Gabby Logan: internet trolls are just some idiot in a room somewhere
The BBC sports presenter also talks about sexism in sport and why her boy prefers watching the red button to mum
What’s the TV viewing set-up chez Logan?
The kids [twins Lois and Reuben, 11] normally watch TV in a little snug off the kitchen, and Kenny and I are in the other room, in front of the fire. Our viewing tastes have definitely changed as a family and we can’t always persuade the kids to watch things we like any more.
Are you having a TV dinner in front of the box?
No! I don’t let the kids eat in front of the TV because my son is the kind of boy who will have blueberry juice on his fingers and just wipe them on the rug. I find peach stones down the back of the sofa.
What do you watch together?
On Saturday nights we watch Strictly together, and we all like The Simpsons. Bizarrely, they have really got into Casualty recently, so we’ll all watch that. I suppose for kids it’s often the first time they dip their toes into slightly more adult plot lines.
Are your kids into sport?
My daughter is mainly into equestrian stuff, whereas my son absolutely loves every sport going. When I went off to Rio for the Olympics, Kenny let him stay up to 3am every night!
That’s very supportive of him...
Not really. He put the red button on one night instead of watching me! I was quite offended. He said he wanted to watch the live hammer throw, not me talking.
Helen Skelton got a bit of flak for her outfits during the Olympics. Is sexism still a problem for female sports presenters?
To me, that was a total non-story. We are just getting on with our jobs and most people I meet don’t have a problem with female sports presenters. I look around the BBC and I see Clare Balding and Sue Barker and Hazel Irvine, so I think it’s going well.
But BT Sports’ Lynsey Hipgrave was trolled by sexists online earlier this year…
Look, I’ve been trolled, and there are people out there who feel they can say anything on social media. But those opinions are not the opinions that most people hold. It’s just some idiot in a room somewhere and I really don’t think we should give it any more oxygen than that.
What’s been the biggest disappointment you’ve been involved in?
Flockstars, the [celebrity sheepherding] show I did last year for ITV. In the edit, it just didn’t feel like the show we’d made. It was only half an hour long, and we didn’t really get the rich content that we felt we had filmed. In hindsight, I also wonder if we should have not gone down the celebrity route, and done real people, like in Bake Off.
Talking of which, how do you feel about Bake Off moving to Channel 4?
I think Mel, Sue and Mary have done the right thing. I spoke to Sue about it the other day and she’s feeling quite sanguine about it. To leave a show at that level of success is very rare in our business. So, more power to their elbow, and I hope the BBC utilises their incredible talent in other ways.
Gabby Logan presents The Premier League Show on Wednesdays at 10pm on BBC2
