If you want to get a sense of the real Sue Perkins, you don't
need to be Louis Theroux to find out some basic Perkins facts. A
prolific tweeter - @sueperkins, in case you're not already a
disciple - Sue could comfortably be described as the most popular
out British lesbian on Twitter. With 137,214 followers as we go to
press, she beats Mary Portas and Heather Peace combined and leaves
poor Clare Balding trailing behind, below the 100K mark. A cursory
tweet-trawl yields the following: passionate about the arts
("cultural stuff can be po-faced and rarified but not with me - I'm
a klutz which sort of democratises it a bit") and the NHS, a lover
of good food and dogs (particularly her two beagles and a chocolate
Labrador), Sue's no fan of vivisectionists nor the Tories. She's a
nature-lover: "I cried when I saw the Frozen Planet trailer" and
she's about to get "pimped" by Grazia's fashion editor-at-large,
Mel Rickey (aka Mrs Portas). Last year a picture of her face
positioned unfeasibly close to a pair of testicles - the
owner, you may be relieved to learn, was a gay man - went viral
after a Stonewall event when said chap placed his soft sacs on the
trophy she'd won. It's not something Clare Balding would be game
for, I suggest, when we meet at a pub in north London. In fact in
contrast to Balding's more buttoned-up small-screen persona, Sue
presents as a geeky polymath with a fondness for toilet
humour.
One of the things I love about Sue is the evident passion for the
stuff she does. Unlike many TV presenters, who seem to simply stand
in front of an autocue, Sue's energy and genuine enthusiasm shine
through. Does she do her own research?
"Actually, I don't really see myself as a presenter. I find out
stuff that's interesting and when I see a shy, nervous academic -
never judge a book by its cover - there's always something
interesting in there, some sexy bit of information, and it's my job
to get it out. And if I do get it out, it's because I'm fascinated
by stuff and by people and I'm pretty open to experiences. My
career is predicated on the fact that I know a little about a lot
of things, so I'm an everyman figure."
Read the rest of this interview in the January/February
bumper issue of DIVA
PHOTO L+R
