Stacey really looks up to the female news correspondent: “I love Orla Guerin – she’s my queen… when I watch her on the news I just can’t believe how brave she is.” She’s on the front line speaking to everyone, Stacey says, and going down in the ISIS tunnels in Mosul: “She just doesn’t seem to have any fear. She’s the one I sort of look up to and think, oh man, you’re awesome.” 8. She doesn’t think she’s brave She admits her reluctance is probably down to her style: “I’m a bit more relaxed” and “it’s a bit more informal” than conventional news reporting, she says. 2. She left school at 15 Stacey’s reluctance to identify herself as a journalist is largely due to what she describes as the “very unorthodox” way she “fell into it”. She left school at 15 and, having never studied journalism, gradually found her feet as a reporter by first working as a contributor on the BBC Three documentary Blood, Sweat and T-shirts. It wasn’t particularly conventional, she adds. 3. When she was asked to appear on Newsnight she didn’t know what it was

After appearing in Blood, Sweat and T-shirts (which investigated the working conditions of Indian sweatshops) Stacey got a call asking her to come on Newsnight to discuss her experience: “I didn’t even know what Newsnight was.” But she likes doing the lighter stuff as well: doing Strictly has proved to be an incredible experience for her: “It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.” 10. She believes there’s a place for feelings in newsShe rang her mum (who was at the bingo) and was promptly told she was crazy and that Jeremy Paxman would tear her to pieces. “But actually, he was very accommodating and very lovely.” 4. She was working at Luton airport when she got her first TV series Although Stacey is no stranger to dangerous situations herself she says, “I do get scared… I am a massive wimp!”

At the minute, I’m absolutely loving the foreign documentaries. That’s where my heart is… that’s my genuine passion.” She would love to do more of the same: “I do love being out there, on the ground. I love being in people’s houses. I love watching it when it’s all unfolding.” I wasn’t great at the start,” admits Stacey. In fact, she laughs, she has erased the first four of five years of her material from her memory “like they don’t exist!” She recalls how she was too invested and overly emotional, and had to learn how to turn into a more “objective figure”. It’s only in the last couple of years that she’s become happy with the tone and feel of her pieces. 7. BBC correspondent Orla Guerin is her “queen”