Rise and Shine
Ben Thompson is a big guy. At 6ft 6, the BBC presenter and correspondent nearly hit the door frame on his way in, and the fashion department tells me he has to have his suits made for him – a claim he quickly denies. “That makes me sound very rich! It’s true nothing ever fits, but I usually just buy off the peg and then get them tailored, because it’s my work uniform, so I need to look good when I’m on air.” It’s not just work clothes Ben has trouble fitting into; he’s actually had trouble fitting into work itself. “My first time doing Breakfast I was covering for Steph [McGovern], and it was the first show in Salford [he had done Breakfast from London prior to that], weeks in the making, and about two minutes before we went on air, there were two men on either side of me on ladders above my head, desperately trying to lift lights up because I was too tall for the studio! We hastily pulled a bar stool out of the canteen and it’s still on the set.”
Born and raised in Lancashire, the 33-year-old studied International Business in Cardiff (“It was my home from home, I loved it”) before moving to London, where he knew he wanted to get into journalism. “I was fascinated by news, I was obsessed by news. Business really appealed because, despite maths not being my strong point, it’s cold hard facts, and there’s no nuance in it.” After applying for work experience in the BBC’s Business and Economics department, he soon found himself turning up for his first day – super early – at the iconic Television Centre in White City, one morning fourteen years ago. “It was brilliant. I loved it from the moment I got there. You get to the BBC, and you’re walking through the doors, and you know everything had been made there, history was made there.”