Episode 18 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.'

This is a memory I will treasure!

'Every day, I'll be arranging a few surprises

'to transport them back in time.'

-I feel as though we're about to go over the edge.

-Don't say that!

'We'll relive the fun...'

Ah! Whoa!

'..the games and the food of years gone by...'

Oh, I'm so excited.

Oh, the taste... taste of your childhood.

'..to find out how those holidays around the UK helped shape

'the people we know so well today.'

Waaaah!

'So buckle up for Holiday Of My Lifetime.' Oh, yes.

We're going to get the water-skis out in a moment.

I'm on my way to meet a lady who knows a thing or two

about what's going on in the world.

She was born in London in 1945, on Christmas Day, no less!

Now there's a picture that should be in all the newspapers.

Becoming one of the first female editors of a national newspaper

in 1987 earned her the title The First Lady Of Fleet Street.

In 2008, she was awarded an OBE

for her services to journalism and broadcasting.

And she brushed shoulders with royalty again

when she covered William and Kate's wedding.

My invite must have got lost in the post!

And strictly speaking, her daughter -

oh, she knows how to keep people on their toes!

Know who it is yet? Hold the front page.

It's Eve Pollard!

Oh-oh-oh!

And I'm on my way to pick her up in this vintage Vauxhall,

which is almost identical to the one she would've gone on holiday with

when she was a whippersnapper.

Eve! Eve! Wait for me!

It's not Adam, but Len's coming!

Eve Pollard, OBE no less, grew up in Maida Vale in London

with her younger twin brothers, Peter and Ralph.

Her mum Mimi came to England from her home country of Austria,

and her father, an inventor called Ivor,

originally hailed from Hungary.

The couple met in London after fleeing Nazi persecution

and were married in 1943.

As a child,

Eve always had a keen sense of what was going on in the world,

so it was no surprise that she ended up holding court

with some of the biggest powers in world politics.

She's met Ronald Reagan, interviewed Tony Blair

and the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher.

She's even spent time in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen,

when she picked up her OBE.

Not only has she been editor of the Sunday Mirror,

the Sunday Express and Elle magazine in the US,

she's also a regular authority on our TV screens.

'Phew!'

SHE LAUGHS

-Hello! I love this car. Was this my old car?

-Yes.

Oh, I thought...

-Lovely to see you.

-Lovely to see you, Len. How are you?

-I'm jolly well.

-It looks rather nice, isn't it?

Back in the 1950s, a Vauxhall like this would've cost Eve's dad

about 750 quid, which is the equivalent of 18,000 in today's money.

Whoohoo!

-You must've been a posh family.

-No. My father...

We weren't a posh family, but my father liked cars,

-so we suffered and he had lovely cars.

-Yeah!

But I can remember - I had twin brothers -

my whole life sitting in the middle to stop them fighting.

-So, where are we off to?

-We're off to Margate.

-And what's the year?

'55.

Rock Around The Clock.

So you'd probably have had that on the wireless.

Probably, in-between lots of very dull old songs that we didn't like.

-Yeah, course! Shall we rock and roll?

-I'd love to.

-Come on, then.

-I'll let you in.

-Thanks.

-Look at it.

-Isn't it amazing?

'For more than 250 years,

'the Kentish town of Margate has been a leading seaside resort.

'As well as its famous sandy beaches, it also has a charming old town.

'When the sun shines, I can't think of anywhere better to be,

'especially when I've got the company of a lovely lady by my side.

'Today, I'm taking Eve back to the places she would've visited

-'as a child, to relive those heady days of picnics on the beach...'

-Oh!

-Oh, gherkins!

-Gherkins!

-Definitely gherkins. You're a genius!

-I'd forgotten about those.

-'..and fun times at the fairground...'

This was the apex, the whole point for me.

'..as we discover the things

'that made Margate home to the holiday of a lifetime.'

-How's that?

-Lovely.

Before any holiday truly begins, first,

you must set out on a journey, and for ten-year-old Eve

and her family, that meant climbing aboard her dad's pride and joy.

So, it was 1955, so you must've been a baby.

Well, we came here three different times.

-My father was a mad Hungarian inventor.

-Oh, right!

-And some years we had money, and most years we didn't.

-Right.

And so when we had money,

-we came down and we rented a house in Cliftonville...

-I know, yeah.

-..that smelt of dog.

-Oh, yeah. Not so nice.

-Not so nice.

-Loads and loads of wonderful hydrangeas in the garden.

-Lovely.

It was me and my mum and dad

and my twin brothers, who were a bit younger than me.

