Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins talks to Jane McGowan about learning the piano and coping with Piers Morgan...
Seated beside everybody’s favourite love-to-hate TV host Piers Morgan four days a week, would try the patience of even the coolest of co-hosts. But for journalist and presenter Charlotte Hawkins, Piers’s antics all add to the mix of ITV’s breakfast show Good Morning Britain, which aims to deliver the day’s agenda-setting stories.
“You know what, I love my job,” she says. “Every single day is different, you never know what to expect. And I love being part of such a brilliant team. We all really get on. We may have a strong exchange of words in the ad break, but we always sort it out. It’s a really good laugh.”
And while Piers’s many naysayers may not agree with some of his more outrageous outbursts, Charlotte is quick to defend her co-host.
“It’s good to challenge people. Gone are the days when people were just told, ‘this is the news’. People want to have a say. It’s a different conversation we are having these days. It’s fantastic that we can light the embers in the morning, which will be raging fires by the evening.”
Charlotte, who lives in Surrey with her businessman husband Mark Herbert and four-year-old daughter Ella Rose, says that after a big news day behind the GMB desk, the first thing she does, once she gets home, is kick off her shoes and put some music on.
“When I have had a stressful day – after all I do sit next to Piers Morgan all morning – I need a good dose of classical music to remind me that everything is alright in the world. It transports me to another place.”
Born in 1975, Charlotte was brought up in Chichester. Her father, who sadly passed away one month before Ella Rose was born, was a clergyman at the cathedral and instilled in Charlotte a passion for music.
“It has always been a big part of my life, it really shaped my childhood,” she says. “My dad was a big classical music fan and he used to play pieces at full volume on the radio while he was washing up and my mum would be yelling at him to turn it down.”
The multi-talented broadcaster presents an afternoon slot on Classic FM each Sunday and is currently “relearning the piano”.
“It was my New Year’s resolution,” she tells me. “As a child, I played a lot of musical instruments – the flute, the guitar and the violin. But they all sort of fell by the wayside. I did get to grade five on the piano, so this year I just thought, ‘I am going to do it, I am going back to piano lessons’.”
And in the summer of 2019, Charlotte was able to indulge her love for music and presenting as she hosted André Rieu’s summer concert, Shall We Dance? from the conductor’s hometown of Maastricht as it is beamed into cinemas worldwide.
“It’s the highlight of the year for me,” she said. “I get to go over to Maastricht, introduce the concert and then at the end of the performance I get to interview André as soon as he steps off stage. It really does bring the magic of the show to the audience. He has so many fans but he is not touring the UK this year, so this really is the next best thing for people who really want to see him. It’s a wonderfully interactive experience.”
And Charlotte is keen to pass on her love of music to Ella Rose. “We often hum tunes when we are brushing our teeth – The Flower Duet [from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly] is our toothbrushing tune of choice. We need to pass this wonderful music to the next generation.”
Importantly, the television personality recognises that it has wider implications for today’s modern society.
“Music is good for the soul. We keep talking about mindfulness and so many people are struggling with their mental health and I think music does help. You can really lose yourself and sometimes, that’s just what everyone needs."
