TV presenter Grace Webb joins hosts David Prutton and Iwan Thomas on motorcycling podcast Full Chat to discuss her career and passion for bikes.
Webb is best known for presenting television shows such as Fifth Gear, BBC‘s Grace’s Amazing Machines and covering the Isle of Man TT for ITV.
The former primary school teacher sat down with Thomas and Prutton to discuss how she got her big break in TV whilst teaching, her love of motorbikes and riding pillion with John McGuinness.
Grace Webb on life before Grace’s Amazing Machines
During the episode, Webb revealed how she fell into television presenting after a BBC producer saw a clip on social media of her interviewing a motorcycle racer during an event at Thundersport.
“When that (Grace’s Amazing Machines) opportunity came about, I was teaching full time,” she explained.
“But my interest and my hobby was in motorsport anyway, so it kind of came about because my brothers raced motorbikes for a championship called Thundersport, which unfortunately no longer runs at the moment, but it was a great platform for young riders and people who just wanted to scratch their racing itch.”
“I would go along and support them and do what I could, whether that was holding their pit boards, or changing their wheels, I’d get involved where I could. Then Thundersport asked if I wanted to do a stint interviewing some of the riders, because they wanted to showcase some of the races online and on Freeview.
“And for the riders racing it was great for them because it looked really professional for them to be interviewed, and it looked good for their sponsors and to try and get more sponsors onboard.
“So I did a bit of that and one of the riders had posted a video of me interviewing them on their Facebook, and that was the clip that was seen by the producer at the BBC. They said to me: ‘We’re looking for a presenter for a children’s show about motorsport, would you like to try out for it?’
“At the time I was like this would be a good story to tell down the pub. But I went for the interview which was in a disused car park in Manchester where they’d hired a car and I had to pretend it was a rally car.
“They sent me a script with some pointers. Still at this point I was like ‘wait till I tell my mates about this.’ But a few days later they rang back and said they’d like to give me the job. Then about two weeks after that I left my full-time teaching job and went to present Grace’s Amazing Machines which was such a surreal time.
“I’m very much a sports bike lover, and I was a biker. I had a licence and that was my weekend hobby to go for a ride and then on Monday mornings you’d go and do your job.
“But when Amazing Machines came about and it married those two passions of mine (of biking and working with children) it then was a springboard for other things and I’ve rolled with it.”
Plenty more episodes of Full Chat to enjoy
Series three is off to the races, but we’ve also got a host of episodes for you to listen to if you’ve missed the previous two series of our motorcycling podcast.
You can listen to Full Chat on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or various other platforms if you want to see what all the fuss is about.