Once upon a time a 14-year-old schoolboy from Larne got in touch with me asking if he could come into the Ask Anne office to learn his trade.
Wind on 30 years and Thomas Magill has a CV to envy. He worked for BBC Essex radio; has been editor of a fashion and theatre magazine; is currently a senior television reporter with BBC TV in London; and often to be seen on the main channel at weekends.
Obviously visiting Ulster Television studios made an impression on the teenager who went home knowing that some day that would be his world.
From St Comgall’s Comprehensive he ended up in Larne Grammar, then on to London South Bank University and a degree in town planning. He spent the next 12 years with Westminster City Council where his patch was Oxford Street and Soho; and then into the private sector with one of UK’s biggest building contractors.
“But the bubble burst and they closed the planning department down. At 32, I went from a very substantial wage, a flat in central London, and a company car to being unemployed.
“So in 2009 I took my redundancy money, went back to school and gained a degree in journalism and began looking for work.”
He found it with BBC Essex Radio where he began at the bottom of the ladder to contributing regular packages.
“I was working with Alison Hodgkins-Brown – she taught me my craft. One of my first assignments was in a field reporting on a local greenbelt – Alison told me it was unbroadcastable, it was the worst moment of my life.”
But she saw promise in the young man and took him back to the same spot the next day and explained that the piece was dead, there was no atmosphere.
“Don’t walk on soft grass” she said, “we want to hear your feet walk through the fields, we want to hear that creaking gate. Then I was able to build up a piece with a sound background”.
It reminds me of a director in Ulster Television who would insist on ‘bird twit and atmos’ in all his outside recordings.
A career with many highlights
He got an exclusive in October 2011. “I was told you’re Irish, go and get the story.”
It was the eviction of 80 traveller families from Dale Farm, the largest such site in Europe.
“Although hundreds of press were at the front gate waiting for the fireworks, I decided to go to the other end of the site where the bailiffs were gathering with police in riot gear and gas masks.”
As they swept in, dismantling trailers. smashing the holy shrines in the vans, and chasing the people; he followed them in, running alongside describing the scene as he went, his report so impressed his bosses that they immediately gave him a permanent BBC contract.
He also remembers the tragedy in Harlow, Essex, in which six members of one family were burned to death in an arson attack on their home.
Dr Abdul Shakoor lost his wife and five children in the summer of 2022. Thomas reported from the funeral and outside the Harlow Islamic Centre as he watched the five little white coffins carrying the children, he broke down.
“I was unable to give a commentary without showing emotion.” It is this empathy which endears him to his public.
Thomas moved from radio to television and this year has brought high profile reporting.
“It’s been an historic year. First the jubilee celebrations, then covering the queen’s funeral live and then the coronation, which was huge. It was an honour having a ringside seat. I was on the Mall and then outside Buckingham Palace – it’s the best job in the world.”
But things don’t always go according to plan.
“On Thursday, live from our Buckingham Palace studio, I was giving the build-up to the procession and going through the route with graphics.
“All was going well but when I got to the third point on the graphics, I realised I’d left my notes beside the camera. I thought, oh sugar, how am I going to get through another 14 points without them. I smiled at the viewers, and said ‘sorry I have to get my notes’ and bent over to pick them up – thank goodness I’m not bald.”
He has built a personality which viewers love. His style has been called quirky, although his sister prefers ‘geek chic’, his distinctive owlish spectacles and his specialist ties which have become a fashion statement. However, he is conscious they must never be a distraction.
“Balance is so important, especially for instance, when covering stories within the LGBT+ community; being aware not to promote, yet recognising that they are under represented. It’s all about telling the story fairly – and without prejudice.”
Tom’s special interviewee
“Kylie Minogue – when she received an honorary degree in recognition of her work promoting breast cancer awareness. It was a serious interview rather than showbiz chat. They say never meet your idol, but this was an exception, she was sweet and my favourite – but I’ve yet to meet Madonna.”
His most disappointing interviewee was Liam Neeson.
“We talked about Carnlough. I told him my mum and dad had met at Smith’s dance hall in the town many years ago. It was a great and warm interview – but when I asked could I get a photo for the BBC records he barked ‘that’s not allowed’ and stormed off.”
It makes him laugh looking back to the start of his career and being told ‘you’ll never get to read the news with that accent’.
Well, he proved them well and truly wrong.
As a car picks him up at 3am every morning to travel to BBC London TV studios for the early news bulletin – he can now sit back and think how far that 14-year-old boy has come.
I feel a sense of personal pride that his visit to Ulster Television set him on his way.
