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Angela Lamont is a Tech & Science presenter who attended The Westwood School and then studied IT at De Montfort University.  She worked for IBM and British Gas among others, becoming British Gas’ youngest ever female senior manager.  Then, aged 25, she was chosen to tour the UK and Ireland presenting the prestigious Faraday Lecture for a year.  After the tour, she joined the BBC as a science presenter, fronting over 200 broadcast shows on BBC1, BBC2, Radio 4, 5 Live and The World Service and winning multiple awards (including a BAFTA) with the CBBC show. “It’ll Never Work?”.

 

 In 2011 Angela founded Chaos Films producing animations and films for the STEM sector, covering topics from Fusion energy to probability, black holes and even the science underlying beer and gin!   She also works as a conference MC and keynote speaker with organisations such as CERN, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Ericsson and the European Space Agency.

 

do you have any fond Alderman Callow memories you'd like to share?

I have lots of fond memories, especially from sixth form, which back then was a tertiary college with students from Tile Hill School and Woodlands.  You might think that students from three separate schools would stay in their own groups, but everyone just mixed so well and we had so many good times, socials and much silliness between lessons!

 

For example, when it came to learning to drive, the older sixth formers taught the younger ones in the common room - and the students turned the sofa into a human ‘car’ for them to learn in!  Two students would lie down to allow their feet to become the clutch, brake and accelerator pedals (including making the engine noises!), one would sit with their elbow on the seat and their fist was the gear lever.  A round tea-tray served as the steering wheel and if any of the girls had a mirror to hand, they’d position it to be the rear view mirror. It sounds ridiculous now, when I write it down, but at the time it was a remarkably good way of learning how to use the pedals and go up through the gears…and just SO much fun.  And if anyone braked too hard, the screeching noise could probably be heard at the other end of the school...!

 

how has your time at Alderman Callow School inspired your career?

I think taking part in the school plays and being chair of the school council really gave me a lot of confidence.  Because I was from outside the catchment area, I didn’t know anyone (except my older brother) when I started at the school and I was incredibly shy to start with.  But people were so willing to chat and make friends. By the time I left, I think I knew everyone in the whole school!

 

do you keep in touch with any former classmates? If so, how has your relationship with these people impacted your career?

I don’t live in the area any more, but I'm still in touch on social media with about 20 people from my year.  It’s so lovely to see everyone’s kids grow up…and look just like the teenage classmates I remember!!  Lol.  I’ve never interacted with any of them professionally, it’s just nice to keep in touch socially.

 

Did you have a favourite teacher? If so, why is he/she your favourite?  What makes a teacher good?

My favourite teacher was Jan Drewry, who taught biology and had an amazing knack of being able to ‘reach’ teenagers even if they couldn’t care less about science.  She just had SO much energy and passion for her topic..and for our futures.  She was really keen for us to interact and engage.  She was also the ‘cool’ kind of teacher who you could call by their first name instead of “miss” or “sir”.  We liked that!  But she was also a great teacher, in that she never avoided questions, always gave you a straight answer and she really cared about how you were doing and just genuinely wanted everyone to be successful and happy in later life.

I wouldn’t have said my English teacher was my favourite, but she definitely had the biggest impact on me, career-wise.  I knew she was a really good teacher, but something happened that frankly, at the time, made me feel quite upset…but now I feel that moment was absolutely the making of me.  It changed my life completely and allowed me to do everything I did after leaving school.  I owe Margaret Cowgill from Alderman Callow School my whole career.  I wish I could find her and tell her that.

When I was 14, we were reading a play out loud in class.  I was given a part to read and afterwards, Mrs Cowgill kept me behind.  She asked why I hadn’t characterised the part to my full ability.  I replied that I was feeling a bit shy about reading out loud.

“Why?”, she asked

“Because when you read out loud, people focus on you and it’s a bit intimidating”, I replied.  After all, we all know that moment when you’re reading a part and people make fun of your attempts, right?  The truth is, I was trying to keep a low profile to avoid later ridicule…and she knew it.

“You think people notice you?”  WHY would people care about YOU?  You’ve got to have a big ego to think that about yourself.  What makes you think you’re so special?”

I tried to explain I didn’t think I was special at all, but she wouldn’t have it.  She said that I should just get on with it and stop caring what other people thought because they probably didn’t think anything at all.

She basically tore a strip off me and later, at home, I had a good old cry about it!  I didn’t hate her though, because I knew she was right…but sometimes we all need to hear things we don’t want to hear.

