Sam McAlister
The Mid•Point with Gabby Logan
The Midpoint
4.3 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sam McAllister spent years working behind the scenes as one of the BBC's most tenacious and determined producers — pitching, pushing and refusing to give up until she got the story. And it was that relentless determination that led to her securing one of the most explosive television interviews in recent memory — Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview that shocked the world.
In this episode of Midpoint, Gabby sits down with Sam to talk about the ambition and resilience it takes to succeed in a male dominated industry, what really goes on behind the camera in journalism, and the moment her own story broke. Sam talks about the things she's achieved and how she got there - even when things werent straightforward.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Midpoint. My guest today was one of the best things to come out of the global pandemic. Her online feminist poetry certainly had a following, but it was her 2020 poem of gratitude which was used as a poem to thank the NHS, which sent her career into orbit. She's since become a Sunday Times bestseller. |
| 0:23.6 | She's the UK's number one selling living poet, and her daily social media offerings to her |
| 0:28.2 | two million followers often feel like a morning hug. I am delighted to welcome Donna Ashworth to the |
| 0:33.7 | midpoint. Donna, it is an absolute joy to have you on the midpoint. I say in your |
| 0:39.1 | introduction that you, I guess, are one of the great positives of lockdown. Does it feel like |
| 0:46.0 | that's where things changed for you? Yeah. Yeah, I was just saying earlier today, I am a lockdown |
| 0:50.9 | baby. You know, I'm a pivot person who just started something completely different in lockdown |
| 0:56.7 | and changed my whole life. |
| 0:59.1 | I moved as well from England back home to Scotland in lockdown. |
| 1:04.4 | Well, in between the two lockdown. |
| 1:06.3 | When you were allowed to. |
| 1:09.0 | Changed career. |
| 1:10.3 | My husband changed career because we were out of jobs because of the lockdown. |
| 1:15.4 | So completely, this is a lockdown pivot moment that I'm still very much in choice. |
| 1:21.6 | As somebody who is the best-selling living poet, it seems remarkable that you had another life, you know. |
| 1:30.4 | So tell us a bit about pre-lockdown. |
| 1:33.7 | So my husband and I owned a children's play centre, a very large, you know, with all the ballpills and the noise and chaos constantly, |
| 1:46.6 | which, you know, we thought we'd be a lovely family business to run. But what we didn't realise is seven days a week and you only close |
| 1:52.5 | on new year and, you know, Christmas Day, it's very, very full on. So we were doing that and we |
| 1:59.1 | were ready to move on from it after 10 years. I was ready to move on from it after 10 years. |
| 2:01.4 | I was ready to move on from it after a year. |
| 2:04.9 | But we loved the staff as well and we loved to, you know, the cusset. |
... |
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