She wakes us up in the morning, sings to us in the afternoon and presents TV shows with traumatic and difficult subject matters at night. Barely off our TV screens, Lorraine Kelly tells at home why she’s loving every minute of it and why she’s never one to turn down a challenge...
Fast forward 12 months and, not only have those knees returned intact from a mammoth trek across the north Kenyan desert for Comic Relief but, with feet still recovering from blisters that had to be ‘sliced off,’ Lorraine’s tweeting: ‘Wish I was doing the marathon! It’s an amazing experience… maybe next year.’
So, was she serious? Will we see her pounding the streets of London in April 2012? ‘Last year, I said “Never again,” but maybe these old legs have got one more marathon in them. I did feel a wee pang watching it this year and thought, “I should have done that,” but my feet weren’t in a fit state. They’re fine now, but they took a long time to recover.’
Recovery was very much the order of the day following Lorraine’s much-publicised five day, 62-mile trek across the Kaisut desert with eight other celebrities for charity.
‘I was tested to the max like I have never been tested before,’ says Lorraine. ‘My feet have never been as bad as they were. Poor Ged, our trek leader, had to slice off my blisters, bandage up my feet and give me painkillers for the last day otherwise I don’t think I would have made it.
‘The hardest thing was keeping going when we were all absolutely exhausted. Getting up early in the morning wasn’t hard for me – it was hard for everyone else but I’m used to getting up at 5am so that wasn’t a problem for me – and sleeping in the tent, virtually on the ground, was fine. But as well as the blisters on my feet, I had mouth ulcers – which were a reaction to the malaria tablets – and they were quite debilitating.
‘It was 48°C at one point and I really was at the end of myself. Ged saw I was in real trouble. He took me by the hand and said, “Look into my eyes and keep breathing; breathe in, breathe out,” and before I knew it I was fine. But I remember that moment as being cold and dark; and when I saw it on the documentary it was the middle of the day, blazing sun and 48°C. I think my mind and body were shutting down – there was nothing left in the tank.
‘But now I don’t remember any of the bad bits. It’s a bit like giving birth – you forget the bad bits and just remember the good bits. I have wee snap shots of incredible memories – things like laughing with Nadia Sawalha who, all the locals said, will live ’til she’s 120 because she laughs so much; chatting away to Dermot, not about The X Factor, not about my show, just about life in general and Craig David coming to my rescue when I felt really low – he gave me a cuddle, took off my boots and socks, poured water over my horrendously awful feet and gave me a cup of tea.
‘The whole experience was a lot harder, physically and mentally, than I thought it would be – I was out of my comfort zone and challenged really hard – but I loved it.’
Back here, one challenge Lorraine has met head-on is ensuring the ongoing success of her ITV breakfast show. Last year, a shake-up at the TV channel saw GMTV lose many of its popular presenters, the show rebranding as Daybreak with new hosts Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley and Lorraine moving to her own studio for her show, Lorraine.
‘The ratings for my show have been really good – I’m absolutely delighted people are still watching. Lorraine is, in a sense, a new show but it’s still me doing what I was doing. I just like to think we went up a gear. We’re now not piggy-backing off the back of another show and just making do – before, if we wanted to do an item, but the earlier part of GMTV had had a band or something, it really restricted what we could do. But now we’ve got our own purpose-built set that’s got specific space for performances, the kitchen, the sofa and the area where we do punditry. We can do a lot more and we can do it a lot better than before and that’s made a huge difference.
‘I like the fact that I’ve got my own identity; my show is completely separate to Daybreak. You have Daybreak, you have my show and you have This Morning – they’re all very separate – so that’s been really good.’
Daybreak, meanwhile, has not been having it so good. Can our guest editor shed any light? ‘It’s always going to be a struggle when you launch something new. When TV-am started out, it struggled, similarly, when GMTV started it struggled and Daybreak – it’s still finding its feet and it’s just got to be given a chance to do that – I’m sure it will get there in the end. Things are improving daily. It’s just a matter of them finding their identity and building on what they’ve got.’
Game for a laugh!
As well as waking us up four times a week, Lorraine has been gracing our TV screens at night, too, as presenter of the endearing ITV1 programme Children’s Hospital. She’s even got an afternoon slot, entering the world of children’s television – you won’t actually see her, but her bubbly, sing-song voice provides the narration every mid-week afternoon on a new CBeebies show, Raa Raa the Noisy Lion. And when it came to challenges, she even faced one with this new venture when she was asked to sing the programme’s theme tune! Never say never, Lorraine?
‘The programme makers said, “Go on, give it a go,”’ she explains. ‘I’m always up for anything; always up for a laugh! It was hilarious, because I can’t sing. Thankfully, though, you can’t really hear me because I’m drowned out by the other characters voices, which is no bad thing!
‘It was such a lovely job to do. I went into a studio – sometimes with the children who do the animals voices, sometimes not – and recorded all these funny lines. We had such a laugh – I haven’t laughed so much in ages.