And why was it Margate?

-Was it a particular favourite of your parents?

-I think...

My parents were both Continental, so they knew nothing about anything.

But they'd obviously enjoyed holidays at home

when they were growing up, particularly my mother.

My mother lived in Vienna and was quite well-off,

and she used to go to places like Bratislava,

-and even once went to Paris on a holiday.

-Oh!

-Well, that is exotic.

-Exactly.

So they knew they wanted to go on holiday.

They just had to hear what other people, English people, friends...

They probably said, "Margate's very nice." And once they found it...

Then we never went anywhere else.

Well, I must say, though, if you get a beautiful day like today,

why not go to Margate?

Back in 1955, when Eve and her family

were motoring towards Margate, the world was a changing place.

Winston Churchill's second spell as prime minister came to an end

when he retired at the grand old age of 80.

And in the same year,

we said a final farewell to another great mind - Albert Einstein.

In happier news, over at Aintree,

a young British racing driver's career was hitting top gear.

At the age of just 25, the magnificent Sir Stirling Moss

became the first English winner of the British Grand Prix.

And in the UK charts, American cabaret singer Rosemary Clooney

hit the top spot with Mambo Italiano.

# Hey mambo! Mambo Italiano!

# Hey mambo! Mambo Italiano! #

But it's back to the present day now, and I'm excited to say

that we're just moments away from the magic that is Margate.

-Oh, I think this is it!

-Uh-oh!

-Oh, look! Oh, magic.

-Oh, look how beautiful this is.

-Oh, that is fantastic.

Isn't that gorgeous?

# That's nice. #

-Lovely. Oh, lovely.

-Is this how you remember it?

-Yeah.

Of course I can remember that very tall lighthousey

whatever it is at the end of the pier,

and I can remember the pool because I liked swimming in there

-rather than the sea, cos I was scared of...

-Jellyfish.

My brothers used to terrify me, but we came in August, so there were

hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people here, not a bit of sand.

I mean, it was just packed everywhere.

And so did you all come down together

and find a corner where you could lay out a blanket?

We all came down, then we brought towels.

I think we had one or two special sun towels,

but the rest came from the bathroom.

-And we'd have our swimming costumes on underneath.

-Yeah.

-Off, run, go.

-And, of course, we'd bring a picnic here.

-Right.

Of course, because my parents were Continental,

our picnics were not like everybody else's.

-So it wasn't cheese and pickle sandwiches?

-No way!

I'd dream of that.

First of all, they would come down, in the back of this lovely car,

-there would be three or four big salamis for slicing...

-Oh, right.

..and brown rye bread with caraway seeds, which I always hated,

because that's what we used to have.

When I used to go on a school trip, those were the sandwiches my mother

would give me, and I would dump them the minute I got to school.

It's a funny thing - as you get older, you're quite happy

to be different, but when you're a kid, you want to be exactly like...

-You want to conform, like everybody else.

-That's right, yeah.

-So, you coming along with brown bread, eh?

-And salami!

And salami, and they've all got lovely white bread with jam in it...

-Exactly!

-Yeah! Yes, of course!

-Disaster.

-Disaster.

And of course, now, your parents would be hovering over you...

Of course - "Don't go down there!"

-But then, my parents would be sitting somewhere.

-Yeah.

They'd show me, like, there's a thing here or an umbrella there,

or there's somebody here and we'd go.

-Off you'd go.

-Amazing. Amazing freedom.

Ian Dickie is a local historian, and he runs the Margate Museum.

With his expert knowledge, he's the ideal chap to give us

the lowdown on the idyllic beach resort Eve remembers so fondly.

The '50s and '60s were when everyone wanted to come to Margate.

It was a seaside resort par excellence. Entertainment was great,

we had the Dreamland, we had the Lido,

we had entertainment on the beach, little roundabouts on the beach,

there was Punch and Judy on the beach, there were donkeys on the beach - it was the place to be.

And the photos we have in the archives show

masses and masses of people just descending on Margate.

But Margate's appeal as a seaside resort goes much further back than that.

Margate's popularity first started in the mid 18th century, round about

1750, when Dr Russell wrote a paper about the efficacy of sea water,

and people came here to take the waters,

in which they were taken out to sea in a bathing machine, stripped off,

dunked in the sea, brought out and given a pint of seawater to drink.

Not exactly effective, but it did the job!

Don't forget, London was in the middle of the Industrial Revolution.

