Episode 12 Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman

Childhood holidays... Oh, ho! The anticipation seemed endless.

The holiday itself...well, it was over too quickly.

So, in this series, I'm going to be reliving those wonderful times

with some much-loved famous faces.

THEY SCREAM

Every day, I'll be arranging a few surprises

to transport them back in time.

Oh, look! Ha-ha! It's just as I remember! Ha-ha!

We'll relive the fun...

THEY LAUGH

..the games...

-BOTH: Yes!

-We got them!

..and the food of years gone by.

Yummy!

Welcome to 1959.

-Total happiness.

-Yes. Perfect.

..to find out how those holidays around the UK

helped shape the people we know so well today.

Bruce Forsyth.

IMITATING BRUCE FORSYTH: "Len, you're still my favourite."

So, buckle up for Holiday Of My Lifetime.

You know, Len, I'm quite enjoying being on my holidays with you.

Today's holiday has brought me across the Irish Sea

to Northern Ireland,

where I'm steaming towards my special mystery guest.

The holidaymaker who I'm meeting today is a woman of many words.

She's a real smooth talker.

Here she is before she got the gift of the gab.

She was born in Northern Ireland in 1940 and as a small girl, she

had aspirations to set the stage alight as a professional singer.

This little pocket rocket released a single in 1969,

which got to number SEVEN

in the Ulster charts.

Ho-ho!

And this set the wheels turning on a glorious career

in broadcasting.

In 1992,

she became the first woman to have a daily show on Radio 2.

But you will also know her as a busy TV presenter,

working on a Sunday Sunday,

inviting guests to her Open House.

Come on, you must know it by now.

She's been on Loose Women,

she's been on Strictly,

and now she's stopping us from getting ripped off.

Oh, yes, it's that Irish lass with plenty of class...

It's Gloria Hunniford!

Born Mary Winifred Gloria Hunniford

in a small terraced house in Portadown,

Gloria was raised by her mother, May,

and her advertising manager father, Charlie,

who was also a part-time magician.

Growing up alongside her older sister, Lena,

and younger brother Charles,

Gloria remembers her strict religious upbringing as a happy one,

where she loved nothing more than performing for whoever would watch.

All good training for the long career in broadcasting

that lay in front of her.

At last you have come to God's own country, you see? How are you?

-Lovely.

-You're looking splendid.

-And yourself.

-Obviously that tan

-is from the Irish sunshine, don't you think?

-Of course it is.

It's like a scene from Brief Encounter here.

I'm absolutely gobsmacked at the steam train. This is fabulous,

-isn't it?

-Isn't it gorgeous?

-Lovely, really lovely.

-Now, where were we

-off to?

-We are off to a place called Newcastle.

-Right.

Where the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea, literally,

-so you're going to love it.

-Oh, gorgeous.

-Lovely.

And what's the year?

I hate to say it - it's late '40s.

-Ah!

-Don't say it!

-No, you're supposed to say, "You're too young..."

-Well, you are!

-I can't believe it.

-Well, I like to kid myself, but it's the late '40s.

-Right.

-But exciting for me.

-Oh, well, look, your carriage awaits.

-And my man awaits, as

-well, so off we go!

-Off we go. Lovely.

-Into this one?

-Yes.

I'll tell you what, this is nothing the 8:30 from Sevenoaks.

So it's back to 1948 we go.

Less than an hour's drive from Belfast,

on the coast of the Irish Sea, is the pretty town of Newcastle.

Known for its sandy beach and stunning scenery,

Newcastle lies at the base of the Slieve Donard,

the highest of the majestic Mourne Mountains.

Newcastle was anciently called Ballaghbeg -

the word ballagh is generally accepted to mean mountain pass

and beg is small.

Today, I'm taking Gloria back to re-live those happy days

she had in Newcastle...

You know what? I'm going to start with the jelly.

I know that's not the way you should start, but I love jelly.

-I'll go with you.

-I love jelly. Mm!

..enjoying the sights,

tastes and smells of her favourite vacation destination...

-Could be the Grand Canyon, for all you know.

-Yeah.

-Well, yeah, it's better than the Grand Canyon.

-It's lovely.

Now, Len, come on, we've got that mountain to climb.

..and remembering what made Gloria's holidays glorious.

# A, you're adorable

# B, you're so beautiful

# C, you're a cutie full of charm! #

Before any holiday truly begins, first you must set out on a journey.

We all remember that rush of excitement as you head

towards your dream destination.

For Gloria in 1948, the journey would have started in Portadown

where she boarded the train

for around an hour's journey to Newcastle.

So, who would've been with you on your journey?

On my holiday journeys, it would have been my mum, of course.

