Interviewed: Pollyanna Woodward

Pollyanna during her AUTOSPORT stage appearance.

“That’s the problem with the iPhone!” giggles Pollyanna as I frantically stab at my (ageing) iPhone trying to get it to start recording our voices. I reply back “this is really awkward” nervously – the last thing I wanted to do was have to faff around with my phone in front of a tech expert. I’d already made a fool out of myself and I hadn’t even started the interview yet.

After what felt like a minute but was actually about ten seconds, my iPhone finally decides that yes it will record my conversation with Pollyanna Woodward who sits across the table from me in the NEC’s media centre. I know, I know, I treat my interviewees to the most glamorous locations.




Pollyanna is best-known as a host of the hit show The Gadget Show, however over the weekend that we spoke, gadgets were not the main talking point; she was here to host the Live Action Area alongside Sky F1’s David Croft at the Autosport International Show a couple of weekends ago.

The Live Action Area seemed like a logical place to start with. Not long out of rehearsals (we spoke on the Friday evening of the show), she confirmed they were “going really well” and added that she had “only just met Crofty [David Croft]”. “But”, she explained, “we get on exceptionally well - we’ve just had a couple of run-throughs and I’m really excited about the next couple of days, it should be a lot of fun”.

One of the main features of the Live Action Area for this year was that the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award finalists would be showing off their skills in a few Caterhams. “It’s quite a spectacle”, she confirms, “I didn’t realise how much there is for the audience to see; how many cars they’ll get see and look at and it’s really impressive. There are some brilliant stunts in there, too”.

Hosting the Live Action Area with David Croft.

This brings me nicely onto another of the show’s main attractions: the nutter that is Terry Grant. As it turns out, this wasn’t the first time Pollyanna and Terry’s paths had crossed:  “I knew Terry quite a few years back but we hadn’t seen each other for quite a long time. His talents are endless from what I’ve seen, he’s a spectacular driver and what he does is unbelievable”.

 Over the weekend of the show, Grant attempted to set the world record for the most donuts completed in a minute. Seems fairly simple, but you’re forgetting this is a man who can do anything with a car, so he spiced things up a little by doing these donuts while outside of the car, and on one run decided to give Pollyanna a ride as you can see here.

One of the most memorable challenges on The Gadget Show for me was when Pollyanna and her co-presenters Jason Bradbury and Jon Bentley took part in a virtual Britcar 24 hour race around Silverstone at the same time as the real-life race was going on.  “I did the Britcar 24 hour race at Silverstone on RFactor.” Pollyanna explains, “Forza was in contention, as well as a Need For Speed game but we went for RFactor in the end because of the setup with the three screens. So I did the Britcar 24 about two years ago and I loved it - it was absolutely amazing!”

“So have you done any real racing then?” I ask. Pollyanna pauses and laughs, “In my head!” she says in a way that suggests she’d quite like to go out and do battle on the track, “I love driving but I haven’t done any racing myself. I’ve done a couple of track days and I’m a very big fan of motorsport: I’ve been to the grand prix a couple of times and watched those.

“I used to work in the BTCC, and so I love touring car racing: it’s real driving, muscling through and I love the fact you can have contact, and it’s quite an exciting sport in my mind as it shows your skills. There’s a build-up [with the support series] and it’s a good day out.”

BTCC's Gordon Shedden.

Thanks to social media, Pollyanna’s able to keep up with the BTCC – and make new friends in the form of drivers as well. Allow her to explain all:  “It’s bizarre because I love touring cars and I hadn’t been for so long, and I happened to be sat at home watching a round and so I tweeted saying ‘oh my god I’d love to at least go to a race’ and Gordon Shedden responded and it was from there we struck up a friendship”.

What about her favourite drivers in Formula One? “My favourite driver has to be Kimi Raikkonen”, is the answer that comes back without a second of thought. “He’s an amazing driver.

“But I really, really like him as a person because he’s so aloof, he’s very straight and honest and it’s comical to a point where he never plays up to the press or he never plays up his public profile and I must admit I love that about him; it’s very endearing and I think that’s brilliant”.

A Brit has to be in there, surely? “If we’re talking British drivers, I think Lewis Hamilton’s did quite well last year and I wish his car worked a little bit better for him than it did last season”.

Pollyanna will also be making an appearance on the ITV1 show, Splash! which pits celebrities against each other in a diving contest with help from Tom Daley. She’s in the final heat which airs on 25th January. “Rehearsals are going quite well” Pollyanna says in a bubbly voice, before pausing.