There was thick fog, smog in London,

so people were beginning to get out of the town to get some fresh air

and fresh sea, then it moved on to about 1815, which is

when the paddle steamers first came here, 200 years ago this year,

and they brought the people from London

to spend their time in Margate either for weekends or long weeks,

or even longer in some places.

So it was very much then a holiday resort, but only,

and I have to stress this, only for the rich and famous,

because the working class people didn't have holidays.

Well, we all know Eve is well-accustomed to mingling

with the rich and famous now,

but back in 1955, a holiday was exciting for much simpler reasons.

-Do you recognise this?

-I do vaguely.

This would be lit up at night, I think, because that's what...

Anything lit up was what excited me about going on holiday,

apart from having fun and going swimming and all the rest of it.

And did you go in?

I don't think I went...we went in the Lido because I think it

cost money, and anything that cost money was forboden.

-Out of the question. Out of the question!

-Yeah.

But I remember going past this, and I had no idea what a lido was.

I'm still not entirely sure. Could you tell me?

Well, it turns out that the Margate Lido was a whole entertainment

and amusement complex.

To find out more, I want Eve to meet Terry Goldman.

He actually moved to Margate because of the Lido!

We came from Leeds.

My father was a cabinet maker, and in 1946,

he was asked to come down here

and build this amusement area called the games hall, and the people

he worked for said, "Well, you can talk so much -

"would you like to stay and run the bingo?" Which he did.

He stayed in the guest house just opposite here in Ethelbert Road,

then bought the house next door and myself and my three brothers

and my mother,

we moved down here and had the six-bedroomed guest house.

With credentials like that, Terry's the perfect person to tell us

all about the Lido, and remind Eve of what it was like in its heyday.

That was the games hall.

Over on the left-hand side there, that was a theatre,

the Lido Theatre,

when Tommy Trinder and all the good old-timers, they all played here,

so it was really buoyant, and where we're standing,

this used to be an array of deckchairs,

and just over there, there was a gentleman called Tony Savage,

and he would play his electronic organ.

-Oh, nice!

-That was this larger area here,

but there were different levels to here.

The next level down, there was a place called the Cliff Cafe,

and that was shows every evening, and just nice entertainment,

and below that is the swimming pool.

When I came here, the only thing that was different for me is that

I couldn't see a grain of sand when I came here, because it was packed.

-Yeah. Wonderful.

-August, of course.

-What about at nights?

What was it like here at night-time?

At night-time, it was vibrant because there was always a show on,

whether here at the Lido Theatre, at the Winter Gardens,

and so there were thousands

and thousands of people that had been sunbathing during the day,

they went to their guest houses and hotels to get changed,

had their supper and they came out,

and it was just crowded.

So magical, because London wouldn't have been dull,

although in the '50s it wasn't exciting then,

but here, A - we were on holiday, B - my memory, like all peoples',

the sun shone every day, and lights, twinkling lights all the time,

and I thought this was the most exciting place on Earth.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

Well, the Lido may have seen busier times, but there are still

plenty of ways to amuse yourself in Margate and I've picked sev-en!

Now, I bet you didn't know that the coast of our Margate produces

thousands of tonnes more seaweed than any other beaches in Britain.

One man who did know is Dom Bridges and he set up a clifftop laboratory.

We use seaweed harvested directly off the beach.

It's 100% natural, everything, from the skincare to the perfumes.

Rather than having to pack a product with eight or nine individual

ingredients, it's a really good, you know, 100% natural core

ingredient that gives you everything you need for skin rejuvenation.

Now, ordinarily, you wouldn't catch me

covering my body in that green slimy stuff. Oh, no!

But this man really does transform it into something useful.

What a clever clogs.

You don't have to travel to Japan or China to embrace high-end seaweed skincare.

You can do all that right here on the English coast.

Covering 32 miles of Kentish coastline and countryside,

the Viking Coastal Trail runs through Ramsgate, Reculver and Margate.

It offers family-friendly cycling on traffic-free promenades,

and best of all, you're never too far from ice cream parlours.

Oh! Or a pub!

So, I guess this would have been your regular daily visit down onto the beach.

Onto the beach, grey skies, blue skies,

unless it was pouring down, this was where we came every day.

For us this was heaven, because it was just freedom.

You could just run, you could jump, you could play.

As much as you were running around and this and that,

when you did get tired, were you a reader?

Oh, well, the nice thing my mother used to do,

my mother was a reader and encouraged me to be one,

she would get me Girl comic and before that, she would get me

another one, I think Schoolfriend,

and she would save them up for the six weeks before we came,

she'd wrap them round - I can still remember them

wrapped round with an elastic band - and then she would give them to me

on the first day of the holiday and I would read them voraciously,

every single word in them.

