Scorchio! The Story of the Weather Girl

Within weeks of starting as a weather presenter, Sam Fraser’s arse had its own online fan club and she featured on a YouTube channel called Babes of Britain. She hadn’t imagined that decades after the Fast Show comedy sketch Scorchio, the stereotype of the 'weather girl' still held firm. Despite degrees in meteorology and physics or Met Office training, female weather presenters were still seen as dizzy sidekicks to the news anchor, legitimate targets to be sexualized by the media and harassed. Sam puts down her clicker and asks why is the ‘weather girl’ one of the most fetishized roles in popular culture. She hears about the arrival of women into the industry from John Kettley, one of the first weather presenter gods; the role of Bill Giles’ belly in gender equality from ITV’s Sian Lloyd and about the impact on industry of the fun, sexy, flirty and most enticingly Swedish presenter Ulrika Jonsson. Digging through tabloids she sees they are used as clickbait, portrayed as women deliberately inviting you to look at them 'Sarah Keith-Lucas flaunts curves in skin-tight dress,' 'Laura Tobin distracts ITV viewers as she sizzles in leather mini dress,' 'Carol Kirkwood stuns in busty floral dress’. And Sam discovers how if they do not live up to the ‘weather girl’ image, they are shamed for wearing glasses, being too fat, or as one celebrity shamelessly tweeted “MASSIVELY too ugly” for the job. Sarah Leigh Barnett recounts how she was publicly insulted by Boris Johnson when she started presenting; Kate Kinsella the impact of being bombarded with porn on her and her family; and Reham Khan how the term ‘weather girl’ is weaponized against her in Pakistan, used to suggest she too ignorant and immoral to be in politics. Producer: Sarah Bowen