Angela Scanlon: ‘I was the class clown ... Now I don't feel like I have anything to prove any more'

Irish Times

9 hours ago

'My fiery seven-year-old is driving me crazy.' These are some of the first words out of
Angela Scanlon's
mouth when she jumps on to our Zoom call. She's running late, striding home from the school run, headphones on, hair an afterthought, looking more like a student than the sophisticate we're used to seeing on our
television
screens. You could never accuse Scanlon of not showing up as her real self.
I'm immediately disarmed and laugh out loud, having expected an immaculately styled Scanlon to appear in a meticulously curated corner of her home; she is, after all, a former stylist and host of a home makeover TV show. But cool, calm and collected isn't Scanlon's vibe. Instead, the 41-year-old fizzes – with ideas, opinions, advice, gratitude and, most of all, good humour.
Scanlon is a chatterbox, speaking as if she has a word count to hit by midday. To say she has great energy is an understatement. She comes across as irrepressible and it's not for nothing that the
Meath
native is following in the footsteps of some of
Ireland's
most revered broadcasters, from
Terry Wogan
and
Dara Ó Briain
to
Graham Norton
. Scanlon is currently a regular fixture on British TV and radio. She presents prime time shows including Your Home Made Perfect and she took over Norton's highly coveted Saturday and Sunday morning slot on Virgin Radio UK when the Corkonian decided to reclaim his weekends last year.
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She is quick to make clear that she's not trying to replicate Norton's style. 'The truth is that I sit in that chair, but I'm not trying to be Graham Norton. Good luck to you if you are. It's an honour to have been given the opportunity to step into those shoes, but mine are definitely a different shade.' Shoes aside, Scanlon's feet are now firmly under that table, with the station's content director Mike Cass remarking on the amount of great listener feedback the Irishwoman has received since taking over Norton's headset in April 2024.
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Ireland's best-known redhead is veering towards national treasure status, not just here, but across the water, helped by her dazzling turn on one of the
BBC's
most-watched shows, Strictly Come Dancing, in 2023. Scanlon finished sixth, proving herself to be a terrific dancer – her Charleston was declared by judge Anton du Beke to be 'the best dance of the series' – and winning over audiences with her lively, no-nonsense personality. In a season that boasted the usual line-up of big names (Krishnan Guru-Murthy), big personalities (Layton Williams) and big talents (Angela Rippon), her wicked sense of humour and self-deprecating charm cut through, rivalling Strictly co-host
Claudia Winkleman's
relatability and natural rapport.
All of this alongside being mum to 'fiery' seven-year-old Ruby and three-year-old Marnie. 'Raising girls to be independent, confident women has its challenges,' she remarks wryly. 'You want them to be spirited and feisty until you're dealing with a furious kid at the school gate who's got big ideas and big emotions, and you're late for the train.' In the next breath, Scanlon confirms that both of her daughters are 'quite extra' and I instantly think, like mother, like daughter. Scanlon is pretty extra herself.
A quick scroll through
her Instagram feed
and you'll see Scanlon in full comedic form, giving a tongue-and-cheek cooking demo in a strapless feathered top, performing outrageous dance moves in the middle of her livingroom or sliding out of her bedroom door down a staircase, headfirst in the grip of Monday morning malaise.
Angela Scanlon. Photograph: Sarah Brick
It's surprising to learn she studied business at TU Dublin rather than drama when she finished secondary school in Dunshaughlin. 'It never dawned on me as a kid,' she explains. 'I love the performance side of what I do now, but it almost happened accidentally, to be honest. My dad was a builder and he started a company and my mother worked alongside him. They were from the west of Ireland. I didn't know anyone in RTÉ; the whole media world just wasn't on my radar.'
She admits that, looking back, there were signs of a performative side. 'There are certainly plenty of photographs of me dressed as a clown,' she says laughing. 'I suppose I
was
the class clown, though I don't think I was always comfortable in that role. But I think I've made peace with that side of me now. I just don't feel like I have anything to prove any more.'