Strange enough, my dad didn't come on a lot of these holidays.

I was the middle child, so my sister was seven years older than me

and my brother, seven years younger.

And was you well behaved or were you running up and down?

Oh, I was probably running up and down, never well behaved.

And she would've been saying, "Gloria, come back here!"

But anyway, it was so exciting

because really we were kind of localised, we never went very far.

-I mean, I didn't know one person who went abroad on a holiday.

-No.

So the excitement, you know, coming on a train like this to go to

Newcastle for one week only was just marvellous.

-Did you take all your best clothes?

-Well, my mum, she was great.

You always had your new sandals.

And my aunt made a lot of clothes,

so you would have had a lot of summer clothes made.

My mum's suitcase, funnily enough, instead of her packing all her

clothes, her suitcase would've been mostly full of food.

Talking of that, I've got something here,

while we're stationary,

that might bring back happy memories.

That's a brilliant case, isn't it?

-Isn't it gorgeous?

-Oh, my goodness.

-Let me just turn it so you can see.

Not family treasures, are they?

It is full of family treasures.

-Oh, my goodness!

-Now, is this the sort of thing your...?

-Totally!

Absolutely correct, because potato farls, which I lo... I still love.

This is my treat

sometimes on a Sunday - fried, with egg and bacon.

And she would have made that on the griddle.

Then, you have, of course, a scone,

which either would have been plain or currant.

This is wheaten bread, because you have the lovely wheaten meal.

And this is...a soda farl.

I might have a little go at something.

The scone is lovely.

I like the currant scones.

-Go on, then.

-Are you going to have one?

-I'll have half of yours.

Yeah, exactly. You need a bit of butter, ideally.

Yeah, but let's just try it, see if it's up to...

Well, it won't be up to your mum's standard.

Nothing is up to my mum's standard.

On a Saturday, she would have made 14 different kinds of bread.

-Never!

-14.

That's a whole lot of bread!

It was back in the year 1948 that saw the end to post-war flour

and bread rationing.

And it was also the year the UK's first supermarket

opened in Manor Park, London, by the Co-operative Society.

1948 was a big year for the Royal Family, as Princess Elizabeth,

gave birth to her first son.

Prince Charles was born at Buckingham palace

at 9:14 on the 14th of November,

weighing in at a healthy 7lb 6oz.

The proclamation was posted on the palace railings

just before midnight and the Prince went on to be christened

Charles Philip Arthur George.

A huge hit that year was Nat King Cole's Nature Boy.

It went on to sell a million copies.

Billboard DJ's listed it as the greatest record of that year.

# The greatest thing

# You'll ever learn

# Is just to love

# And be loved. #

Our Gloria would have been just eight years old in 1948,

so her trip to Newcastle would have come during her school holidays.

So, education. Was you a good student?

Well, I went to school when I was four, which was pretty unusual then.

And I think the reason being that my sister,

who was seven years older, she had great dreams of being a teacher.

So this is true.

Every Saturday morning from when I was like this size,

she would put up the easel and the board and she would give me

my homework to do and teach me X, Y and Z.

And I had to know it by the next Saturday. She had a little cane.

She used to wallop me if I didn't get it right.

She did! So therefore, I learned fast.

So by the time I actually went to school,

I pretty well knew how to write and I knew a couple of my sums.

So as I went through my school years...

Of course, we had in Portadown a very good college.

And I suppose, you see, my mum and dad would have said,

"We don't have the money for you to go to college."

In fact, they did say that.

And so when I got my 11+, as it was then, and I wanted to go to that

college, they said, no, they didn't have the money for books,

didn't have the money for the uniforms.

Now, because I was a bit of a singer from when I was eight

and making my own money,

I remember saying to them...

I don't know why, I fought for the right to go to that grammar school.

And I said to my mum, "I will buy my uniform."

-Wow.

-So I did.

My grandchildren are amused

when I say that I had to fight for the right to go to school.

Yeah. Well, you know, to quote an old song,

"Things ain't what they used to be."

And unfortunately,

this train no longer goes all the way to Newcastle.

You're going to tell me we're going to walk the rest?

-No, we're going to magic our way from here to there.

-Marvellous.

-Shall I lead the way?

-Sure.

-Absolutely.

-"Things ain't what they used to be."

# There's Teds in drainpipe trousers

# And Debs in coffee houses

# Oh, things ain't what they used to be. #

They certainly aren't!

Trains stopped running to Newcastle in the 1960s in favour of buses,

and the track was taken up.

This beautiful train is now run by volunteers from the Downpatrick

and County Down Railway.

They've put back most of the track,

but sadly, it hasn't quite yet reached Newcastle.

