Life as a Kids’ TV Presenter: Kirsten O’Brien from 'SMart'

It was her dream job and she gave it everything. But when you’ve been surrounded by art supplies and puppets for so long, how do you break out into the grown-up world? O’Brien was aware of the difficulties of leaving kids’ TV presenting (and your ingrained reputation) behind – particularly for women. 

It was a topic she confronted in Kirsten’s Topless Ambition, a BBC Three documentary about why lads mags had become a launchpad for female presenters (like Gail Porter, Zoe Ball and Holly Willoughby) in pursuit of a new image and an adult audience. She decided against taking that route, but showing a different, more mature, side of herself really did open up different opportunities – leading her to stand-up comedy, game shows and radio.

Although O’Brien has taken a step back from the screen, in favour of family life with her three children, she remains busy with work. The 51-year-old is a radio regular and records voice overs from the studio in her shed. Whatever she does in the future, for a generation of young British adults, she’ll always be an evocative link to the past.

VICE: Hi Kirsten. So, how did you actually get into presenting? 

Kirsten O’Brien: Coming from Middlesbrough, we didn’t have any connections to anyone in the media, so it took me a long time to actually voice that it’s what I wanted to do. After I’d done my degree in Birmingham, I got a job at Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle purely by chance: My mum saw a newsreader role advertised in the paper. I got an interview, but I was completely unsuitable because I had no experience. The woman interviewing me was brilliant, though, and she managed to secure me a news assistant role – I was constantly angling to present. 

What appealed to you about kids’ TV in particular?

I just thought, ‘I can do that’ and ‘I want to do that’. One of the news editors I worked with sorted me out with a tour around BBC’s London studios and it was one of the greatest days of my life: I went into the Television Centre and slid down the fireman’s pole. Then I made 50 audition tapes, got a tonne of no’s, but CBBC asked me to come in and I started in March 1996. 

What makes a good children’s TV presenter?

There’s no hoodwinking kids. You have to be prepared to show your real self – luckily I loved it and had fun. Every day you'd turn up and the team would say something like, “Oh, you're going to drive the Noddy car around the BBC.” My reaction was always, “Am I? Brilliant!” You never knew what you were going to get and that was an absolute joy – you just have to be prepared to do all the daft stuff and not try to be something you’re not. 

What was the hardest part?

My mum got ill quite soon after I started and near the end of her illness, I’d spend weekends in hospital, then it was back to “Yeah, let's do the birthday cards!” on Monday morning – I had to dig deep to find that person. 

You soon moved onto SMart, the art show many of us grew up with, which you hosted alongside artists Mark Speight and Jay Burridge. Is there a standout moment?

We once did a SMart episode from South Africa and ended up doing a “big make” on the floor from elephant dung. Shuffling that around in the heat for two days wasn’t quite the dream scenario I had in mind when I travelled to a safari park, but Mark Speight was such a joy – he made me roar with laughter throughout the whole experience.

What was Mark Speight like to work with? He’s a true kids’ TV icon.

He was a loveable, disorganised scatterbrain. By the end of a run, he’d be bringing his pants and socks in for the makeup artist to do his washing. He was like Peter Pan, he never quite grasped ‘adulting’, which I suppose is what made him such a wonderful kids’ presenter. He was like a big daft kid, but so funny – my face used to hurt from laughing at him.

How did you and the team deal with Speight’s tragic death? 

They paused production for about a fortnight and then the plan was just to carry on, but I went in for the first meeting and just said, “This is too soon. I can't do it.” I remember having to do a piece to camera for the kids, and that was horrendous. I felt a real sense of responsibility to young people but joy went from the show with Speighty not being around, so it came to a natural end – the last series was fine, but my heart wasn't in it anymore.

Did you find it hard to transition from children’s TV?

It's always been quite tricky for a kids’ presenter to move on. I was doing stand-up and, at the time, quite a lot of production companies were asking for authored documentaries. That’s when I came up with the Topless Ambition idea, a show about trying to get out of kids’ telly and, ironically, that’s what did it for me. For lots of women in kids’ telly, their exit strategy was to do GQ or FHM – quick waft of your bits and on you go! I just didn’t feel like that was an option for me. We got the documentary made, which then opened the door to BBC Three for me.

What sort of response did the documentary get?

It was extraordinary. I kind of wish it had come out in a time of social media because I remember my agent saying, “Our website’s never had so many hits.” 

Did that trend of female presenters doing photoshoots for lads’ mags concern you?

No, I made the point in the documentary that I’m not here to slam this. Certainly, now in my 50s, who wouldn’t want some pictures of them reclining on a chaise longue, in a bikini, being absolutely fabulous, to look back on? It was each to their own, but I was pushing at that door of why does it have to be that way? Why, in order to change the perception, do female kids’ presenters have to sexualise themselves? It wasn’t a judgement call – if I was approached now, I might do a shoot!

Is breaking away from kids’ TV a common struggle?

I think it probably is. Looking at the current crop, you’ve got Lauren Layfield and Katie Thistleton, who seem to have done the transition brilliantly, so maybe there is more of a channel now. What there’s never been, which was always frustrating, is a development route. You’d look at all the greats who were working in live telly and they’d started in kids’ telly, but people could never make that connection. It seems to be the presenters themselves, and their agents, who have to kick those doors down.

What are the biggest things you learned from being a kids’ TV presenter?

Doing live telly was a brilliant learning ground – you could have anything thrown at you. Once I was told the tape we were meant to show was still halfway  across London so I’d have to fill 13 minutes – you’ve just got to keep going. I’d like to think you can throw most things at me and I’d cope now.

Is there a moment you’ll never forget?

It sounds silly, but when Otis the Aardvark and I went onstage at the first CBBC Proms in the Park, the cheering and the madness was the closest I've ever come to feeling like a rock star. Back then, you just hoped that you were doing a good job and connecting with people, but seeing that mass audience was extraordinary. There were people waiting for autographs when we left – it was crazy.

How does it feel to have played a significant role in entertaining and inspiring a whole generation of kids?

This is going to make me sound like a knob-head, but I do meet people who say, “I went to art college because of watching you guys.” It’s incredible that a telly programme inspired their line of work. We were there purely to make people laugh and have a bit of a muck about; to bring a little joy into their lives when they turned on that box in the corner of the room. I wish there was an adult version of that.

What are you working on now? 

I cover the breakfast show and I read the news for BBC Radio Berkshire. I'm also the voice of Sky Max – I love doing voice overs. I did one yesterday for a CBBC show, funnily enough. My plan is to get my podcast back up and running soon, too. I'm really lucky that I still work and I love what I do, the problem is I've got three kids and my husband’s a telly director, so he’s away a lot doing big shows. 

Has stepping back from being on TV bothered you at all?

I’m just in that realm of life – I accept that, and I love that. It's funny because you can look at other presenters sometimes and think, ‘Oh god, they're doing really well’. You can beat yourself up about not being on telly anymore, but I’m exactly where I'm supposed to be – I'm around all the time for the kids. I didn't want to look back and think, ‘I had a bloody brilliant career, but Christ knows what the kids were up to.’