“And it’s actually completely true. At the time, no one thought about going much beyond forty. I was written off in the early 2000s. The whole time it was, ‘Who’s going to replace Sue?’ I wasn’t ready to go then. But things did change. I don’t know where it changed or when it changed, but I never thought I would be doing that job for 30 years.”
Didn’t she have to deal with everyday sexism in such a notoriously male-dominated workplace? “No, almost the opposite. In fact, they gave me everything. I think they broke the barriers more than they put them up for me.
“When I first started I remember going to Des [Lynam] and say, ‘Am I supposed to do this as a woman?’ And he was really supportive, really helpful. He said, ‘Look, you have to do it. You know sports and you understand what everyone is going through.”
“While so many other people were saying, ‘Oh, you didn’t see the broadcast.’ Okay, I didn’t have that. [Instead, she had learnt on the job, first as a commentator for Channel 7 in Australia, and then as the anchor for BSkyB’s tennis coverage]. But then the career broadcasters don’t know what it’s like to walk onto Wimbledon’s Center Court.
“I did Sports Personality of the Year the following year after I joined the BBC. I have been doing Stand and I did the Olympics. I never expected to do those shows, but it was a privilege. And then David Coleman, who gets me A matter of sports. ‘We’re getting a female quiz mistress’, is that the word? That was also unheard of.”
‘Cliff Richard kept complaining about me’
The Stand appointment was a special highlight. This was the show Barker had grown up watching with her parents Betty, a housewife, and Bob, who worked in Plymouth as an area representative for the Bass Charrington brewing company. Her older sister Jane was a tennis enthusiast who started her on this long path by letting her collect the balls, and her brother Neil made a career in the telecoms industry.
“I once made the terrible mistake of putting the bleacher music on my phone,” Barker explains. “And of course it’s so iconic that every time it rang, people would look around and say, ‘It’s her!’ So I had to change it quickly, because I suddenly thought ‘I want to be anonymous, thank you very much’.”
Once Barker leaves the court or the studio, anonymity has always been her preference. At first glance, her warm and talkative personality would make her a natural target Come dance strictly. Unfortunately for the scouts, she hates the idea, explaining that her husband Lance – a former Metropolitan Police detective and amateur tennis enthusiast whom she met while coaching at a David Lloyd leisure center – would divorce her as soon as she first birthday. waltz.
She’s reluctant to say too much about her family life, other than to say the couple live in the Cotswolds and have a geriatric dog that Lance may keep at home during Wimbledon. And she certainly doesn’t like to talk about Cliff Richard, the tennis-loving singer who took her out on a few dates in 1982. To divide the tasksshe revealed her annoyance at Richard’s repeated warm-up of that brief interlude.
“The only thing we’ve had an argument about is the fact that he kept harping on about me in interviews – ‘I didn’t love her enough to propose,’ etc… I really enjoyed our early friendship, but the pain that came with all his talking, not just for me, but for Lance – who is constantly reminded of why someone else wouldn’t marry his wife – is something that just isn’t fair.
Any discussion about politics is also taboo. When I say that this year’s Wimbledon broadcast will necessarily have to fit around the general election on July 4 – otherwise known as second round day – Barker throws her head back. ‘Don’t ask me about that. I’m not interested in the elections. Between the European Championship and the elections I don’t know where tennis will play, but probably not that high. Not even interested. Thank you.”
Barker sees herself as two things: a former athlete and a broadcaster. Her tennis career lasted twelve years and was fueled by the advice of an eccentric coach: Arthur Roberts, who worked from the Palace Hotel in Torquay and had also coached 1961 Wimbledon champion Angela Mortimer. Although Roberts refused to leave Devon under any circumstances, he insisted that his 17-year-old protégé travel to the US in 1974 and join the nascent WTA Tour, which had been launched the summer before.