And so I was a very big reader.

Eve's mum buying her Girl comic was clearly a magical moment for the future journalist,

so I've got hold of a copy from 1955, the very time

when, as a ten-year-old, she would've been here on her holidays in Margate.

Oh, no! Girl! I always wanted my hair to be like that.

-Well, it is like that now!

-Well, it is in a way.

-Four pence ha'penny.

-Ten tennis rackets to be won this week. Look!

I would've read this. I would've definitely read this.

-Wendy and Jinx.

-Absolutely.

I read everything.

-I mean, I read everything including the word "continued."

-Yeah.

I read the recipes that I was never going to make, I read the adverts.

-Oh, you read it cover to cover.

-Cover to cover.

And then probably had another go.

And I'd take them back to London with me,

and do swapsies with other ones.

-Oh, look.

-So how did you get into journalism?

Well, my father wouldn't let me go to university.

Told me at 14 not to worry about that sort of nonsense,

because I was going to get married and keep him and my husband...

Find a rich husband?

Not rich husband, just nice husband,

and my father approved of, of course, and he said because

I was going to have children, that was going to be my life,

so that made me very determined to go

and do something interesting, so I did a very short art course,

and then I got a job on Honey magazine,

and I went, and Audrey Slaughter was the editor of Honey,

and she said, "Do me a double page spread that you'd like to see in the magazine,"

so I went and drew it all up and filled in every detail,

and she chose me, because I think

I'd worried about readers in Hull and Manchester and not just London.

And I was in, I was assistant to the fashion editor

and it was a monthly magazine.

And I'll tell you, Len, our world has changed

so much. I can remember we had a conference, the whole staff,

about whether the girl in the fictional story, written by Andrea

Newman, could lose her virginity the month before she married her fiance.

'Crikey, Eve, I'm not sure I've got the stomach for that

'kind of thing, even now. What a scandal!

'But I do have the stomach for a bit of nosh, 1955 style, of course.'

For most people,

sampling the local food is a big part of any holiday experience.

But not for Eve.

Her parents' tight budget meant eating out simply

wasn't on the menu.

And with her mum coming from Austria and her dad from Hungary,

everything had a distinctive European flavour.

So, to take her taste buds back on a trip down memory lane,

I've ordered a very special picnic.

Well, I'd be fascinated to know what you've put in it.

-Well, I'm hoping it's...

-It's what I used to have here.

We never had anything as flash as that, Len.

-No, that is posh, isn't it?

-It is posh.

-Oh! Ooh, gherkins.

-Gherkins.

Definitely gherkins, you're a genius.

I'd forgotten about those. Yeah, they look nice, actually.

-They look nice.

-They look very nice.

-And, look, nicely packaged, you know.

-Very nicely packaged.

But my mum would've taken them out of the jar and they'd have

been put in grease-proof, I think, was it grease-proof paper

-what we used to use?

-Yeah, grease-proof paper.

Well, I think this is grease-proof paper we've got on the top here.

-Yeah.

-Isn't it?

-Looks like it, doesn't it? Yes, nice.

-Yeah.

Best before 1957.

Let's have two, let's live dangerously.

-Well, we've got them to have.

-Yeah.

Now, whatever this is, I'm going to put some on your plate,

-cos we've got to get cracking here.

-OK.

-Oh!

-Oh, now, that's more the... Oh, no, look, what's it got inside?

-Let me help you to take that.

-Let me look, let me look.

-And, look, salami!

-Salami.

-Mm.

-What's it like?

Mm.

'Now, this package has got me really intrigued.'

It could be an unexploded bomb,

cos you get a lot of those round the coastline.

It feels like an unexploded bomb.

All I can say is it's a big one.

'Look at that for a bit of sausage.

'With her parents' European roots, a big old salami

'like this would've been central to Eve's holiday menu.'

Particularly Hungarian salami and not the French sort,

but the stuff they would've got at home.

Which, of course, is now very trendy,

but, at that time, nobody else I knew was eating that sort of stuff.

-No.

-Everybody else was having egg and chips at night.

-Yeah.

But what you eat is who you are.

That's very, very, true, yeah.

I guess, you know, your mum and dad grew up eating this stuff.

And, of course, not expensive.

-Slice it up very thin, put it in a sandwich.

-Perfect.

-You can make one of those last for weeks.

-Bit of gherkin.

My mother was a brilliant cook.

