Plain-speaking Jane shares 30 years of Seven secrets
This week, beloved presenter Jane Doyle celebrates being cancer free and her 30th anniversary reading the news on Adelaide TV — she sits down exclusively with the Sunday Mail to share her secrets.
Jane Doyle belies every one of her 61 years as she nimbly hops on to the newsdesk for Watch’s cover shoot, sitting cross legged like a schoolgirl and exclaiming she wished she knew her shoes would be on display.
She’s a shoe queen you see, and she would have donned her particularly glittery heels she picked up in a Paris adult shop.
She saw sparkles and a big sale sign, her eyes lit up at both and she just had to add them to her extensive collection.
The 7NEWS presenter is a natural on camera, so it’s almost hard to believe as she tells us that learning to pose for publicity pictures has been among the trickiest parts of her role.
But not quite as tricky as landing the job itself.
“I always thought if I could last the first two years, and not get chucked out after three months, I’d be all right,” Jane recalls.
Celebrating 30 years in the role on Wednesday, she’s somewhat overshot just being “all right”.
It was never written in the stars — it was always a case of right place, right time, right attitude and right skills or, rather, a willingness to learn new skills that has seen Jane rise to the top of her game and remain firmly ensconced as Adelaide’s beloved newsreader for three decades.
She was born Jane Buckley in Beaudesert Hospital — just west of the Queensland country town Tamborine Mountain where she grew up. As a young girl, Jane dreamt of being an author. But Mum Joy wanted her to be a teacher, and so she did — “I was a good girl,” Jane says.
She only lasted 18 months in a North Queensland special ed school — the rough treatment of students by a staff member, and attempts by her to fix the situation proving futile, drove her mad, so she left.
“If I’d known then what I know now, I would have got (them) sacked,” Jane says. “But instead I was 20 and I didn’t know how to deal with it.”
While teaching didn’t quite pan out, she did meet her future husband Ian, then also a fellow teacher. “He had a house which he was renovating and I needed accommodation, so became his tenant,” Jane recalls. “He always jokes he moved in when he discovered I could cook.”
There were odd jobs for several months, until she managed, after a knockback or two, to secure a cadetship at the Northern Miner.
Jobs at The Recorder in Port Pirie followed, after Ian, now a journalist too, was offered a position with ABC Radio in the Spencer Gulf city. Hearing the national broadcaster needed some casual radio announcers, she applied. When the couple moved to Adelaide for Ian’s new role on Countrywide the precursor to Landline, Jane assumed she’d walk into a similar role at Collinswood.
She didn’t, but landed the position as TV Week’s Adelaide correspondent, all the while continuing to pester the ABC.
Finally, Jane’s persistence was rewarded with a six-week casual spot, which was renewed and renewed until she was made permanent.
That same attitude of putting herself forward and always being ready to give it a go has shaped Jane’s whole career.
“It’s what I tell young people now — you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time,” she says.
“It’s a very different landscape to when I was starting out, but you still have to be in the right place at the right time, with the right attitude, and the right skills or the preparedness to learn those skills. And be prepared to give everything a go, put your hand up and be prepared to cop it when somebody says, ‘Well thanks for applying, but not this time.’ And just try again, and again, and again.”
It was actually Seven which had to try again and again to lure Jane. She initially turned them down twice — “I think they thought it was about money, but it wasn’t … what was I thinking?’,” she laughs.
Jane remembers that first day at her new network well. Joining the well-established Graeme Goodings — who would go on to become the first of her long-term television husbands — was nerve-racking. Having a shocking flu didn’t help.
“I was very much the newcomer to the partnership, he was very generous,” she says. “I haven’t looked back at that particular tape in many years. I’m sure if I did, I’d see a very stiff version, but I didn’t stuff it up.
“Graeme was enormously supportive that day, and always was. I learnt a lot from him over the years.”
In the fast-paced, competitive and cutthroat news environment, it seems almost an anomaly Jane’s only had two on-air partnerships.
“Yes, it’s a rare thing in 30 years of television to have enjoyed two such successful and happy partnerships — 16 years with Graeme and now 14 and counting with John,” she says. “He and I share a lot of laughs on set — most of which aren’t suitable for broadcast. He’s a very quick-witted and funny man. We’re lucky to have such good rapport and the capacity to trust each other completely when we’re live-to-air each night.”
And while we’ve loved welcoming Jane’s reassuring face and warm smile each night into our homes — often as we eat dinner — it was tough at times for her missing those meals with her own family: Ian and son Henry, now 24.
“He’s my only child, the only experience I had — I don’t think he’s been scarred for life by not having his mother around at dinner time.” she says, with a smile. “I probably missed it more than he did, because fortunately my mother moved from Queensland, she was my real-life nanny.
“I came back to work full time when Henry was six months old, I was still breastfeeding so there were times I’d express (milk) at work. The happy thing is that over the years, my younger colleagues have had the opportunity to have longer periods of time off on maternity leave. At the time, three months was the extent of what I could secure.”
In fact, Jane was among the first to have maternity leave written into her contract. In the past, other women had had to rely on the mercy of their news director.
7NEWS has a strong and admirable history of female newsreaders, and has been very supportive of women in long-term presenting roles. There’s Perth’s Susannah Carr — who pipped Jane at the post, notching up 30 years on air in February 2015, and Kay McGrath in Brisbane. They call themselves the old girls.
Fashions weren’t always as kind as Seven management. And there’s been an abundance of big hair, glasses and earrings over Jane’s 30 years.
“I had the Lady Di haircut before Lady Di had it,” she recalls. “One can’t look back at the ’80s and early ’90s without some horror at the size of the earrings, the shoulder pads, the hair … the perms.”
