Growing up in the shadow of the Arrochar Alps, Emma Dodds’ love of playing all manner of sports was only marginally eclipsed by the joy she derived from speaking about them.
‘Every report card I got at school said: “Emma talks too much”,’ laughs the Premier Sports presenter.
With hindsight, the succession of teachers who registered their disapproval might be moved to reconsider.
She has continued talking throughout a varied career but has listened attentively, too. An insatiable appetite for hard work has shaped her – and led to the point where her bright personality is a near constant on the TV screens of fellow sports fans.
The calmness and composure she exudes while anchoring live broadcasts has been acquired through assiduously learning her craft.
Emma Dodds is at the peak of her powers having risen through the ranks of TV and media
Dodds is a regular sight on Premier Sports alongside the likes of Mulgrew and Stewart
The Arrochar-raised presenter is on hand to keep some of Scotland’s biggest pundits in check
Asked about how she got started, Dodds says: ‘You need to write to people, you need to try and get work experience, you need to go and work for free, meet people.
‘So that’s what I did. I wrote some letters.
‘My first work experience was on Wheel of Fortune up at Cowcaddens. I was 14.
‘I basically sat in the office, opening the mail, then I had to go to Marks and Spencer to get the food for the green room. I had to make sure Jenny Powell and Nicky Campbell were okay and did everything they needed. I was basically a dogsbody.’
She had, however, been bitten by the TV bug. A talented enough basketball player to merit a scholarship in the USA, Dodds eschewed an educational opportunity on the other side of the pond in favour of one closer to home.
‘It would probably have been Boston, but I started working with Radio Clyde at the weekends,’ she recalls.
‘I was a runner. Tiger Tim was on before us, so I’d then end up getting to have lunch with him in the canteen.
One of Dodds’ first jobs in TV was as a ‘dogsbody’ on the set of STV’s Wheel of Fortune
‘I then finished school and would just pick up any shifts that I could. I was doing Jambusters (travel).
‘Coming from Arrochar, I didn’t have a clue what people were talking about. I didn’t really know Glasgow that well.
‘I would do everything. I delivered the 102.5 donuts from George Bowie’s breakfast show to prize winner’s homes.
‘Then I’d finish that and the promotions team were, like: “Emma, come here, we’ve got something else for you…”
The reward eventually came in the form of lugging broadcasting kit to stadiums on Saturdays after attending Friday press conferences.
‘I look back now and think, God, what stupid questions you were asking!’ she grimaces. ‘It was really daunting.’
Dodds speaks to Mail Sport’s John McGarry about her colourful career in sports journalism
Her first full-time post came at the home of her boyhood heroes Rangers just as the concept of club media took root.
‘That was when I learned to film and talk on camera,’ she recalls.
A bold left-field move to Paris to work with Warner Bros followed. ‘It was working with a really creative director who wanted to market their artists beyond the actual music,’ she explains.
‘It was at the start of social media. They also had a connection with PSG, so I was helping them with things like Pauleta’s 100 Greatest Goals DVD.’
A return to Scotland to work for Setanta proved ill-fated but exposed her to the demands of the touchline reporter at New Douglas Park.
The broadcasting company’s demise preceded a brief return to Rangers TV, then stints spent mostly behind the camera with Sky Sports in Leeds and London.
Dodds feels at home working in Scottish football and has a clear rapport with the top pundits
When BT Sport (now TNT) moved into the Scottish market in 2013, it afforded an opportunity to return north. But, after one year, Dodds was made an offer in Dubai that she couldn’t refuse.
As head of sport for the Arab Media Group, she had responsibility for nine radio stations while helping negotiate media rights for sporting events including F1, tennis and golf.
‘It was mad,’ she recalls. ‘We were having an hour with Rory McIlroy, sitting in a store in the Dubai Mall, and then David Beckham opened an Adidas shop at the Mall of the Emirates. You get so much access out there.’
The chance to work at Rio 2016 with the Olympic Broadcasting Service felt like the perfect staging post on the road home.
The subsequent eight years have been increasingly hectic, but fulfilling. While the additional demands of fronting rugby coverage this season necessitates more time spent away from her Helensburgh home, there are plenty of stolen moments.
Has anyone else recently teed it up with Pep Guardiola at the Belfry?
Pep Guardiola was one of the star names Dodds encountered during a spell working in Dubai
‘It was a competition I actually first started working with in Dubai called the Icons Cup – basically a Ryder Cup-style event but with non-golfers,’ Dodds explains.
‘When I worked on it in Dubai, I was actually just doing interviews. It was insane, people like Shane Warne, Oscar De La Hoya, Dwight Yorke, Wayne Gretzky and Mike Tindall.