There's a side of me that's always pushing and sometimes not in a healthy way. But I've learned to kind of enjoy that, as long as I can tell myself to sit the f**k down every so often
—
Angela Scanlon
She describes herself as 'really content', attributing it to a newfound confidence. 'Or maybe it's just because I've taken up gardening,' she interjects with characteristic playfulness. 'I feel really energised and confident in a way that maybe I faked before. I really know what I'm doing. I've hosted plenty of shows, so I feel like I've got the credentials and the experience.
'A lot of it always felt natural to me, but I think maybe I was fudging the craft and the technical side before. But now, I feel like, no, I know how to do this. I'm not faking it any more.' She adds quickly: 'It's not a very Irish thing, though, is it? To be like, I deserve this.'
Scanlon has worked hard for it. Her CV is lengthy, spanning more than a decade of prime-time presenting slots on TV and radio, and guest appearances on television favourites such as Richard Osman's House of Games and The Great British Bake Off's spin-off, An Extra Slice. Her presenting gigs reflect her range: RTÉ's travel show Getaways and Saturday night chatshow Ask me Anything, Channel 4's Sunday Brunch and BBC's Robot Wars, World's Oldest Family, Your Garden made Perfect and The Noughties. She's also reported from the Baftas red carpet and hosted London Fashion Weekend. Fashion, interiors, comedy, documentary – Scanlon has done them all.
Besides the TV and radio credits, Scanlon also has her own jewellery label,
frkl
, which she launched three years ago (she's wearing a frkl necklace in this photo shoot, along with pink platform Crocs by Simone Rocha). 'There's a side of me that's always pushing and sometimes not in a healthy way,' she admits. 'But I've learned to kind of enjoy that, as long as I can tell myself to sit the f**k down every so often.'
It's fortunate then that her latest project involves a comfortable sofa. Get a Grip is Scanlon's new podcast, which she hosts with ex-MTV Geordie Shore reality TV star and winner of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, Vicky Pattison. The pair met on a panel show seven years ago and Scanlon says she was struck by Pattison's wit and intelligence. 'There've been a lot of judgments made about Vicky – about how she started out and where she's come from – but I just remember being so impressed by her and thinking, she's a bit of me. I loved her from the start.'
'Natural chemistry': Get A Grip co-hosts Angela Scanlon (right) and Vicky Pattison. Photograph: Amanda Akokhia
Pattison was a guest on Scanlon's previous podcast, Thanks A Million, in 2022 and the Irish broadcaster appeared on Pattison's, The Secret To, a year later. 'They felt like standout episodes for both of us,' explains Scanlon, 'because we had a very natural chemistry. That, and the fact that I'd been wanting to do something along with someone else as opposed to solo, just made me think that it would work.'
The podcast is described as 'the ultimate group chat' where 'speaking up, standing your ground and taking up space are non-negotiable' and explores everything from 'motherhood and navigating newly-wed life to pop culture, internet drama and much more'. Although only six episodes in, Scanlon says it's already evolving.
'From the off, it's gone from being solely about pop culture to really personal topics and serious issues. I mean, we definitely talk about Kris Jenner's face – or her new face, at least – and the Beckham family feud, or whatever's on people's minds, but we also chat about issues that are especially pertinent to women on any given day, like caring for elderly parents or talking down your seven-year-old.'
Get A Grip: Vicky Pattison and Angela Scanlon's podcast has ranked ahead of the wildly successful How To Fail by Elizabeth Day and The Blindboy Podcast. Photograph: Amanda Akokhia
Scanlon has spoken emotionally on the podcast about her own experience of having an eating disorder, Pattison has revealed the trauma caused by years of misdiagnosis of PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) and the pair have railed against social media algorithms targeting vulnerable teenagers. But to give you the full 360, they've also talked about something called the 'boob gooch' (episode 3), soggy Spanx and kebab-scented perfume. The show continually flips from light to dark and Scanlon believes this key change is where the podcast's power lies.
'I think Irish people have that ability to go really close to the flame and then just do a little U-turn before it gets too much,' she says. 'I've shied away from that open vulnerability and sincerity sometimes, so I've been learning to let that out a bit more publicly.'
