In my quest to celebrate friends this year I caught up with this fabulous lady on Tuesday evening. It was quite scary to work out that we’ve known each other over 25 years as she was one of the first people I met when I joined the Sport. We worked in the Sport Admin office, and testament to the amazing people who worked in BBC Sport around that time I’m fortunate to have stayed friends with many people from that era.
Looking back at my eight and a half years at the BBC, most of my experiences were amazing. When Andrée and I worked together it was an exciting time, our jobs meant we regularly spoke and corresponded with all the Sport journalists, presenters and guests and occasionally went on OBs (Outside Broadcasts) for various sporting events. Walking around TV Centre you would regularly bump into celebrities and I remember one memorable occasion when Robbie Williams came and we were crowded into the viewing gallery of one of the studios to see him.
At Christmas time we literally had a week of parties for both Radio and TV Sport, and went along to the after-party for Sports Review of the Year (now known as Sports Personality of the Year) on a couple of occasions. One of my claims to fame is that I was at the same party as Muhammad Ali – I didn’t actually meet him – as he stayed briefly after being awarded ‘Sports Personality of the Century’ in 1999. I think that year the whole of the England Rugby team were there as I still have the memory of chatting to Jonny Wilkinson at the bar!
The great thing about the BBC was that you could easily move departments and jobs. She went along the journalism route and after a brief stint in TV Classical Music (topic of a future post maybe) I stayed in Professional Services. Over the years it’s been great hearing about all the interesting jobs she’s had over the last 25 years, and we raised a glass to her reaching that milestone. Well done Andrée!
Elizabeth Mooney 