The old train station is now a supermarket, but there's

still lots of other things to tickle Gloria's memory banks,

from the many years of happy holidays

she had at a caravan park nearby here.

-Ho-ho-ho!

-What about this, eh?

-Eh?

Does this bring back some memories?

I have to tell you, this is a sight that I never ever get tired of.

As a child, of course, this is where we came every year for our holidays.

It was just wonderful when we arrived.

And the excitement, I could hardly contain it.

-Has much changed since you came?

-Well...

-I know the railway station is now a supermarket.

-That was changed.

-Yeah.

This view, as I stand here, is just the same.

Where would you have stayed?

Well, this is the strange thing

because although we always went to the caravan,

my dad must have had a particularly good year

because one year he said to us, "We're going to go to a B&B."

Well, I couldn't believe it.

It was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me.

It was fab.

So I don't know what he did to earn the extra cash, but anyway, we went.

So, you didn't stay in this lovely hotel back then?

You see, here's the point.

My mum and I, we'd be down here every day

and we'd walk along the beach.

And I'd say to Mum, "Look at that marvellous hotel.

"Could we not just go in there, you know, just for a cup of tea?"

And she'd say, "No, darling, that's only for posh people,

-"so we'll never be in there."

-Ha-ha!

So coming here now, does this bring back all the memories?

All the memories, and they are glorious memories.

There is not a bad memory amongst them.

Do you know what I mean? It just whisks you right back.

Newcastle is one of the most magically positioned seaside

resorts in the British Isles, with its great mountains and sandy beach,

but it hasn't always been known for its tourism.

In the mid-19th century,

heavy gales caused several boats to be lost at sea,

killing many of Newcastle's residents and wiping

out its fishing industry. The town then began to make a living through

mining granite, and then tourism became a bit of a money maker.

Which local lad Tom Walsh knows all about.

Newcastle became popular in the 1800s

because it has seawater baths, it had

spa water and this was the practice

of the time, encouraged by possibly the medical people

to indulge in seawater bathing and drink spa water.

In 1869, the Belfast and County Down Railway arrived in Newcastle. And

we're told that on the first day from Belfast,

there were 30 carriages and 800 people were left behind in Belfast.

I'd have been well cheesed off if I hadn't managed to squeeze onto

the train, I can tell you!

Now, someone that did manage to get here on holiday

back in 1948 was Bernard Davey,

who was just five years old at the time, but he remembers it well.

We'd come down onto the shore

every day and, as long as

it wasn't blowing a gale, we'd be in.

And quite often the summers here

are pretty good.

There's no reason why you shouldn't get into the water at some stage.

And, yes, basically on a daily basis.

So that was probably 14 good baths before we headed back to the city.

Part of the magic of any childhood holiday is

the excitement of staying somewhere different - the sights,

the smells and the thrill of having a new bed to lie in.

Most years that Gloria came to Newcastle, they holidayed

in a caravan, but in 1948,

her father treated them to a week in a B&B.

The Avoca Lodge has changed a bit since then,

but it's still in business,

so I'm taking Gloria to what is now known as the Avoca Hotel.

Gosh, this definitely feels like the original hall.

With the stained glass window at the top.

As a kid of eight, to arrive here with our suitcases, even that,

-like, that was posh to me.

-Yeah?

-And I just couldn't wait to get here.

-It was amazing.

-Well, I've spoken to the manageress

and we're going to have a look, see if we can find the bedroom.

I don't remember too much about the bedroom, I have to be honest.

I've been told on good authority that this is the room, 18.

-I know it was on the front.

-Well...

-I know that.

-Let's go in...

-Wow.

-..and have a look.

Oh, my goodness.

-Oh, look at the view and everything.

-Isn't that perfect?

-Wow.

-Let's have a sit down.

-First time being on the bed with you.

-Oh, yes!

-Up until now, you'd stayed in the caravan.

-Yes.

And now, the thing is you've now come to,

-as a kid is a posh hotel.

-This is like a palace.

-Yeah.

Cos our house was two-up, two-down, small, obviously.

So, did you all stay in this one room?

That's what I'm trying to remember.

Because I don't think all five of us could have stayed here.

My brother would've only been a year old at this point.

So he would have obviously stayed in here with my parents, who...

Or maybe my sister and I.

We certainly shared a double bed anyway at home,

so we definitely would have shared the double bed.

And do you think it was here, you know, staring out maybe at that

wonderful view, was that when, you know, as a little girl...

Did you know what you wanted to do when you grew up?

Oh, I was going to be a singer.

Because down at the pier, I would've been down there,

entering the competitions, strutting my stuff.

And with my dad being that amateur magician -

he was good but he had a daytime job, so he did that in his spare time -

so that showbiz thing was in my blood.

