Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and past times that make them who they are.
Alastair Stewart is a journalist and broadcaster. He was a newsreader on ITV News for over 35 years and is the longest-serving male newsreader on British Television. He has recently become a relief presenter for Talk Radio and is a patron for a number of charities including Kids for Kids, Scope and Brooke.
These are a few of his favourite things…
Our Animal
From Aesop to Beatrix Potter, animals are celebrated for their great qualities and character, they are so much more than lumbering things that clamber up on you and try to lick you. We are “horsey” types but also have a couple of donkeys, a cat and two dogs. In pre-covid times, some of the horses are competitive showjumpers, ridden by our youngest son; one is a rescued rare-breed, Door-mouse the Exmoor; one is a super-charged Shetland, Nutkin, who we took on from a friend who couldn’t keep him. In these troubled times, their presence and affections have grown in significance. They are a source of solace and their loyalty and dependence are curiously reassuring. From early morning exercise to late-night feeds and double rugging against the cold, the duties have grown into acts of reciprocated love. They give the current trials of humanity a context. They know nothing of test and trace or viral variants and have no interest in point scoring politics. All are loved; all are so much more than pets. All are among our favourite things.