Decades later, I realised she’d taught me the biggest secret to a happy life.  Ditch your ego at a young age.  Stop caring what others think.

Her words were the reason I became a successful model aged 18, which allowed me to pay my way through uni with no debt at all.  In fact, I bought a house in my third year.  Whilst other models thought their job was to ‘be pretty’, I knew I wasn’t pretty and knew my job was to show off the clothes.  It was all about the product, not me.

In my twenties I became a TV presenter.  When you do that, you have to appear as if you don’t know things that you actually do know inside out.  You have to not worry if you make a fool of yourself.  You have to not care what the media (or anyone else) thinks of you or says about you.

The only way you can survive any of this is to have no ego and no belief that you’re better than anyone else, but just concentrate on doing a good job.

Mrs Cowgill took away my ego aged 14 and set me free to do anything.  That’s what I owe to The Westwood School.  Yep, even though she made me cry at the time!!

What has your career path been?

After Alderman Callow I did a degree in IT (first class honours), including an intern year at IBM.  Whilst studying, I paid my way through uni by modelling for Levi’s jeans, Christian Dior, Pretty Polly and Corah (at the time Corah made most of Marks & Spencer’s clothing).

 

Aged 25, I was selected to tour the UK and Ireland for The Faraday Lecture - a prestigious science lecture and then afterwards the BBC gave me a show on BBC1 and one on Radio 4.  I made broadcast TV and radio shows for over a decade, but then after starting a family, I started my own production company to make factual STEM content for university and corporate clients.

 

I’m now launching my own science-comedy channel to celebrate ordinary people doing extraordinary things…. It’s under wraps for now but will launch in October.

 

Can you tell us about Chaos Films and your role within the company?

Chaos Films was founded to make films that show complex ideas in a way that anyone can understand.  I hate, hate, hate jargon, tech-speak and anything that makes people feel like they don’t understand something or that they’re ’not smart enough'.  When we made my CBBC show, “It’ll Never Work?”, some people said that we’d never be able to explain things like semiconductors to kids.  We said “rubbish!  You can explain it to anyone…just make them laugh first!”.  It’s an attitude that has guided my whole career.  Lots of adults tell me “I don’t understand computers" or "I’m no good at anything technical” but that’s the fault of whoever was explaining it to them…it’s not something lacking in themselves.  You can explain anything to anyone.

 

How did you come into being a presenter & keynote speaker?

I’m the youngest of four and my three elder siblings are all geniuses.  The eldest lived for optometry.  The next one studied Chemistry to PhD level and the third did a degree in physics and then went into IT.

 

You can imagine Sunday lunch, right, where everyone is talking about their week?  My Mum didn’t understand a freaking word of it.  So I became the translator.  I translated their science jargon into plain English.  I had no idea at the time that it would become my job.

 

Typical Sunday lunch conversation:

Sibling - “blah blah blah database blah blah blah"

Mum - "what’s a database?”

Sibling - “blah blah blah data item blah blah structure blah blah configure blah blah store blah blah”

Me - “you know how you file stuff alphabetically in a filing cabinet?  Well, what if you didn’t know someone’s name, but you know their date of birth and their address…or their National Insurance Number?  In fact, what if you could find them just based on any bit of information you do know about them?  That’s like a database.  And you could run reports based on age or height or anything you like”.

Mum - “Why can’t he say it like that?”

Me - “Because he’s a bonafide genius and has really clever new ideas and I just explain what he says…”

 

If you’d told me I could get a job doing that, I wouldn’t have believed you.  But the fact is, for most people at school right now…they’re likely to end up doing something that we don’t even know exists yet…and that most people won’t understand.  Think about AI, about digital marketing, about remote working…none of that existed when I was at school, wondering what the heck I was going to be when I grew up.

Do you have a favourite job or conference you have presented? If so, why?

My favourite job EVER was presenting the CBBC show “It’ll Never Work?” for six years.  Because it was science…but it was silly.  It was genius but it was fun.  All of life should be like that!  Doing amazing stuff and having a laugh along the way!  And we had the loveliest and best team you can imagine working on the show.

 

What key skills do you need in your line of work?

The ability to answer the question people ALWAYS have when faced with new information.  “Why should I even care about that?”.

Other skills include a thick hide, a good brain and the ability to make a killer cup of tea.

 

Do you have any up-and-coming projects you can tell us about?

 

I have an insanely exciting project coming up…but I can’t mention it quite yet!!!