And although I didn't realise it then,

but from a broadcasting point of view, of course,

it got you used to the sound of your own voice introducing your songs.

-Yeah.

-And the songs I would've sung would've been...

# A, you're adorable

# B, you're so beautiful

# C, you're a cutie full of charm

# D, you're a darling

# And E, you're exciting

# And F You're a feather in my arms

# It's fun to wander through the alphabet with you

# And tell you what you mean to mean to me, ah-ah! #

No holiday is complete without sampling the local food,

those new tastes and textures transform our palette forever.

For Gloria and her family in 1948,

they would have started their day by tucking into a famous Ulster fry.

Do you know how many calories it is?

-I'm sure it's not many.

-1,700 calories.

-Look out, here it comes.

-Wow!

Look at this. Look at that!

-Oh! You can see why it's 1,700 calories, can't you?

-Yeah, I can.

Well, as we used to say as kids, "Yum, yum, pig's bum!"

Every Ulster fry would obviously have to have the bacon,

egg and sausage and the tomato.

But then it is the bread that makes the difference.

Because you would always have the fried soda bread.

You would have the potato bread.

-But it's delicious.

-Yes, it is.

-It's worth the 1,700 calories, isn't it?

My mum would never have let us go off to school without a cooked breakfast.

-Really?

-Not as much as this, of course.

-No.

We'd always have to have a hot breakfast.

-Well, even in the summer?

-It was always cooked breakfast.

You're marvellous and trim, are you a careful eater nowadays?

I am more nowadays. I mean...

I was thinking back, I was seven-stone-two when I was

living at my mum's house, eating the equivalent of five meals a day.

But what I forget, or did forget until recently,

is the fact that we were on the bicycles all the time,

so two miles to school in the morning, two back at lunchtime,

two back to school, two home in the afternoon, there's eight.

Then our life was on bikes.

So maybe each day, we were doing 15, 20 miles on a bike every day.

-So no wonder I was seven-stone-two.

-Yeah.

-So now I spin forward. No way could you eat all of this.

-No.

Everything just tastes gorgeous.

Fabulous. Lovely.

It really is very tasty and is definitely on my list

of things you must see and do when in Newcastle -

in my Top Ten From Len.

The Ulster fry is famous for setting up millions for a day of hard

work, or play.

And while it may be pretty calorific, thankfully,

there are plenty of outdoor pursuits to work off the excesses!

Oh, yes!

The Silent Valley Reservoir was built to gather

water from the Mourne Mountains

and is the main water supply source for most of County Down.

It's an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,

with glorious parkland, lakes and a pond.

Around 50,000 visitors flock here every year.

And who can blame them?

As we all know, British weather can be a tad temperamental,

but a rainy day can still be a holiday highlight

thanks to the Newcastle Community Cinema.

Based in the beautiful Annesley Hall, overlooking Dundrum Bay

and run by six volunteers with a passion for film,

the cinema shows movies for all age groups.

In a relaxed atmosphere, the cinema puts old fashioned excitement

back into "Saturday night at the movies".

Now back on her trips here as a young girl,

Gloria spent most of her days playing on the sand by the sea.

Well, here we are, we're on the beach.

I'm not really prepared for going on the beach, but still I'll be fine.

But you see, for a child living in the middle,

right in the middle of Northern Ireland, to come to the

beach and see the sea,

while I have lots of memories of the weather being atrocious...

I mean, today, we're blessed with gorgeous weather.

-But sometimes it wasn't so good. But we'd still dig and play anyway.

-Yeah.

"We've come to Newcastle, you're going to enjoy the beach,

"so get on with it!"

So, what would you have done? Would you have played some games or...?

We would have played things like rounders.

You would have teamed up with other people on the beach.

That was all part of your holiday, meeting new friends

and things like that. So it was lovely.

It's a lovely day, we're on the beach,

-do you fancy a game of rounders?

-With you?

-Yeah, just...

-I'm useless.

I'd be useless, but I'll do it. Yeah, why not?

Right, time to work off some of that Ulster fry!

I've even managed to round up some local kids to give us a game.

-I'll try batting, but I'll probably miss it.

-Come on.

-Don't laugh!

-No, but...

Watch out, Hunniford, I don't like to lose!

Rounders has been played since Tudor times

and the first formal rules were drawn up

on the Emerald Isle in 1884.

Hey! Ha!

THEY LAUGH

Very good!

Ready?

Catch it!

-Ah-ha-ha!

-Out, out.

-Do you know what? I'm kind of glad.

-I'll bet you are!

Somebody else can take over now.

Surely that worked off most of the calories -

at least that's what I'm going to tell myself.

The central promenade here in Newcastle has been

modernised in recent years,

so the sea front would have looked a little different back in 1948.

