Hazel Irvine MBE: Outstanding Contribution to Television

Today, it’s hard to imagine any sports programme not including female representation. Whether hosting in the studio, punditry, commentating or reporting from the sidelines. But when Hazel Irvine first appeared on Scottish Television (STV) in the mid-1980s it was a rarity.

She may not have been the first – Irvine has cited the likes of fellow Scot and STV presenter Sally McNair as an early inspiration – but she was a trailblazer in her own right. Becoming the first woman to fully anchor a dedicated football programme on British television and the youngest ever presenter of the BBC’s main sports programme, Grandstand, in 1992.

And if visibility is one potent way of inspiring others, Irvine has thankfully hardly been off our screens since making her debut back in 1987. First as a reporter for STV and then as presenter of BBC Scotland’s Friday night sports preview programme, Sportscene, in 1990.

Her affable, almost informal on-screen manner – accented with that deep, silky twang from her St Andrews heritage – matches well with her great knowledge, deep understanding and real passion for sport. Solidified by representing the University of St Andrews in golf, netball and athletics.

She has been an integral part of the BBC’s coverage of all major sporting events for more than three decades. Multiple World Cups (both Men’s and Women’s), the British and Scottish Opens, the US Masters, Wimbledon, the Snooker World Championships, the London Marathon, the Boat Race, the Commonwealth Games and many more have all been and gone under Irvine’s expert watch.

She’s co-fronted every Olympics, both summer and winter, for the past 18 years for the BBC – although her first was actually Seoul 1988 for ITV – including the most recent Paris Olympics held earlier this year. She was also the face of Ski Sunday for a decade (1996-2007). And she fronted the BBC’s BAFTA-winning 2009 coverage of the World Athletics Championships.

Other non-sporting programmes she’s helmed include Children in Need, Hogmanay Live, the VE Day Commemorations, the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and health and wellbeing series Feeling Good, and Outside Now, among others. She also chaired the BAFTA albert Sports Consortium (now the Sports Working Group) for 18 months from 2000, helping guide the sports broadcasting community to tackle its environmental impact.

Irvine has been nominated twice for a BAFTA Scotland award, both in the Audience Award category, in 2008 and 2020. And as an executive producer she won for the documentary Glasgow 1967: The Lisbon Lions in 2017. She also won Regional TV Presenter or Commentator at the 1998 Royal Television Society Awards, adding a further RTS win in 2006 for Sports Presenter and nominations in the same category in 2005 and 2015. Earlier this year,  she was awarded an MBE for her services to sport and charity.

Now she can add a BAFTA Scotland Outstanding Contribution to Television award to her deserved list of honours.

She said: “I feel overwhelmed and honoured to join the list of Scottish actors, presenters, writers, directors, producers and Doctor Whos who have received this award over the last two decades. I have admired and looked up to these individuals for much of my life. Thank you to BAFTA Scotland for such an amazing and unexpected honour.”

For more inspiring stories from the world of film, games and TV explore our BAFTA Award Stories.