After graduation, Kirkwood joined the BBC's secretarial reserve in London. After a series of internal moves, she presented short slots on BBC Radio Scotland, and then BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4. Following her marriage to Jimmy Kirkwood, she left the BBC and subsequently worked in recruitment and then as a training consultant for a management consultancy in Cheshire. In 1992, she spent time on a now defunct cable TV channel, Windsor TV, latterly called Wire TV, along with Sacha Baron Cohen.