Then again, so did I.

Here we are, this is the promenade. But I guess it's not as it was.

No. It is and it isn't

because the basic format's the same.

Obviously this big globe behind us, that wasn't there.

A bit more sort of sculpture and things around.

But this, I think, is where the main bandstand was.

And what was lovely was that

-there would be deckchairs all out the front.

-Yeah.

You paid a very small amount of money to go in

and then, everybody would sort of sit at the front.

And then the big bandstand... It was a very

luxurious bandstand really. It was lovely.

The bandstand, which dated back to the early 1900s,

was removed from the seafront when it fell into disrepair.

It's since been restored and relocated

at a National Trust property 20 miles away

but Gloria still remembers all the joy it brought.

And, although they had set entertainers to come

and you'd pay to see the entertainment,

but always, they had that talent competition.

-Yeah.

-And, of course, with so many tourists coming into the town,

the talent competition changed all the time.

Even if you were here for a week,

you'd still get different people entering.

-Of course, muggins here would always be entering.

-Yeah.

-SHE LAUGHS

-You must have been a very confident young lady,

-I've got to say.

-Well.

-To stand up there

with all these people and sing your heart out.

I suppose because there was entertainment in my family

and, in a way, in Irish households, you have to do your piece

inasmuch that you've got a gathering, they'll say, "You have to do a bit now."

-Yeah.

-You always had to sing, or do a dance, or something.

-Yeah.

You had to do your bit, in other words.

So you kind of got used to performing.

And I guess I must have been reasonably confident, yeah.

But then, at that point, I was just about to go

and do semi-professional entertaining all around the country

-with my dad.

-Yeah.

So, of course, I wanted to do it, didn't I?

I've got a bit of sheet music here.

SHE LAUGHS

Did you used to go out and buy sheet music? Because...

Well, I wish you'd told me about that

because at home I have got drawers full of sheet music.

And what used to happen is... It seems crazy. ..we had a music shop

in our town of Portadown, and every Saturday morning

I would queue up - queue up - to get the sheet music of the day.

Whatever was in the charts.

You know, it would be... What was it? Donald Peers with Shady Nook

-and Jimmy Young singing Too Young.

-Yeah.

-But you went to get the sheet music cos that's all you had.

-Yeah.

-We didn't have record players and things like that.

-Yeah.

We didn't at that time.

Gloria clearly had a love of performing from a young age,

so it seems she was destined to go on to become a star.

How did you go from being this little girl who was singing

and dreaming of being on the stage?

How did that go into broadcasting?

I made a record in Northern Ireland that went to like number seven

in the Ulster charts.

-HE ANNOUNCES:

-Number SEVEN!

-Number SEVEN!

Yeah, seven, lucky number for me.

So I was brought in on the equivalent of the Today programme

to be interviewed about Lisburn.

By this stage I had two children. Lisburn housewife, two kids.

How are you going to manage being in the charts?

You know, singing, housework.

And the producer... And you've got to remember, at that point

there were virtually no women up front in television or radio,

certainly in Northern Ireland.

And the producer of this programme thought

I wasn't short of a word or two,

rang me up and said, "Have you thought about broadcasting?"

Which I never had. And so, he offered me a job. How lucky was I?

-Yeah.

-And he said, "When can you start?" I went, "How about tomorrow?"

And that was it.

-And off you went?

-And off I went.

In the end, I, of course, broadcast in Northern Ireland

for quite a number of years before I went to England.

During the '70s and early '80s,

Gloria presented Good Evening Ulster.

This was Ulster TV's main weekday news programme.

At this time of the year,

children everywhere are busy collecting conkers.

But, here in Atkinson Avenue in Portadown,

the children may not be able to collect conkers for very much longer.

-And then you went to Radio 2.

-I did.

It's a funny story about that really because I went to London

with my LPs under my arm to try and get airplay in Radio 2.

And the controller, whom I'd just phoned up out of the blue and said,

"Can I come and see you?"

He said to me, "Do you listen to Radio 2?"

I said, "I do, all the time." And I did.

He said, "What do you think is wrong with it?"

The first thing I said to him, cos when you're not looking for a job

you'll say a lot more than you might ordinarily.

I said, "Well, for a start, you don't have any women on Radio 2."

So I really dealt it out what was wrong with Radio 2.

And, three years later, he came looking for me and offered me a job.

In 1982, Gloria became the first woman

to host her own daily radio show on BBC Radio 2.

And she hosted for 13 years.

While I was doing Radio 2,

along came the offer to do Sunday Sunday, my own chat show.

Gloria hosted the ITV talk show Sunday Sunday from 1982 until 1990.

