Trisha Goddard Changed My Life

Life wasn’t the same after 2004, before then you could count on Trisha. Every weekday morning, rain or shine, she would be there. Helping people find their long lost family members, finding out who stole the money from nan’s purse or even helping those who have had their hearts broken learn to love again.
You knew what you were getting with Trisha.
One of my fondest memories was is of me sipping hot Ribena on a morning home sick from school, as I dunked my gingerbread biscuit into the blackcurrant mixture, Trisha was putting the world to rights. One dysfunctional family at a time.

Although “Trisha” ran in the Uk until 2010 and our very own Ms Goddard had a fruitful career across the pond in the USA for many years thereafter. There was nothing quite like late 90’s ITV Trisha.
It probably isn’t missed on you that I work in TV and yes Trisha is my main inspiration; to put it frankly I had never and haven’t ever since seen a Black woman hold her own on such a commercial format. Trisha was the representation I didn’t even know we, as young Black women, needed and for that I thank her.

I thank her for merely existing in a time when Black faces and especially the faces of Black women just didn’t exist. Not on TV, not positively and not in the 90’s.

Don’t get me wrong, the Trisha show wasn’t exactly ground breaking tv. If you are unlucky enough to never have witnessed Trish in her daytime telly setting, think more “man scared of baked beans come face to face with Heinz” than educating the masses. When her show first began in 1998 it focused on the every day story, guests included regular people who made the headlines and it was full of ‘lighthearted’ debate. As the 00’s came, so did the publics thirst for the ratchet and Trisha then took on a more Jerry-Springer-esque vibe, with

I respect her for standing her own and taking The Trisha Show to Channel 5 when ITV refused to allow her own production company to take over the creating of the show. she survived a smear campaign by ITV who did their best to sabotage poor Trisha when she moved over to channel 5 and even though the new show didn’t attract the same audience as before (500k viewers compared with 1.3mil) it didn’t matter. Well I am sure it mattered, but not to me. At all because Trisha was still there.

I admire for her branching out and making that leap overseas as so many people are desperate to do and actually making it work with The Trisha Goddard show that was a spin off of the ever-entertaining Maury show.

Trisha began working as a TV presenter in 1987 and til this day is still on our screens, even if she only lasted one week on Dancing On Ice (YOU WERE ROBBED TRISH!

When it came to featuring extraordinary Black Britons for Sistem magazine it was easy to identify Trisha as one who deserves a place.
There is so much more to say about Trisha Goddard and how she has inspired me, Trisha the mother, the cancer survivor and the corporation but I will leave you with this.
Trisha Goddard is the woman who showed me that you CAN be Black and on TV every day and NOT just to debate your very existence as being Black and on TV. The woman that proved that there is space for us in a world that is so full of white bodies and where people of colour are often relegated to segments about winning £10,000, a car and a jacuzzi full of all of the latest tech.

Trisha was the star of her own show and for that alone she deserves all of the flowers.