Remembered for her red hair and volatile temperament, Cullen forged a reputation for reporting from the street, and undertook many assignments in Northern Ireland, including covering events during the closing days of The Troubles.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Cullen's father was the manager of a quarry in County Durham while her mother taught mathematics at a teacher training college.
On one occasion, her reporting was teased in a review for The Observer by Clive James: "'Each school will have to raise the cost of their computer,' announced Sarah Cullen on News at Ten ... Each channel will have to clean up their grammar: this is getting ridiculous.
[1] She was also sent to Belfast on many occasions to cover issues relating to The Troubles, and would employ the same news gathering technique, often venturing into so-called "no-go" areas of the city to speak to ordinary people caught up in the conflict.
Stephen Mitchell later recalled the telephone call: "Before I had fully woken up a man with a very strong Irish accent was explaining that he was with the Provisionals, that he and I had met years before when I was working in Belfast, and he was demanding to know whether I could vouch for this 'mad woman’ who had been found talking to people on the Falls Road in the middle of the night and who was claiming to be from the BBC."