APPLAUSE Well, a very good afternoon to you.

Welcome along to this week's programme.

And I can tell you that it really is a show

which is top-heavy with star names.

How they did it, I'll never know,

but they got every wonderful Hollywood name

that you could imagine.

Ranging from Audrey Hepburn, Kirk Douglas,

-Charlton Heston...

-Yeah.

-..and Jimmy Stewart.

I mean... And I had... In our town, in Portadown,

there was nothing to do but go to the movies.

So I had watched all these old Hollywood icons on the films.

Little did I think that I'd be sitting there one day.

If I could relive a broadcasting period, that would be the period.

Over 55,000 visitors come to Newcastle every year,

enjoying what this part of the world has to offer.

A wander along the prom is a must.

And what seaside stroll could be complete

without sampling some ice cream?

At The Strand cafe,

the Nugent family have been making vanilla ice cream

since 1930, and have not changed the recipe since.

The ice cream here has won national awards

with vanilla the most popular flavour.

Ooh, yum yum, pig's bum.

I love a lick of an ice cream.

If you're after a bit of culture, then just down the road

is the Annalong Corn Mill and harbour.

Built in the 1800s and operated until the 1960s,

it was one of the last working water mills in Northern Ireland.

The building contains many of the original components,

and is open to the public to view the fascinating inner workings.

It has a grain-drying kiln,

three pairs of millstones and a 15ft water wheel,

a form of technology that's over 2,000 years old.

And, if it is old things you're after,

the Down County Museum has plenty of them.

Located within the historic buildings of the 18th century

county jail, it has artefacts from the earliest times

right up to the present day.

The jail was opened in 1796

and housed thousands of prisoners up until its closure in 1830.

The museum restored the buildings,

and you can now see the conditions in which the prisoners were kept.

You can't come to Newcastle, particularly the promenade,

without talking about Percy French. And obviously,

this was not here in my day.

The memorial statue was erected in 2008

in memory of Irish entertainer Percy French,

who was famous in the late 19th century

for composing and singing humorous Irish songs.

One of his most famous songs was The Mountains Of Mourne.

# In the place where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea. #

He wrote this song about Newcastle itself.

You know, where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.

-And really, it's known worldwide.

-Yeah.

They've actually, luckily for us, put the words on the sign.

Yeah, shall we have a go?

-BOTH:

-# Oh, Mary, this London's a wonderful sight

# With the people all working by day and by night

# They don't sow potatoes, or barley, or wheat

# But there's gangs of them digging for gold in the street

# At least when I asked them that's what I was told

# So I just took a hand at this digging for gold

# But for all that I've found sure I might as well be

# Where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea. #

Yay! Lovely.

# There's beautiful girls... #

CROWD APPLAUDS Thank you. Thank you very much.

You can put the pennies in the tin.

Even 66 years on,

Gloria's singing still entertains the crowds in Newcastle.

Now, the famous Mourne Mountains that Percy sang about

are the most dramatic mountain range in Northern Ireland,

with the highest peak being the Slieve Donard.

Crisscrossed with paths and treks, they're a walker's paradise

and a firm favourite with Gloria.

Now then, here's the test.

After that Ulster fry, will we get through or not?

-Oh, yes.

-SHE LAUGHS

-That is what is called a true test.

-Yeah.

I'd only do it sideways.

Ooh. Oh-hoo.

Do you know, I'm not convinced I burnt off all that fry up earlier.

I think a brisk walk should do the trick.

Now, as I understand it,

this is the main pathway to climbing Slieve Donard.

You can't stay on the beach all the time.

-No.

-So, obviously we used to love coming on walks, and climbing trees,

and playing hide and seek, all the things that kids like to do.

Look at that. Do you know, I love also the sound of the water

-over the rocks.

-Yeah.

-It's great, isn't it?

-Isn't it?

-Could be the Grand Canyon for all you know.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Well, yeah, it's better than the Grand Canyon...

-It's beautiful.

-..cos we're in Ireland.

-It's lovely.

-Len, come on, we've got that mountain to climb.

-No, no, wait a minute.

Look, I've come a good hundred yards. Let's have a...

-Let's take a selfie.

-OK. Good.

-Yeah?

Yes. And pretend that we did the mountains.

And I'm going to make out... Yeah.

Now. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh, here we go.

Let me get it well away.

It's a bit close, Len.

Look, I'm not a Harlem Globetrotter.

That's about as far as I can get.

-There you go!

-Hey, we did it. We did it. We did it.

Lovely.

So, is it true then, you're giving up at this point?

-Well, yeah, but I'm going to look like the big wimp.

-No, you won't.

-No, you won't.

-Come on.

-I'm going down this way.

-Come on, we'll go down.

