Dale talks to chief feature writer Janet Christie about her interview with Judy Murray. You can read all about it at www.scotsman.com
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Friday.
00:05My name's Dale Miller.
00:06I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Chief Interviewer and Features
00:13Writer, Janet Christie.
00:14Hello, Janet.
00:15How are you?
00:16Good morning.
00:17Hi.
00:18I'm fine, thank you.
00:19How are you?
00:20We're going to get into a big interview you've done this week, firstly, but as we brace for
00:27storm Burt arriving this weekend with yellow weather and amber weather warnings in place,
00:34I want to talk through the front page, firstly.
00:37We had John Prescott leading on the front.
00:39It was hard not to, obviously, news of him passing away on Thursday and a developing
00:46story that happened on Thursday night and will have ongoing ramifications, Stephen Flynn,
00:52the SNP Westminster Leader, doing a U-turn on the double jobbing bid.
00:56He has confirmed he will no longer seek to stand as both an MSP and an MP.
01:03He hasn't drilled down whether he will make a full-blooded tilt at Holyrood and leave
01:09his seat at Westminster behind.
01:10I think there's still some room to play out here.
01:13We haven't heard from Audrey Nicholl yet.
01:15She was the MSP who Stephen Flynn was going to go up against in the candidacy battle for
01:22an Aberdeen seat at the Holyrood election.
01:26I mentioned storm Burt.
01:28That's referenced on the front page.
01:29You can get all the latest on the developments around that at scotsman.com for the amber
01:35alert area, which is north of the central belt.
01:39Police Scotland have issued a do not travel advice for Saturday.
01:44So please keep an eye on our website for all the very latest.
01:47Janet, you did a big interview and we're running it this week.
01:53It's with Judy Murray.
01:54I think everyone knows Judy.
01:58We've seen her a lot on TV.
02:00We've heard from her about what she liked to sit down with and interview in person.
02:05And she's fun, actually, she's funny and she's fun and she's, you know, like a lot of
02:12athletes, she has energy.
02:15And so you're conscious you're in the presence of an athlete just in and she's very
02:21focused. So she will, you know, answer all your questions, concentrate, be very
02:27professional in that sense. But she makes it fun as well.
02:30And she will talk about other things that are not just, you know, about the book.
02:35And she'll talk about her son.
02:37She'll talk about tennis.
02:38She'll talk about issues that come out in the book, but also wider issues.
02:45And so, yeah, and she'll talk about Strictly and she basically she should talk about
02:50anything. So, yeah, she's she's an easy, easy person to speak to.
02:54She's very relaxed, but also very focused.
02:58I mean, we started out, I guess, watching her cheering on her sons, specifically Andy
03:05and his friends at Wimbledon.
03:06But she's become so much more than that.
03:08And this latest venture, she's done a debut novel.
03:12That's pretty exciting stuff, isn't it?
03:15Tell us a little bit about what she had to say about it and about the book itself.
03:19Yeah, she's she talked about how it was her first foray into the world of fiction.
03:24So she's written a memoir named The Score, 2017, but The Wild Card, which is here.
03:30And yeah, it's so it came out in the summer.
03:34But this week she's talking about it at the St Andrews Book Festival in London that the
03:39Scotsman is in partnership with.
03:42And so that's happening events throughout London.
03:44One of those Judy Murray is speaking about the book at.
03:49And so she talked about the book and how it was it's it's set in the world of tennis,
03:53but there's so much more in there and that she talks about issues that still still exist
03:59for women in the sporting world today.
04:01And one of them being the abuse of power.
04:05She talks about the US athletics scandal and, you know, how she could raise issues
04:14through fiction so that she wasn't pointing the finger at anybody or any particular
04:18thing, but she was able to draw from her awareness from being on the inside.
04:23And also for tennis fans, there's loads of what it's like to be behind the scenes at
04:27Wimbledon, what it's like in the dressing rooms, how and all of the entourage that goes
04:32with the players that they have to manage and deal with.
04:35And also what it's like to be flung into the public eye when, you know, you're an
04:38athlete, your aim is to be the best at the top of the sport.
04:41But there's so much more that goes with it.
04:45And yes, she also talked about about Strictly.
04:48Oh, yes. The writing the book.
04:50So the the impetus for that came from her Strictly partner, Anton Debeck, who during
04:58Covid sent her a copy of a proof copy of what she loved about it.
05:04And she said, I love the behind the scenes of the world of ballroom dancing.
05:09And then he said, well, you could do one about tennis.
05:11And then, you know, and he apparently said to her, all you need is a beginning, a
05:16middle and an end partner.
05:19And she went, I think it's a bit more, but then she said no.
05:23When she came to write it, he's right.
05:24And then, you know, she wrote about so much that she knows.
05:27But then goes off. So it was quite liberating for it to be a work of fiction because you
05:31can make the characters do whatever you want.
05:33You can let it lead you where you want to go.
05:35So. So, yes, I think.
05:37And she's very much got the bug.
05:39So she gave us a preview and into her next book, which is If We'd Done It.
05:48And then I'm not going to say anything about that because she's still writing it.
05:52In fact, she had it in her bag.
05:53That's what I mean about energy.
05:54She was like, yeah, it's here in my bag.
05:56I'm going to read it in the train on the way home.
05:58I'm like, wow, you know, so somebody that has this is very focused and energetic, but
06:04but makes it interesting.
06:06She said about Strictly that the way that Antoine de Beck trained her was to use humour,
06:14which is what she does because she's a coach and she does a lot of work with Women's
06:17Tennis Association. She's always been growing the game at grassroots and that she likes
06:22to use humour and to encourage people in that way.
06:25You know, much more carrot than stick and that humour is a way to get the best out of
06:32people because when they're relaxed, they learn and it's an incentive as opposed to,
06:37you know, if you're tense, that's no use, whether it's dancing or tennis or anything
06:42really, life.
06:45And just quietly, Janet, I think Antoine de Beck has become the favourite judge in my
06:50family household, that's that's for sure.
06:52So fascinating how these these different areas play across each other and that it's
06:57contributed to her writing.
06:59You can read Janet's full interview with Judy Murray at Scotsman.com.
07:05If you love it, it will be in the Scotsman magazine as well.
07:10Please go out and buy a copy tomorrow.
07:12As I said, you can get all the latest news developments, including the weather at
07:16Scotsman.com. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram and we're out on Blue Sky as well.
07:21So please follow us there and please tune in.
07:25You'll get all the latest about the St Andrews Book Festival that Janet's mentioned.
07:29It's a big new initiative that the Scotsman is involved in.
07:32We're very excited.
07:34It has a big presence down in London, taking Scottish literature books, including Judy
07:39Murray to the UK capital, which will be a very exciting opportunity to showcase all of
07:46that. Thank you very much to you, Janet, and thanks everyone else for joining us.