Television Presenters

"One must have a forgiving spirit. The world will be a better place if we adhere to these rules."

"She is an embodiment of excellence, embodiment of all that is the best in broadcasting. She was passionate about high quality broadcasting. She was passionate about community service. She was passionate about the downtrodden, the underprivileged."

"Chief Julie Coker was not only a beauty while in service, she stood for perfection in production and for her to have risen to become the Head of Presentation on the Nigerian network television when elocution walk with her."

"People must be contented with what they have. The little you have you can share with people. Be free to share with other people the little that you have or the gift that you have."

"In every situation, just believe in God, put your faith up and try not to let people put you down. Just be yourself."

"It’s the way you carry your cross that sets you apart from other people. If you are able to carry your cross well, you cry a bit, clean your eyes; God will help you to clean the tears."

"The world is a large place we don’t know how God moves, we don’t know which date he has for anyone; we just have to accept it."

"The voice was the main thing; you must have a clear diction that people can understand. If you have a speech defect, it will be very difficult to say you want to go into broadcasting."

"You must have a good disposition, a very pleasant approach to life."

"You move from one grade level to another, if you are patient enough, if you are hardworking enough, you will move and get up there."

"The Nationwide editor, Michael Bunce, asked me if there was any particular film I'd like to make for them, so I asked if they would send me to Belfast to report on the Troubles. He said he would need time to think about it. Then he rang me back: "The thing is, Esther, what would you wear?" It was such a serious dilemma, he decided I couldn't film there."

"My older daughter, Emily, had ME for 14 years. Thankfully she is better now and lives with me. She recently joined Kabbalah and changed her named to a more biblical name, "Miriam" – a little hard for me as she was named after my maternal grandmother, Emily, whom I adored. But I get round it by calling her "Em"."

"When I started as a researcher in the BBC, I was working for an editor who was a self-confessed misogynist. He used to practise shooting by aiming his air gun at an aerosol can balanced just over my head. I made it a matter of pride not to flinch as the pellets whizzed by."

"I have joined Dignitas. I have in my brain thought, well, if the next scan says nothing's working I might buzz off to Zurich – but it puts my family and friends in a difficult position because they would want to go with me. And that means that the police might prosecute them. So we've got to do something. At the moment, it’s not really working, is it?"

"The episode of February 28, 1988, was just a normal one in the BBC’s consumer series That's Life!. ... But deep in the centre of the programme, where we always placed our most serious items, we had a unique moment that 35 years later still has the power to move and inspire. Nicholas Winton was revealed for the first time to have rescued more than 660 children, most of them Jewish, from being murdered in the Holocaust. And three of those children learnt for the first time who had saved them, how he had done it and, sitting with him in our studio audience, turned to him and thanked him for their lives. It was the only time in my professional life when, as a presenter, the emotion stopped me. I had to break off our recording, leave my chair and take a moment to wipe my eyes. We were the only factual programme that would have told his story that way because we were the only one with a studio audience. And we were thrilled to be able to stage another surprise for Nicky one week later, when we invited him back. This time I asked members of our audience to stand if they owed their lives to him. Nicky was once again sitting in the front row, so I asked him to turn round to see the whole ground floor audience in the television theatre standing."

"The territorial boundaries of the Roman Empire have been established by the political geography of today's Europe and other regions. The main reason London is the capital of Great Britain is that the Romans made it the capital of their province of Britannia — a dangerous place on the other side of the vast ocean surrounding the civilized world. Rome has bequeathed us understandings of freedom and citizenship, as well as imperialist exploitation, along with today's political vocabulary from "senators" to "dictators." He has lent us his sayings - "fear the Greeks, even if they bring gifts" and "play the violin while Rome burns" and even "where there is life, there is hope". And he has evoked laughter, awe and fear to a more or less equal extent."

"Even more to the point, the root cause of the harassment that women have suffered (and the root cause of the earlier silence of so many) surely lies in the structures of power. If so, then the only effective remedy lies in a change to those structures. While fewer than ten percent of the directors of the top Hollywood films are women (that was the case in 2017), men will remain the gate-keepers of success in the film industry, and the effect of women's voices on its sexual culture – however loudly those voices have now been raised – is likely to be limited."

"It’s not easy to make women fit into a structure that is initially encoded as masculine: what needs to be done is to change the structure."

"It’s a "high-end" power in the traditional sense and linked to the image of the "glass ceiling", which not only places women out of power, but imagines pioneers as successful superwomen who only a few vestiges of male prejudice prevented them from reaching the top."

"As for the deep cultural structures that legitimize the exclusion of women, it is very likely that these gradual changes will last too long, at least for me. We need to reflect on what power is, what it is for and how it is calibrated, or in other words, if we do not perceive that women are totally within power structures, then what we need to redefine is power, not women."

"When I went to my first interview for an academic position, oddly enough in Thatcher's heyday. I bought myself a pair of blue stockings especially for the occasion. Although it was not my usual style, the logic seemed satisfactory: "If you, interviewers, are going to think that I am a real bluestocking, I will show you that I know what you are thinking and that I thought about it first."