-OK.

But I'm thanking heaven you've said that

-cos it was quite a hike.

-Saved your bacon.

Not only did Gloria holiday here as a young girl

but she took her three children on trips to Newcastle too.

Her daughter Caron Keating followed in her mum's showbiz footsteps

and was a presenter on Blue Peter for four years.

Sadly, after a seven-year battle with breast cancer,

Caron passed away in 2004.

What is wonderful about your career and your life,

you know, there's been plenty of ups but, of course,

-there's been some downs and some tragic downs...

-Yes...

-..with your daughter Caron.

-Yes.

Was it your faith that helped you to get through that?

I'll be honest with you, I don't know. Because the worst thing,

singularly for any parent, is the prospect of losing your child.

And so, when your child is ill,

you're so used to doing, "There, there, there,"

and putting the sticking plaster on and, "It'll be fine,"

that when something hits you like cancer with Caron,

as a parent you're lost because you don't know what to do.

You want to do something but you know you can't really go beyond

what medically is being done, except you can be there for support

and all of that.

Caron's battle against cancer went on for seven years.

And it's not that it was all gloom and doom because there were times

during the seven years that she was allegedly fine.

They would cut the cancer out and you're fine.

And then, one day I woke up and I thought, do you know,

I could be under a bus long before anything might happen to Caron.

So I've got to, you know, man up as it were...

Woman up, in this case.

..and be as supportive as I can, as positive as I can.

And because Caron herself was so...

She was so strong that, in the end, she became a teacher.

-Yeah.

-And she taught us all to be strong.

And I don't know where that strength comes from.

And to answer your question about faith -

yes, you cling onto your faith.

My faith was very strong here in Northern Ireland.

And some people lose their faith when they lose their loved one,

lose their child,

but I found I really wanted to hold on to that

because I needed to hold on to that,

and cos I have to believe that I'll see Caron again.

-Yes.

-So I hold on to my faith very strongly.

-And of course you then started your wonderful charity.

-Yes, I did

because that's my healing.

And I think she's looking down now.

She'll say, "Well done, Mum."

If she's looking down, she'll be looking down

in this part of the world because,

as a child, just as my mum brought me here,

I brought my children here all the time.

It's a magical area, and it's easy to see

it holds a very special place in Gloria's heart.

Rain, hail or shine,

hordes of people make their way to County Down

to spend some time in the Mourne Mountains.

With dozens of granite peaks squeezed into an area

only 15 miles by 5,

there are so many different paths and treks

it would take years to explore them all.

The 1,300 acres of mountains are said to have influenced

CS Lewis to write The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe,

and have provided the backdrop for films

including Dame Judi Dench's Philomena.

After a ramble, you're likely to need some refreshment.

And you're in luck

because hospitality is something that the people of Northern Ireland

are good at.

Located at the foot of the mountains,

O'Hares offers the perfect mix of food, music

and, of course, a wee tipple.

Make mine a sherry. Hmm, lovely.

This area is full of history.

And just north of Newcastle and overlooking the town of Dundrum

are the ruins of Dundrum Castle.

Built at the end of the 12th century,

it's considered one of the finest Norman castles in Northern Ireland.

It's had a colourful history

that culminated in its sacking by Cromwell's army in the 1650s.

The circular keep is still intact

and offers stunning views out to sea.

There's a century-old tradition around these parts

of seaweed bathing.

Seaweed was, and still is, used as a soil conditioner.

And farmers found calluses on their hands got better when using it,

so it wasn't long before the tradition of seaweed bathing began.

Soak is the only seaweed bathhouse in the UK,

and is the perfect place to detoxify your body.

Back in 1948, Gloria longed to go for tea

in the neo-Gothic Slieve Donard Hotel.

It was built in the 1890s to cater for the middle class of Belfast.

The hotel has opened its doors to guests as varied as Charlie Chaplin,

Desmond Tutu and Daniel O'Donnell.

A cream tea would have cost around six shillings in 1948,

too much for Gloria's family to afford.

So I couldn't bring her here without treating her.

Oh, my goodness.

It's going to be jelly and ice cream, and I love it!

THEY LAUGH

-Thank you very much.

-And...

SHE GASPS

-The works. Thank you so much.

-The full works.

-Thank you.

Look at that.

Oh, my goodness, that's gorgeous.

-That is brilliant.

-Isn't this incred...

-Between Ulster fry for lunch...

-Yeah.

-..and a cream tea before we go home.

This is beautiful. You know what, though, I'll start with the jelly.

I know that's not the way you should start but I love jelly.

-I'll go with you.

-I love jelly. Mmm.

-As a girl, I'm not looking for caviar and champagne.

-No.