Jane pays tribute to 7NEWS Adelaide make-up and wardrobe supervisor Suzanne Charnstrom — who’s also celebrating 30-plus years at the network — for reinventing her look every couple of years. “She denies this but she is very much a great part of the reason I am still on television,” Jane says. “She’s one of those unsung women on TV who get no recognition and they should get a lot more.”
And she’s more than happy to have someone oversee her style — and not just because it’s one less decision to make. “Then it’s not my fault when a viewer says ‘you really shouldn’t wear that lolly pink’, I say ‘Oh well, that’s what the stylist makes me wear’,” she jokes. “It’s a bit of a cop out, but it’s much less hurtful when people tell you you looked shocking last night, if you can say ‘oh well it wasn’t my choice’.”
Fashion’s not the only aspect that has changed markedly over her years. Technology has transformed at warp speed, Jane started on a “bang, bang typewriter” to now seamlessly crossing to journalists in other countries on the newsdesk every night. And the stories, world and local events she’s helmed could fill books.
The world-changing September 11 attacks — when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four planes and crashed into New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon — should perhaps have been the standout news event of her career. But 2001 held its own personal tragedy for Jane — it was the year her mother died.
“9/11 was happening while I was literally nursing her at home,” Jane shares. “So I was coming in and reading the biggest story of the century while dealing with the biggest personal trauma of my life.
“I had colleagues saying ‘have you seen this, I’ve been up for 24 hours watching?’ and I was thinking ‘you know what? That’s just fine but I’ve been managing my mother’s morphine’.”
“Obviously I do remember 9/11 but I didn’t become enmeshed in it in the way I normally would have been.”
Many people would have hidden away, but coming to work was an anchor in those heartbreaking times for Jane. Almost a respite.
“It was a difficult juggle, Ian was away filming a documentary but it did provide a sense of normality to come away and do the work.”
It’s that same anchor Jane sought when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, telling the Sunday Mail: “I’ve had one day off where I just felt really flat. But it’s been important for me to just keep my routine as normal as possible. I’ve had wonderful support from Graham Archer, the news director, and from everyone at Seven who has known.”
And in great news, Doyle’s recently been given the all-clear.
Jane had a partial mastectomy and started radiotherapy shortly after, meaning for weeks she had treatment in the morning, then showed up for work and reading the news in the afternoon.
“I think that’s one of the most impressive things about her,” Today Tonight host Rosanna Mangiarelli says. “Regardless of what’s happening behind the scenes, she’s in front of that camera and her prime goal for that night is to deliver the news to South Australians. To an extent we all have to do it, but she does it with such elegance and poise and always has.”
And yes, Jane’s always been a class act. She handles on-air bloopers, usually from others, with grace. She’s certainly never dropped an “F-Bomb” on air — in fact she makes a point of never swearing once she’s in the studio and very rarely out of it. As she tells Watch, she prefers to keep her “fruity” moments for private.
But, as weekend 7NEWS presenter Jessica Adamson says, Jane has an enormous sense of fun. Early in Jess’s 22-year career, and friendship with her colleague, the pair worked at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. They scored last-minute tickets to Cathy Freeman’s famous 400m victory.
“It’s one of my most brilliant memories of our friendship because it was such an incredible night,” Jess recalls. “We went on to celebrate it and we ended up diving head first off the top of our wardrobe on to a single bed. We were trying to recreate Roy and HG’s ‘double pike twists, hello boys’ move from The Dream.
“I still think back and think if something bad had happened to her that night I probably wouldn’t still be here now.”
That moment is now immortalised on Jane’s mousepad, the picture itself a little hazy after many years of use, but the memory’s as clear as ever.
The genuine friendship and chemistry is palpable between Jane, Jessica and Rosanna as we shoot the celebratory shots for the looming 30-year anniversary at Enzo’s Ristorante, a favourite spot for the trio conveniently right next door to the studio. They’re cracking jokes, singing (Jane and Rosanna have an album in the works apparently) and laughing uproariously.
“She’s the leader of our tribe and long may she reign,” Jess says. “We are a real family here. We are so lucky to call her a friend.”
That’s one of the things Jane will miss most if she ever does step down from the desk — seeing her work family on a daily basis, the bonds strengthened further each year. But, yes, she does contemplate a quieter life away from the hustle and bustle of the newsroom.
“I’m enormously grateful, and what a privilege it is that people invite me and John and the rest of the team into their lounge rooms or family rooms or even into their hands now, because they’ve got many, many, many more choices than they had when I started,” Jane says. “And they are still choosing to watch us. But after every contract you do have to envisage they might not want you. So every few years I wonder.
“Now at 61 — even though Sir Eric Pearce and various other gentlemen have read into their 70s — I don’t know that I’d expect to make it especially when I’ve got so such competent, highly skilled younger women, who also happen to be very glamorous, behind me. Why would I expect to make them wait like the Queen’s making Prince Charles wait?
“I have thought about (retiring) and it will be the biggest wrench.”
Jane’s also thought about what the future away from the desk might look like. There’ll be more time with best friend and husband Ian.
“He’s intelligent, funny and generous and a great listener,” she says. “We’ll celebrate 40 years married next year and joke you only get 20 for murder.”
And then there are plans to travel. Plus, the “fierce and passionate” gardener hopes to have her garden looking as it should. She’ll continue with her volunteer work and her championing of the arts.
“It will be a very simple life — bit of reading, a lot of reading actually,” Jane muses.
Maybe she’ll even write that book and become the great author she’s always dreamt of becoming.