‘Then they brought it over to the Belfry and it was only footballers, so it ended up being England against the rest of the world – ex-players like Gabriel Batistuta.
‘It was the Pro-Am day. And, yeah, he (Guardiola) is a bloody good golfer.
‘He’s as much of a perfectionist on the golf course as as he is off it.
‘It was interesting. You’re getting to spend quite a long period of time in the company of one of the best football minds on the planet.
Dodds insists she doesn’t let social media affect her and has even put a ban on it in her house
‘I still get starstruck when I see cool people.
‘Asking (Rafa) Nadal in Paris if he’s about to retire, and speaking to him right after he’s lost, that gives you a bit of a buzz.
‘Then you end up on the red carpet for the opening ceremony at the Olympics, and it’s, like, John Legend. And you’re, like, this is mad. How did I get here?’
An ability to meet the demands of an ever-changing media landscape certainly helps.
The days of TV presenters delivering and fishing for bland cliches from pundits are thankfully gone. The viewer now expects a greater insight for their buck.
‘Sport’s changed, hasn’t it?’ says Dodds. ‘I feel we also know more about the people who are playing because of social media.
Dodds will be at Hampden presenting both of next week’s Premier Sports Cup semi-finals
‘Part of my prep now is not even just the stats packs. I’ll go on somebody’s Instagram story and see what they’ve been doing during the week.
‘I try, certainly, to bring a different way of talking to people into the interviews I’m doing.’
She believes an off-screen rapport with pundits is essential to enhance the final product.
‘They’re all absolutely brilliant people,’ she says of a stellar cast list.
‘I’ve known Coisty (Ally McCoist) for donkey’s years and I think you can see that on screen. I’ve worked with Neil Lennon so many times now.
‘I’ve only been working with Charlie Mulgrew for a couple of weeks on the Scottish stuff, but I’ve known Alan Hutton for years.
‘A lot of us will go out and socialise together. While you don’t necessarily have to agree on a point on air, it’ll be a respectful conversation.
‘Ultimately, we’re trying to get the best content for the viewer.’
Dodds is at peace with the fact that her best efforts will never please everyone in the digital age.
Dodds helps out with the Scottish Cup draw alongside comedian Greg Hemphill
Dodds admits she has a favourite team but says it wouldn’t stop her asking difficult questions
While Becky Morgan, the Welsh golf star she married on the banks of Loch Lomond last year, occasionally gets perturbed by social-media criticism, Dodds has learned to let it wash over her.
‘I will take critique from people who I value, people I work with, people I work for, my loved ones,’ she explains.
‘Becky used to put my name into Twitter, and be, like, “Oh my God, did you see that?”
‘So, we’ve now got a ban on it in the house. Who cares?’
She is also refreshingly at ease with the fact she grew up a Rangers supporter.
‘They (opposing fans) question my neutrality all the time and I find that a little disrespectful,’ she continues. ‘We all grew up supporting someone, which is why we are in the job.
‘(Eilidh) Barbour supports St Johnstone, but it’s not questioned.
‘Laura Woods is a massive Arsenal fan. Jake (Humphrey) is a Norwich fan. Lynsey (Hipgrave) is a Newcastle fan, Jules (Breach) is a Brighton fan. It’s a West of Scotland thing, for sure.
‘I get a bit of stick at the stadiums occasionally, but it doesn’t bother me at all.
Dodds admits she is ‘obsessed’ by sport and will never take her job for granted
‘I’d be the first to ask a difficult question about Rangers. I genuinely don’t really care what people say, so long as I feel that I’ve done a good job.’
After an engaging hour-long conversation, a check of her phone confirms that she has no reason to question herself in that regard.
With places to be and people to see, Dodds is in high demand in a cut-throat sector for reasons that don’t need explaining.
The hard yards have paid off. Just don’t expect her to ever distance herself from the passion that’s been her constant companion along the way.
‘We went to the NFL at Tottenham last Sunday on my day off,’ she smiles.
‘I’ve also got two TVs in my house that I can see from my centre island in the kitchen and they’re both normally on sport. She (Morgan) has to fight to get the golf on one of them. I’m just absolutely obsessed by it.
‘I have a huff and puff about the travel, but I love it. I’ll never take it for granted.’
■ Emma Dodds is the presenter of Premier Sports’ coverage of Scottish football including the Premier Sports Cup, the Scottish Cup and the Scottish Premiership. Next weekend Emma will host coverage of the Premier Sports Cup semi-final ties Celtic v Aberdeen on Saturday from 5pm and Rangers v Motherwell on Sunday from 2.30pm, both on Premier Sports 1.
