When we speak, Laura is fresh
from the red carpet, where she
interviewed Daniel Craig for the new
Bond movie, No Time to Die, at the
world premiere.
Laura said: “It was amazing, but not
quite as glamorous as it might have
appeared! I got the train down in the
morning, was loaded with the cold and
felt horrendous, got changed for the red
carpet in the train toilet, and stood for
hours in freezing torrential rain while it
slowly soaked through my long dress.
“I was due to film a live piece to
camera for STV, for which we had to
film the stars coming down the red
carpet, and quickly send that back to
the studio so they could edit and add in
to my live piece. The stars were really
late arriving so we only got that footage
to the studio ten minutes before my live
segment. As we approached the time I
was due to go live, I couldn’t hear
anything on my earpiece, and we
discovered all the communications were
down in the studio. With a few seconds
to go, and having almost completely lost
my voice because of my cold, I had to
just go for it and improvise which was
an adrenaline-fuelled blur! I got through
it and I have to say, I have never been
more relieved and elated in my life!”
Laura started at GCU in 1998, when
the media world was a very different
one, and the internet was a relatively
new concept.
She said: “I was 17 when I applied to
GCU. I had always done theatre, singing
and acting, and wasn’t sure what path
to take. A friend who I went to school
with mentioned the media course at
GCU because she wanted to get in to
TV, and it struck me that I would quite
like to do that too.
“My overall feeling about GCU was
that it was a really warm, accepting
place, with people from all walks of life.
It was really inclusive, which was a
wonderful thing to be part of. The
experience I got from my GCU course,
particularly the documentary making,
really helped when I went in to work in
the field, and it’s definitely where I got
the TV buzz from.”
Laura was able to do work experience
at STV while she was still a student, two
weeks after graduation she got a call to
offer her a job, and she has been there
ever since! She started life as Assistant
Editor on programmes like Taggart, Scot
Sport, and Politics Now. STV made a lot
of programmes in-house, so she was
involved initially in the edit suite, adding
captions, labelling tapes, and acting as a
runner.
Laura’s talents were quickly
recognised, as was her enthusiasm to
work hard and seize every opportunity.
She tells us: “The drama school child
was always lurking in me, so at STV I
used to just put myself out there for
absolutely everything. At that time, STV
would cover big concerts, so I would
volunteer to be a runner, and get to
learn about big outside broadcast
productions, which I used to love. It was
extra cash in hand and I got to meet the
stars!
“I was asked to do voiceovers for a
time, and then became a Promotions
Producer, because editing and
promotion go hand in hand. I knew I
wanted to move through the different
roles in programme-making. Online
production was still very new at that
26 INTERVIEW
A sneaky peek into the
reality of the red carpet
Journalist and presenter Laura Boyd has had an exceptional career behind and in front of the
camera, interviewing some of the biggest stars in the world. And it all started for her at GCU.
“I loved interviewing
Rod Stewart, and
Dolly Parton.