"I went to Cambridge as an undergraduate in the early 1970s and it was [a] white, posh, male enclave. Ten per cent of students were women and there was very little diversity of any sort. I left and the place has been transformed for the better. There weren’t any of those thick white rugger buggers that I used to teach in 1982."

"She's one of a series of wax models that were used in anatomy classes to demonstrate the internal structure of the body... And the instructor would come along and would remove, in a slightly sadistic way, the breasts and the chest, and the belly to reveal what was inside. And interestingly, there's a uterus with a foetus in - showing us very clearly what the 18th century thought women were for."

"Greek men didn't all look like this. And indeed, this guy, his musculature is actually physically impossible. What these are are images of a kind of perfect version of Greek masculinity."

"Roman society incorporated those who were mostly excluded in the ancient world, most obviously, women... They didn't have any formal political rights in Rome"

"Rome was the only place in the ancient world where the state took responsibility for ensuring its citizens had enough to eat. [They knew] how you make a human community work."

"But when the shock had faded, more hard-headed reaction set in. This wasn’t just the feeling that, however tactfully you dress it up, the United States had it coming. That is, of course, what many people openly or privately think. World bullies, even if their heart is in the right place, will in the end pay the price. But there is also the feeling that all the ‘civilised world’ (a phrase which Western leaders seem able to use without a trace of irony) is paying the price for its glib definitions of ‘terrorism’ and its refusal to listen to what the ‘terrorists’ have to say."

"Rome of antiquity is important. Ignoring the Romans would not be merely a blind eye to the long-ago past, for Rome helps us to this day to delineate our way of making sense of our world and ourselves, from sublime theory to vulgar comedies. After two thousand years, Rome is still the basis for the culture and politics, literatures and the sense of the world and its place in the world."

"Roman history is constantly being written around, it has always been done; In a sense, we know more about our ancient Romans than they themselves knew. In other words, Roman history is a work in progress."

"This is a dangerous myth if we think we are better historians than our predecessors."

"Regarding her stepchild adoption, I was saddened both by how she was treated and, obviously, by the removal of her [from the Cirinnà bill]. I have met wonderful families in America and a couple here, and it is certain that overseas they have a much better chance of living like so-called "normal" families. Even on the "gestation for others", the horrible term uterus for rent, my position is one of great acceptance, even if I would never resort to it or give it to myself. But for me individual freedoms are above everything. Above all, I would like the institution of adoption to be optimized for everyone, including singles."

"Interviewer: Women like her. How do you manage to establish empathy with your spectators without arousing criticism or envy? Fialdini: First of all, I don't have a scary physicality, I'm not bombastic, I'm not seen as a threat by other women. Furthermore, competition based on physical appearance disturbs me: I see it as a defeat for everyone. I'm not interested in having relationships based on my appearance or my sensuality, but on my personality, on my ideas. It's always been like this. Even in high school, when I was more beautiful than now, I dressed "by subtraction", I didn't want to be the center of attention. I have always tried to develop solidarity towards others, to form a group."

"[...] the struggles with my body date back to adolescence. In the fourth year of high school, I went from being the smallest in the class to growing taller and having a lot of breasts, which I now regret [laughs, ed.]. So I hid under extra-large acetate suits and my father's clothes. Only when I moved to Rome for university at 18 did I start playing with the look. Finally in a city where everyone was minding their own business and I no longer felt like the center of attention, I cut my hair very short and dared to wear colorful dresses and unwatchable trousers. It took working on TV to accept me: through the camera you see yourself "from the outside" and maybe discover that you're not as bad as you thought. Looking at myself on the screen I started to find Francesca nice, to work on gestures. And to be fine as I am."

"The afternoon schedule requires empathy, the ability to lay bare. There you really come to terms with some sides of your character. Interviewer: And you don't love popularity? Fialdini: I really don't love popularity as an end in itself. I care about my privacy, that of the people around me. Working in the afternoon means intercepting emotions, dealing with tears. It's the story that wins. The guest comes before me, he must feel completely welcomed. I never thought I would be the protagonist. I always thought that my job should be."

"Interviewer: In 2010, «don't you think that the Church is a little too present in Italian social and political life? Fialdini: Let's start from a premise: many journalists commit the mistake of considering the Church as a unitary entity. Sometimes there is a lot of confusion in accrediting positions taken by this or that Catholic body. In reality, from country to country, ecclesial institutions have to deal with the complexity, even of the society in which they find themselves. It also applies to Italy, where the Vatican State and the Holy See historically reside. However, I like to remember that, in recent days, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the Roman clergy, reminding them that the pastoral task must not give in to the temptation to take politics into personal hands. The question is how to be realistic and practical without arrogating to ourselves a political competence that does not belong to priests."

