TV presenter Lucy Meacock pictured in Liverpool (Image: Iain Watts/Liverpool Echo)

Lucy Meacock is one of the most recognisable and respected faces in North West news, but she was worried one of her first reporting jobs might have killed off her broadcasting career at the first hurdle.

Having joined the BBC in the North East after a short stint in local newspapers, Lucy was sent out to report on a fair in the market town of Alnwick. But it wasn't the kind of assignment she was hoping for.

She recalls: “The culture was very chauvinistic. For one of my first jobs, I was sent out to report on this fair and they made me dress up as a maid and sit on one of those old traditional ducking stools.

“And they were just lowering me into the water time and time again. My producer thought it was

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