I'm just looking for a cream tea and jelly and ice cream.

-So I'm a reasonably cheap date, aren't I?

-You are.

-SHE LAUGHS

-What about the shows you've done recently?

You know, Cash In The Attic and Rip-Off Britain.

Well, of course, the wonderful thing is

that for Rip-Off Britain, you know, if you gave that programme

to three 19-year-olds, it wouldn't have the same gravitas.

So it's a perfect thing for Julia Somerville, Angela Rippon

and myself to do. We're doing 50 of those this year.

So, when you ever get involved in ageism,

we go, "Hey, we're still working. We're still busy."

-Yeah.

-Also, I'm a Loose Woman these days as well.

-Yeah.

-You may have thought I was a loose woman for years

but I'm an official one now.

Then, of course, another series that I'm doing, which is called

Home Away From Home.

It's about people swapping homes within Britain.

So it might be somebody from...Newcastle

going across to Cornwall, or something like that.

So, lots of things. Lots of exciting things.

And so, in a way, whatever programme you're doing at the time

-is the best, isn't it?

-Yeah. Yeah, of course.

And what I admire with you, you have so much energy still

and so much enthusiasm. How do you keep that up?

Do you know, that's all to do with the Northern Ireland work ethic.

We're taught to work.

I started to work when I was so young.

I still expect to work.

I never expect anybody else to work for me.

I still love my work.

And I always put that down to Northern Ireland

and parental upbringing really.

My mother had a saying... If she saw me sitting in a chair reading,

for example, she'd say, "What are you doing?"

I'd go, "Just reading a book." And she'll go,

"Years ahead of you to sit in a chair and read.

"Go off and do something."

With a result that, these days, if I even have time off

that I'm sort of doing nothing, in my head I think,

I'd better go and do something.

-How did you enjoy doing the old Strictly?

-Well.

Remember that I did it when it was very innocent,

when you could put one foot past the other and you were on.

It was about a year and a half, I think, after Caron died.

And I thought I'd never find anything to laugh about

or smile about ever again

cos I was so much in the depths of despair really.

And my family thought it'd be a very joyful thing for me to do,

and so it was.

So, for that reason alone, I'll always be grateful to Strictly.

-Yeah.

-Not for the dancing but for the joy of it.

-Yeah.

How do you think your holiday in Newcastle back then

has helped to shape your life?

Well, first of all, it gave me that opportunity very early on

to go up in the bandstand and introduce my song

and perform in front of an audience,

so, I suppose if you want to go back that far,

it kind of helped me on the path of performance.

That's certainly one thing because that was a big impression,

-you know, to win the talent competition...

-Yes.

..at Newcastle, at the pier as well.

That was wonderful.

What a glorious girl.

And what a tremendous trip we've had.

-Oh, my goodness.

-I might have a little go at something.

Scone is lovely.

Remembering the precious times Gloria had here as a child

and reliving some of those special moments from happy holidays.

-After that Ulster fry, will we get through or not?

-Oh, yes.

SHE LAUGHS

-That is what I call a true test.

-Yeah. I'd only do it sideways.

I tell you what, this is incredible. It doesn't get better.

It doesn't. I do bring you to the best parts, don't I?

-You have brought me, truly, to one of the best parts.

-Yeah, lovely.

And, of course, I want you to have memories,

not only from when you were a little girl

but I want you to have memories of our day together.

I'll never forget this day, actually. It's been so lovely to relive it.

-What have you got hidden away?

-This is a little scrapbook...

-Ooh.

-..of our time together.

-Holiday Of My Lifetime.

-Isn't that gorgeous?

As long as there's a photograph of you and me together

and Newcastle in sight, I'll be happy.

There'll be loads of those.

A special scrapbook of memories

from our terrific time

here in Newcastle, County Down.

But the surprises don't stop there,

as I've tracked down

some special sheet music for Gloria.

Look at that.

Oh, that's fantastic!

"The Mountains O'Mourne Simplified Piano Solo

"by Percy French."

-That is fantastic.

-One and sixpence.

THEY LAUGH Pity it wasn't one and "seven!"

Oh, that's lovely. Thank you so much.

-I know exactly where I'm going to hang that.

-Yeah?

-Or sit it.

-Or you can sit it.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Brilliant. Thank you very much.

-I've noticed as well

-that it matches your...

-Well, now.

-Matches your outfit.

-Talk about the accident.

-Yeah.

That's lovely. I'll really treasure that. Thank you.

-You're welcome.

-Do you know what, I give you ten out of ten.

Well, I'd always give you a ten from Len, I promise you.

And so, we say goodbye to the stunning shores of Northern Ireland

and the fond holiday memories of the wonderful Gloria Hunniford.