Another motivation for joining forces with Pattison was a desire 'to have two heavily accented women on a podcast who are different in many ways but also have a commonality.' Representation is a theme that has influenced Scanlon's work from early on. In 2013, the documentary she wrote and presented, Oi Ginger!, examined prejudice and stereotypes around redheads and was an early indication of the broadcaster's deftness at tackling a serious subject with endearing cheekiness, while her follow-up documentary, Full Frontal, a year later tackled Irish people's nervousness of nudity.
Last week, Get a Grip was ranked 56 on the Apple Ireland podcast chart, ahead of the wildly successful How To Fail by Elizabeth Day and The Blindboy Podcast. It's early days, but Get A Grip seems to be finding its niche and Scanlon believes the longform format really works for this kind of girls' chat set-up. 'It just allows for a bit more space and for the full picture of a person. It allows all the complexities we embody as women to spill out and I think that's really important and I also think that's what women are responding to.'
It's easy to respond positively to Scanlon. She's generous with her time and self-effacing in her tone, easy to talk to and interesting to listen to. She seems like a genuinely nice person to be around.
One of four girls growing up, Scanlon admits she was never acutely aware that there were differences between how, where and with whom boys and girls hung out. 'I wasn't familiar with the idea that boys can do this and girls can do that, or that girls
should
do this and boys shouldn't. Having three sisters and no brothers, I didn't have that frame of reference,' she says.
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'I became aware of it much later than my friends so I remember being quite ballsy. When friends of mine would doubt whether they could do something, my response was always, 'Of course you can. What are you waiting for? You have this idea, go do it. How can I help?' I've always had a fire to push myself and others. That voice has become louder because I've realised more and more how women have been treated. For loads of different reasons, women have always had to hold back or shrink a little.'
Scanlon's desire for others to just be themselves often gives her inspiration for her comedy skits. 'I do a series on Instagram called Things I Love That My Husband Hates. Clearly, it's a joke; I mean, I started off with pantaloons. But it seems to have caught fire and people are really responding to it. It's firing up other people to think, 'F**ck it. I'm going to wear whatever the hell I want.'
'Obviously, it has nothing really to do with husbands and what they like or don't like,' she adds, confessing that her own husband Rory is 'frankly unsurprised and slightly amused by whatever I wear.' After 11 years of marriage, Scanlon reveals drily, 'he's used to me'. 'It's more about giving women permission to just do their own thing and saying, 'Don't ask permission because nobody's gonna give it to you. You've got to save yourself. Do the thing. Stop waiting to feel empowered enough to create. It might be s**t, you might fall flat on your face, it might be embarrassing. But what's the alternative? Sitting around, wishing and waiting?'
Last year Scanlon got another project off the ground. Called Hot Messers, it's a community that meets up in person to walk and talk and engage in open and honest conversations. 'Last year, I travelled to The Himalayas with the breast cancer charity CoppaFeel!,' says Scanlon. 'Women in treatment, post-treatment and with stage four cancer were sharing the most amazing, heartbreaking, empowering stories with virtual strangers. It was as if they felt a freedom to share openly because they were walking alongside each other rather than sitting opposite someone. I love a bit of therapy, but I think sometimes that scenario can make people feel self-conscious.'
The name riffs on the stereotype of the woman who's a hot mess or a car crash. 'She's messy and chaotic and that's fine. It's about taking control of that,' says Scanlon, because despite having 'a brilliant [online] community of like-minded women who are rowdy cheerleaders of each other', Scanlon admits social media can sometimes make her feel 'really disconnected from reality, isolated and quite weird, truthfully'. 'There's such massive value in getting people together in real life and hanging out in a group where you can skulk in the background or you can talk something out.'
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Although she might 'present as an extrovert', Scanlon says her personality isn't that cut and dried. 'When I'm on, I'm on, but I can be very antisocial, shy and awkward – if I have a baseball cap on, don't come near me. Sometimes I want to just hide behind my husband, but then the next minute I'm cracking out the jazz hands and everything's fine. There are two very different sides to me.'