‘It’s taken two years, from the initial idea to getting on the telly, because of all the work that goes in to the animation. It’s stop-frame animation, just like Wallace & Gromit, where they have to move the characters ever so slightly – it’s very time consuming – but it’s absolutely adorable. It’s about a noisy little lion who lives in the jingly, jangly jungle with all his friends and it’s aimed at under-fours. It teaches them about numbers, colours, shapes and sounds, but it’s also about things like how to share and how to be a better person. The great thing is that the kids won’t know they’re being educated, they’ll just be entertained.
‘I’m hoping the programme goes well, that it will get sold around the world. It’d be amazing if there were young children in foreign countries all speaking with Scottish accents!’
Emotional times
Although a world away from the jingly, jangly jungle, Lorraine found spending time with the children featured on Children’s Hospital an equally enjoyable experience.
‘It wasn’t difficult to work on at all; it was more inspiring than anything. Meeting the kids on that show was humbling – them and their families. What the children go through is amazing. Everybody made making the programme really easy – the hospital was great, the parents were so willing to talk and the kids were an absolute delight. It was really good to see some of them – those that needed transplants, or who’d had major operations or who were really poorly, with cancer, say – leave the hospital. That was very moving. When we were filming it, I was doing my job so I didn’t get emotional but watching it I cried every time!’
Inspiring work
One show Lorraine did find hard was Sky1’s Missing Mums. ‘That was a really tough one to do, because there’s something about a mum that goes missing… In some of the cases, it was very clear that there were suspicious circumstances; it wasn’t like the mothers had in any way abandoned their families, but it was the fact that there was
this really big gap in people’s lives and it was their mother who had left it – you know, the mother who’s usually the heart of the household and the family’s anchor. All the families just wanted answers so they could start to get back on with their lives in some way and so there could be some sort of closure.
‘It’s the amazing stories that make me want to work on shows like this and Children’s Hospital. I’m really interested in triumph over adversity stories, and how people deal with very tough situations. It never ceases to amaze me how the human spirit can cope when really terrible things happen. We don’t know what we’re made of until we’re tested, and unfortunately people have to go through terrible tragedies and difficult circumstances. I just find it inspiring to talk to people who have gone through such things – by doing these kind of shows you can actually help a lot of other people.
Taking on big issues
Lorraine was inspired to do another show Lorraine Kelly’s Big Slim… The Chawner Challenge for the very reason of wanting to help. The Chawners, a family of four, weighed a massive 92 stone between them and had been dubbed Britain’s fattest family.
‘I just thought, “If we can help them, then maybe there’s hope, maybe we can do something,”’ says Lorraine. ‘I am genuinely concerned about the obesity problem. You see so many young women in this country who are huge – I’m not talking just being a little bit plump; that’s fine. Most women in Britain are a size 16, and that’s ok, but it’s people who are obese that’s a real worry. I wanted to see whether, if we gave these people a chance to get fit, get healthy, lose weight… would it help them then get a job and change their life? We gave them all the tools possible and, to be fair to them, they’re still trying – they can give you a hundred excuses as to why they’re not going to exercise but it’s an ongoing thing. It took them all their life to get fat, they’re not going to lose weight overnight.
‘It all comes down to the mother, because very often it’s the mum who’s looking after the rest of the family. We had to make sure she would change and she’s not willing to change. It’s very difficult and actually very frustrating. We’re building up a huge problem for the future – we’re the first generation where children will be dying before their parents. Obesity is costing us a fortune; there has to be a change. There’s more information around than ever there was and our eating habits are still absolutely appalling. That’s not to say that we all just have to eat only lettuce. Food is brilliant – it’s one of the great joys and pleasures of life, but it’s all about balance.’
Future challenges
For now, Lorraine seems to have the balance of her own life perfectly worked out. Despite working more days on Lorraine than she did before – all four of her shows are now live – and spending more time in London away from husband, Steve, and daughter, Rosie, she admits to having ‘the best of both worlds.’
‘Rosie comes down to London and she absolutely loves it and we’ve got a great life at home, away from everything. My life in Dundee is very normal – it’s walking the dog, going shopping, making the tea, having people round to the house, sitting in the garden, doing a bit of weeding – it’s really important to me.
‘When Rosie was a lot younger I wouldn’t have been able to work away like I do, but she’s nearly 17 now and she’s very sensible and grown up. Before I agreed to work the extra day live, Rosie and I talked about it and she said, “You love your job, you should do it”.’
It seems Rosie is right. The queen of the sofa, Lorraine, does love her job – and all that it brings. ‘It’s a huge privilege that, just because I happen to be on the telly, and I can put one foot in front of the other, I’m asked to take part in such amazing experiences. It’s great to use my profile for something so positive. I really loved stretching myself with the trek so I’d love to do something similar in the future – maybe at the Arctic or Antarctica; that would be amazing. I think it’s good to have a goal like that to work towards – it makes sure that you stay healthy, keeps you fit and also, mentally, I think it’s very good for you.’
And does she still have plans to challenge herself to pen that page-turning novel she mentioned last time we met? ‘Not right now, but never say never. I think if you want to write something like that, it’s a proper nine to five job, not something you tack on at the end of your day. Hopefully – should I find that I’m even able to do it – it’s something I’ll do when I finally leave TV… but I’ve got no intention of doing that just yet!’
The above feature was
published in at home
with Lorraine Kelly
in May 2011.
Click here for more
Lorraine Kelly.
