenges to make on Scrapheap?
I really hope not, although there must be a finite number of machines that can ever be made, based on the principle of giving a monkey a typewriter and eventually it'll write Shakespeare. (Rob's a writer so I guess that makes me the monkey.)
|