“It’s a weird one, because I’ve never dived, I don’t really like water and I’m completely out of my comfort zone”. You’d be right for asking her why she’s taking part in it, then. Pre-empting my next question, she adds, with a smile, “But it’s fine because I like a challenge.”

 Karting or (hopefully) diving, Pollyanna
likes to win. 

“I still haven’t quite mastered coming out of the water and not choking; every time I come out of the water, for some reason, even if I think I got rid of all of the water out of my mouth and out of my nose, I’ll still manage to choke as I’m swimming back to the side to go and do it again”.

How does Pollyanna think she’ll fare on the night? “It’s one of those things where I didn’t think I’d enjoy as much as I do and I’m giving every session 110% so who knows what can happen? It’s all about the night isn’t it?”

But who, exactly, is Pollyanna up against, and how is the group getting on? “In my heat I have Austin Healey, Una from The Saturdays, Jennie Éclair and Richard Whitehead. It’s very entertaining and I must admit I have one of the best groups to train with. It’s fun”.

Being taught how to dive by Tom Daley - an Olympic athlete at the top of his game – must be fun too, you would assume. Pollyanna agrees: “Tom’s wonderful; he’s very positive and very encouraging. He’s very wise and older than his years and it’s quite nice being around him because he has a real presence and a real sensitivity and he’s very normal with you.

“He’s one of those people who you would meet him and you wouldn’t be star struck because he’s so normal and such a great guy, and I love spending him with him – he’s fab!”

Pollyanna during her world record attempt.

Splash! won’t be Pollyanna’s first experience of water though; as part of the The Gadget Show’s 250th episode, she was challenged to break the world record for the longest distance travelled on a water-powered jet-pack.

 Reflecting on it, she says it “was one of my biggest achievements ever and I’m very, very proud of it. The certificate now sits on the wall at home which is quite nice to look at it every now and again to remind myself how much pain I went through to get it".

By now, you’ve probably worked out that Pollyanna is quite the adrenaline junkie so is there anything she’d like to do in the future? Without a moment’s hesitation I’m told something that I probably should have guessed from earlier in the interview. “There’s lots of things I’d love to do that I haven’t done and one of them is to get my racing drivers’ licence, which would be absolutely amazing as I do love cars and I do love driving.

“I’ve set myself the challenge of managing to constantly learn regardless of where I am and I’m doing and to learn at least one new skill each year and do something that’s completely out of my comfort zone each year”.

Speaking of challenges, I was curious to know what the challenges of presenting live TV are. “It’s quite interesting”, Pollyanna muses, “The main challenge is to stay focused and in the moment. The thing with live television is that you can never really prepare because anything can happen that you haven’t rehearsed.

“The main thing is to stay sharp and focused as there may be moment where something happens and you have fill in straight away off the top of your head to make it sound like whatever the issue is isn’t much of a big deal. So I guess the biggest challenge is constantly staying focused and on the ball and maintaining the information, retaining the information and acting upon it when necessary”.

Caption contest?

I couldn’t go through an interview with Pollyanna without asking about the next series of The Gadget Show – a show she would end up leaving between conducting this interview and posting it.

At the time, Pollyanna was keeping her plans quiet from me but explained the show has an often unpredictable nature when planning a series.  “It’s one of those programmes that happen very quickly – so as soon as a decision is made, as soon as things are sorted it’s one of those 'right, we’re filming next week so where are we off to?' things”.

At this point, I realise that I’m running on borrowed time; a car’s waiting for Pollyanna to take her back to her hotel to get an early night ready for the next two days of presenting in the Live Action Area. Over those two days I saw plenty of tweets of praise for Pollyanna’s presenting in the Live Action Area. 

I know I’m nicking what Pollyanna said about Tom Daley and changing a few words, but it rings true: she’s one of those people who you would meet and you wouldn’t be star struck because she’s so normal and lovely. Pollyanna’s a fab person!

Pollyanna Woodward will be competing in the ITV1 show Splash! on Saturday 25th January. You can follow her on Twitter here and look at her website here. Pollyanna also regularly blogs about, well, anything on her personal blog here when time allows.

Thanks to Nickie and Grainne at Billy Marsh Associates  for their assistance and communication to complete this interview. 

Images: © LAT and Pollyanna Woodward.