At home with Faye Barker

Faye Barker is a TV presenter and reporter for ITV News and she can be seen regularly presenting news programmes at weekends and ITV News London bulletins during Good Morning Britain and following News at Ten. She talks to Lynda Clark about her fascinating career, her first home and has some sound advice for first time buyers

Photos: Grant Pritchard

FTB: Tell us about your first step on the property ladder.

FB: I had been living in London but I was offered a presenting job with ITV Yorkshire’s regional news programme in 2001, so I moved up to Leeds. Trying to buy in London was out of the question but the house prices in Leeds were far more affordable, so my partner (now husband) and I bought a little city centre apartment. It was in a converted textile mill by the river, so it was full of character, despite being very small. We decided to sell in 2005 as we were moving back to London but we experienced a very big problem. As first time buyers, we hadn’t realised the full implications of the apartment having a short lease. It ended up taking a year to sell, and eventually, as it became a sticking point with our buyer, we dropped the price. We were lucky in the end though, as there was only a month when we had to pay both the mortgage on the Leeds flat and the rent on the new place we were moving to in London.

FTB: Where do you live now?

FB: After six months of renting we bought a property in Teddington, which I loved, and lived there for many years. But with a growing family we ran out of space and just couldn’t afford to stay in the area. My husband had read an article about good commuter villages and we decided to take a look at some of them. We fell in love with a house in Ashtead, Surrey, as it was the perfect property for a family and it also ticked all our other boxes like decent transport links and good schools. Ashtead has a very different feel to it than Teddington but, now I’m used to it, I really like it, and it’s now home.

FTB: Tell us about your career?

FB: When I was very young I watched Blue

“DON’T BE AFRAID OF BUYING A HOME WITH A PROJECT. ALL THE PLACES I HAVE LIVED IN NEEDED SOME WORK AND I HAVE ENJOYED THE RENOVATIONS. I THINK GETTING ON THE LADDER IS ONLY A WIN, WIN SITUATION!”

“WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG I WATCHED BLUE PETER AND ALWAYS IMAGINED I WOULD LIKE TO BE A TV PRESENTER. THAT REMAINED WITH ME AND I WAS VERY FOCUSED AND KNEW WHICH PATH I WANTED TO FOLLOW”

Peter and always imagined I would like to be a TV presenter. That remained with me and I was very focused and knew which path I wanted to follow. I love theatre and enjoyed performing, so I suppose some of that goes hand-in-hand with the work I do now, and I’ve always been interested in people’s stories. I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door with some work experience which led to a job for a rolling business news channel called EBN, which later became part of CNBC. Being in the newsroom with tight deadlines and dealing with current affairs sat very well with me. I then joined ITN as a Production Journalist and, when I was 24, I made my network reporting debut with 5 News and presented my very first bulletin. I then moved on to a presenting job with ITV Yorkshire’s regional news programme, Calendar, before returning to London where I was a freelance presenter and reporter working for several broadcasters, including Sky News. In 2009, I returned to ITN as a presenter for the ITV Morning News, London Tonight and other ITV News bulletins.

FTB: What is one of the highlights of your working life?

FB: When I worked for ITV Yorkshire I was asked to be an undercover reporter on a series called Package Holiday Undercover. We posed as tourists and went to various holiday destinations where there were reports that hotels and holiday complexes were in a terrible condition. We did lots of research of course, but we had to be very careful not to get found out, so we had cameras hidden in handbags. It was very edgy but great fun and as a young, fearless reporter I loved it. I was involved over three summers and I enjoyed the travel and the acting element to it. Of course now that kind of programme would be completely different, as everyone films everything on their phones.

FTB: When it comes to news reporting is there a story that stands out?

FB: I have been fortunate to work on so many significant moments in our recent history so it’s hard to pick out one story. The news can be pretty harrowing at times so I feel you have to keep a professional level of detachment, but at the same time remain empathetic. Of course we get affected at times and I’m glad to cover a lot of uplifting and optimistic stories too. Recently I did an interview with Taras Topolia, the lead singer of a Ukrainian rock band called Antytila, to talk about their collaboration with Ed Sheeran. Taras is currently serving with the army and was talking to me over Zoom while travelling in a military vehicle near Kharkiv. He was very stoical and brave, but it’s clearly very hard for them. At the end, he thanked me several times for helping to tell their story, which felt quite emotional and a little surreal, as I was sitting in a warm, comfortable studio while he was out there fighting in a war zone.

FTB: How do you relax?

FB: I have a very busy life juggling three children and my work but what I call my “therapy” is my weekly dance class. It takes me about half an hour to drive there so I put on my favourite music and then have the class, which is modern contemporary dance, and then I drive home. I try not to miss it as it’s something I really look forward to so much, as it’s my total escape!

FTB: What are your plans for the future?

FB: Well I love my work so I would like to just carry on doing what I am doing! Recently, I have been dabbling in some radio as an occasional presenter for LBC News, which I have really enjoyed. I also work on the ITV News podcast, What You Need To Know, which we began in the pandemic. It’s been great to cover so many areas of the news in greater depth and I think more and more people are turning to audio to listen on demand. I also fancy doing Strictly Come Dancing but I think there is a long queue for that! I’m always open to ideas so I suppose it’s just a case of watch this space!

FTB: What advice do you have for first time buyers?

FB: Knowledge is power. Going back to the problem we had with our lease, if we had known more about it, we may have never bought that particular property in Leeds. Another tip is to do your research about future plans for the area. And don’t be afraid of buying a home with a project. All the places I have lived in needed some work and I have enjoyed the renovations. I think getting on the ladder is only a win, win situation!