Edith Bowman knows all about putting in a shift at Hogmanay. As the child of hoteliers – her family ran the Craws Nest in Anstruther – she has done one or two herself over the years. When friends were out partying at the Bells, she was often on the other side of the bar, helping out on what was the family’s busiest night of the year.

Still, it’s an experience which will stand the veteran broadcaster in good stead this year as she steps into a new role as presenter of BBC Scotland’s flagship Hogmanay 2021 programme. The hour-long live show from Glasgow’s Pacific Quay will feature music from Texas, Emeli Sandé and acclaimed folk trio Talisk before handing over to the lone piper on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle. But it’s Bowman who will hold it all together. It may be a daunting prospect for some, but not her. Excited doesn’t begin to describe how she is feeling ahead of the big night.

“The whole idea of Hogmanay is part of your life growing up in Scotland,” she tells me. “It’s a big deal. It’s one of the biggest celebrations ever. It was always about ‘Where you going? What are you doing?’ So for me, personally, hosting this show and being part of the team is a massive deal, a real kind of bucket list, childhood dream come true to be honest.”

So what’s on offer on the night? “A lovely big chat show with a live studio audience,” she says. Also, one or two surprises. “I’ve managed to pull in a few favours to try and get some people involved remotely, big Scottish names who can’t be there in person but who want to be part of the show. So it’s going to be nice to reveal that to the audience and to viewers as well.”

And is she revealing any names ahead of time?

“Not today I’m not!”

Appropriately, given that this Hogmanay marks the end of another year of remote working and video conferencing, Hogmanay 2021 will have a virtual audience as well as the real one housed in the studio.

“By having that virtual audiences it means we can be in all corners and make everybody part of the show,” Bowman explains. “What I think it has done for the audience is made things more accessible, so somebody in Mallaig who can’t get to Glasgow for our show can be part of our audience from their front room. I love that. I love that idea that we’re reaching out to them and making them part of the show. I think it’s one of the wonderful things about the way we’ve adapted over the past couple of years.”

Of course the 47-year-old Fifer is no stranger to the thrills and spills of the presenting game. She cut her teeth on Channel 4’s RI:SE, the successor to The Big Breakfast, has fronted Top Of The Pops, helmed BBC Radio 1’s afternoon show, co-hosted a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 6 Music with Adam Buxton and been the face of the corporation’s coverage of events such as Glastonbury, T In The Park and the Scottish leg of the global Live 8 benefit concert. Just last month she hosted the Scottish BAFTAs and if you were up late watching BBC Four earlier this month you could have seen her interviewing American director Sofia Coppola for film series The Life Cinematic.

What Bowman is good at – make that great at – is talking and listening. It sounds simple enough but it’s hard to do, at least in a cogent and entertaining way when there’s a camera in your face and the clock’s ticking on your allotted time with whichever rock star or Hollywood A-lister you have just stuck a microphone in front of.

“I don’t really analyse it,” she says when I ask for some trade secrets. “I don’t sit and watch things back that I’ve done. But in terms of learning – and I’m still learning – I think one of the most important lessons is listening, going in fully prepared, doing your research, having everything in your memory bank about the guest that’s there but not being tied to a strict formula and set-up … … it’s not about headlines, or prying or getting them to divulge something personal they don’t want to divulge. It’s just about good storytelling, really.”

Home today is the house in rural Gloucestershire Bowman shares with husband Tom Smith, frontman with Mercury Prize-nominated rock band Editors, and their two sons, Spike and Rudy. There’s also a dog and, when we talk, the remains of some pre-Christmas snow which has had the entire family out in the garden in their pyjamas. And it’s here in Gloucestershire that Bowman continues to hone her interviewing technique by means of her weekly podcast, Soundtracking. A long-standing fixture on whatever passes for schedules in the world of podcasting, Soundtracking sees Bowman interview actors, film directors and composers about their use of music. It’s niche, but not too niche, and has allowed her to sit down with some stellar names. Warren Beatty? Check. Quentin Tarantino? Check. Peter Jackson and Greta Gerwig? Check. Last week it was a certain Steven Spielberg, talking about his adaptation of West Side Story. Just as impressive as the guest list, Bowman hasn’t missed an episode in five years.

Come December 31, however, there will be a different sort of job in hand. This one can’t be done from the comfort of her own home but it will probably be the first of many such annual engagements if, as seems likely, Bowman becomes the face of BBC Scotland’s Hogmanay broadcast for the foreseeable future. Is that a prospect she relishes?

“I’d love it!,” she says. “Love it! For me, I thrive in this sort of situation because it encourages conversation. That’s the whole point. Yes there are certain points to hit, get all the music in, but the joy of it is all those gaps where it’s about having conversations, where it’s about telling stories. So for me it’s the dream scenario, really.”

When I ask her to tell me about her most outstanding Hogmanay memories she mentions two. The first came on tour with Editors when, during a Hogmanay gig in Tasmania, an electrical storm blew up and Bowman saw New Year in watching indie rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs fronted by flamboyant singer Karen O. The second was very different: a family trip to visit her cousin in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range with her parents and her in-laws. They met the Bells outdoors in snowsuits, sipping mulled wine and hot chocolate. Perhaps Hogmanay 2021 will be every bit as memorable, a third stand-out in the Edith Bowman memory banks.

Edith Bowman hosts Hogmanay 2021 on BBC One on December 31 (11.30pm)