Janet Street-Porter “Off The Leash”

Round & About

One of Loose Women’s most outspoken panellists is on tour with Janet Street-Porter Off The Leash which starts on 11th September at The Kenton in Henley  

Q. Hi Janet! I know you have no filter, so what can people expect with this tour? What will you be ranting about!? “Oh well, so much winds me up; I lost it in a tea shop yesterday when they wouldn’t serve me a slice of quiche because ‘kitchen’s closed’… I’ve written two memoirs; Baggage, about my terrible relationship with my mother, and Fallout, about the decade I started in journalism up to punk in 1976. I realised there’s a whole generation who know me through Loose Women, so I’ve written new chapters for the books which have just been republished. The show will focus on these as well as the ups and downs of my marital life, which is a bit like a Carry On film.” 

Q. Can we talk about telly please? Do you watch much? “The money’s running out for commercial television because the advertising revenue is not there any more; we’ve almost got too much choice now. All those streaming channels have diluted it so there’s not the money for great dramas and expensive programming like there was back in my day. The problem I have watching television is that, having worked as a producer, I often think ‘this script is utter twaddle’. I’ve enjoyed the reality shows I’ve done, like I’m a Celebrity. I watch the news and I read two or three newspapers every day. I tend to watch crime dramas. I just finished Dept. Q – I do like a bit of Scandi noir.” 

Q. Your tour references Elton John’s song The Bitch is Back! You’re pals aren’t you? “Yeah. I don’t really want to go into my friendships with famous people. But we’ve known each other since 1976 so we are good friends. When he had his civil partnership with David Furnish I did the speech. We talk on the phone yeah.” 

Q You studied architecture didn’t you? What’s your favourite building? “Yes. I’m a fantastic doer-upper. When I was studying architecture, I lived in a mansion block flat in Chelsea and my first husband and I borrowed some money and managed to buy an old house right on the river in Limehouse; it had been a barge repair shop and we made the ground floor into a big studio with a snooker table. After that, I decided to build my own house, which was designed by one of my friends from architectural college, in Clerkenwell. It was such a struggle to build because it was on a street corner in a conservation area. We had a hostile reception. Anyway, fast forward (that was 1986) and guess what? The house is listed by English Heritage! So take that, all you people who criticised it and said it was ugly! It’s like a castle – it’s very quirky and the front doors are made of railway sleepers and it’s got big steel grills on the outside. It’s kind of… aggressive, haha! That’s my favourite building.” 

Q. There weren’t many female role models in media in the 1970s. Do you think sexism is less severe now? “I think what’s replaced sexism is a kind of paralysis at work, having to be politically correct and nice. I don’t even want to talk about cancel culture so much as the suffocating anxiety not to offend people at any price. I suppose I started work at a different time, at the end of the ’60s and I did my first year on a teenage magazine called Petticoat, which was a wonderful training ground. I was allowed to design and commission whoever I wanted to do my pages. And then,at the age of 21, I was on The Daily Mail as deputy fashion editor and a columnist. So I was thrown into the deep end and I was headhunted by a Shirley Conran who, by the time I got to the Mail, was no longer working there. Luckily I worked with some very good people. I’m not going to condemn the male executives because they were really supportive, especially, the editor Arthur Brittenden. I think they also saw that as a young woman who lived in Chelsea, with a husband who was a fashion and architectural photographer, we were fashionable people. At the BBC, from the early late 1980s to the mid-90s, I felt the culture was very much like a club of blokes who all been the same universities, all middle class, Oxbridge, living in west London, liking the same kind of wine, and I didn’t really fit in. But I think that really has changed. I think now there are a lot of clever women who’ve done very well in television.”  

Q. Have you got any advice for young women coming into the media world? “Oh, well, I wouldn’t! I think that the media world has changed, it’s very fast moving. I wouldn’t be studying media studies, that’s for sure. My advice to people thinking about a career is to keep all your options open. My interests have never been that narrow. I think people focus too narrowly on subjects.” 

Q. What invention would radically improve the quality of your life? “A butler. I want to wake up in the morning and hear a soothing voice saying ‘Your bath is drawn, madam, and I’ve laid out your clothes for the day and they’re pressed’. All I get here is a dog whining or trying to sit on my face. Wouldn’t it be great if you just went downstairs and there it was, your breakfast all laid out? The other Loose Women think it’s hilarious that I will only eat my meals with a linen table napkin. But you see, deep down, Liz, I’m very very posh!” 

Book your tickets at http://www.janetstreetporter.com/tour