"Interviewer: The partner from whom you learned the most? Fialdini: Carlo Conti is a master for me. Number one, but in front of him I go crazy and get everything wrong. It has the ability to surprise me. I was won over during a Sanremo, the one with Maria De Filippi. It was the final evening, the highlight. What does he do during the commercial break? He goes down to the stalls, goes to his partner and asks: has the child eaten? Gigantic."

"Interviewer: Success: how much does talent matter? Fialdini: He The desire to work counts. I have never turned down a job, at any time of day or night, paid or unpaid. I took everything that could give me experience. To pay the rent I also worked three jobs: one day I fainted on the radio."

"Interviewer: What "animal" is Fialdini on the air? Fialdini: I'm careful about what isn't said. I watch the body movements to understand how the person arrives in the studio, the mood, so I understand which doors I can open. Our guests know that we are open to the unexpected and they get involved. TV doesn't give discounts. It's also a very dramatic tool: if you're sad, it shows."

"Interviewer: A partner you didn't get along with? Fialdini: When I arrived at Unomattina, I entered Franco Di Mare. I wanted to be good and learn quickly, to earn his respect. With him I learned a lot but I struggled. But we liked our little moments: people still stop me on the street to ask me how Franco is doing."

"Interviewer: The partner from whom you learned the most? Fialdini: Carlo Conti for me is a master. Number one, but in front of him I go crazy and get everything wrong. He has the ability to surprise me. I was won over during a Sanremo, the one with Maria De Filippi. It was the final evening, the highlight. What does he do during the commercial break? He goes down to the audience, goes to his partner and asks: has the child eaten? Gigantic."

"We have talked about males and females for centuries and it is true, males and females exist, but it is not as if there is a territory that defines what is male and what is female at all costs. We must free the feminine and masculine that live in each of us, these concepts must mix, discover, renew and transform together. Thus a society is born that has the imprint of both sexes and is not based on a simple symmetrical scheme, on a male/female ideological semantics that we have created in our brains."

"Interviewer: Don't you feel the danger of an overly fundamentalist feminism and the risk that this asymmetry will end up recurring, one day, in the opposite way? Fialdini: The risk is there, not to mention women who they have internalized the male way of doing and thinking so much that, despite being placed in roles of power, they reproduce exactly the same pattern."

"[...] we are children of an image culture that the entire twentieth century imposed on us and which today we have digitized to such an extent that the only thing that matters is the perception we give of ourselves through social media. Our children are children of this reality, in which the perception that others have of you matters more than who you are. Specifically, the problem concerns women's bodies, which are a real battlefield. Interviewer: On that front we are still far from a balance? Fialdini: Very far away, because if on the one hand battles are being waged for everyone, on the other the woman's body continues to be obsessively and ancestrally a question of desire. If you have to stimulate your desire in some way, the woman must have those standards, but she still means responding to a concept of desire that goes in only one direction. Why do we still have to feel like the object of desire for a thought male chauvinism? This is one thing I don't accept about the marketing strategies behind women's bodies."

"Interviewer: [...] what relationship do you have with criticism? Fialdini: If they are criticisms pertinent to my program, therefore pertinent to the work, I accept them very willingly. If they are judgments about the person it is different. If you judge my shoes or my hairstyle I don't care. Reaching 40 will certainly be of some use."

"With this profession we easily become prey to judgments and models. I always try to strip away superstructures to be as natural and spontaneous as possible."

"In my job you have to learn to do the things they ask you to do. By nature I tend to be shy and reserved, but my work leads me to be very exposed. It's a continuous training to get along with all aspects of my personality."

"During my career I have almost always followed a journalistic vocation, except when they asked me to host more entertainment programs [...]. When I can deal with in-depth studies I am very happy. When I can use a synthetic language to give more space to the narration of a phenomenon [...], I find myself in my shoes and it corresponds to the image I have of this profession. When they call me to provide entertainment I try to get more involved. I take it almost as a challenge with myself to bring out strings that I'm used to playing less."

"Interviewer: How does a woman like her resolve the "career or family" dilemma? Fialdini: Simple, I don't give up anything. I am convinced that life gives you what you can carry forward. I let myself be surprised, I enjoy it every day, I don't necessarily pursue projects, I think there's no need. If a family comes, I will be very happy, but I would like to be able to keep everything together. You need to have a companion who is intelligent, brilliant, curious and above all not tied to cultural clichés. One thing is certain: if a man tells me "Choose, either family or career", I certainly don't choose him."

"In elementary school I wrote in an essay that I wanted to travel the world making reportages. The passion to tell things has remained with me, against the opinion of my parents who would have preferred me to stay with them in Tuscany. I still thank them for letting me go. I left home and after graduation I sent my resume everywhere. Everyone said "no, thanks", except Vatican Radio, which offered me a summer internship. I took my first steps there then, at 25 years old, with zero television experience, I auditioned for the Rai program In image of her. It all started from there."

"Interviewer: Do you have a model? Fialdini: I think of a mix between the competence of Daria Bignardi and the spontaneity of Geppi Cucciari and Victoria Cabello. A woman who informs herself, but who does not give up irony and knows how to make fun of herself a little."