She made biscuits, she made cakes, they entertained quite a lot.

All, sort of, mad foreigners, like themselves.

-It was like international house.

-Yeah.

Also, interestingly, a lot of that generation,

who escaped the Holocaust, didn't dare have children.

-Yeah.

-So, my parents having three children...

I mean, a child and then, obviously,

another child that turned out to be twins, was unusual.

'Eve's parents were lucky to escape

'the horrors of the concentration camps themselves, but, like millions

'of others, the atrocities of the Holocaust had a lasting impact.'

-Did your parents talk about it?

-Never, ever, ever.

-Yeah.

-I mean, that's the very sad thing. My mother died at just 55.

You found that people who'd been through their experience started

talking when they were 70, cos they suddenly thought,

-"We'll die and nobody will believe this."

-Yes.

Even now, I talk to Holocaust survivors, or people who

were in my parents' position, where their parents died in the Holocaust

and they say, "We're alive still, so we can tell people,

"so we can be witnesses to what happened."

Yes. It's amazing, it's...

-It's tragic and so sad.

-Yeah.

On the other hand, they, like many of their generation,

came here, they enriched Britain.

-They loved England, it saved their lives.

-Yeah.

Actually, I wouldn't have been born, in a strange way,

without Adolf Hitler, because my parents would never have met.

-Never have met, of course.

-Never.

-One's in Austria, one's in Hungary.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Very strange.

'With dark days in Eve's parents' history, it's nice to know

'that a place like Margate invokes so many happy family memories.'

-Well, nice as it is here...

-Yeah.

-You know, we've hardly scratched

-the surface of Margate.

-Oh.

-No, Margate, I'm sure, has a lot more to offer us.

-Yeah.

I think we're going to go up that way.

While we empty the sand from our socks, here's the next

instalment of my seven marvellous things to do in Margate.

For me, no seaside resort is complete without a proper,

old-fashioned theatre and Margate has one of the best.

Over the years,

the famous Winter Gardens has welcomed some of the biggest

names in show business, from Vera Lynn, to The Beatles,

even Laurel and Hardy have performed here.

To this day, it still pulls in some of the biggest names on the circuit.

I wonder if they need a dance instructor?

Now, nothing reminds me of my childhood more than playing

with a train set. Whoohoo! Come on.

As the home of Hornby, Margate is

the Mecca for model railway enthusiasts.

This visitors' centre attracts thousands of people each year.

And brand ambassador Peter Oliver, well, he knows why.

I suppose, it takes them back to their childhood.

You know, a steam train, marvellous.

We used to collect numbers of steam trains.

It's a hobby, which isn't too expensive to have.

You can have a nice layout in your loft or in a room.

Not just trains though,

who could resist the chance to have a go at this?

Not me.

In 1955, when a young Eve Pollard was holidaying in Margate,

there was only one attraction on her mind.

Look, there it is!

Dreamland.

-This was the apex, the whole point, for me.

-Yeah.

Once I'd been there, I wished I could go every night

and I knew the whole thing about Margate meant Dreamland.

Dreamland first opened its doors to the public way back in 1880.

For almost 100 years,

it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the area,

with people travelling from miles around to try out the attractions.

Sadly, in later years, the park had a bit of a bumpy period.

Then, in 2005, after a rollercoaster of a ride, the park closed down.

But the dreams and the memories still live on for Eve.

It wasn't just the rides, it was the lights, it was the atmosphere,

-it was being out at night.

-Yes.

You know, I was tucked in bed most nights at eight o'clock.

-Yes, and there you were.

-Out with my parents.

My parents, who often weren't in a jolly mood with one another,

-cheered up, told jokes, were funny, etc.

-Yeah.

There we would go to Dreamland and it seemed like we spent hours

-there, I should think about an hour at the most.

-Yeah.

You went on rides, you saw the lights,

-you saw people dressed up and it was magical.

-Yeah.

I mean, this was like Euro Disney, plus all the Disney tours,

plus everything, in my world.

-Yeah.

-It was very special.

-Did you go a lot or was it...?

-Once.

-Once.

Once during the week,

but we all went and we all looked forward to it.

We went two days before the end, so that we could look forward to

it and then talk about it for the last few days.

-It was absolutely done like that.

-Perfect.

-Yeah.

Well, unfortunately, although it is going to reopen,

it's not open at the moment.

It's a shame we can't go in. Well, we'd better move on, I suppose.

-I suppose so.

-Do you know...

-Yeah?

..I'm not going to let this stop me from taking you in.

-Could we go inside?

-Len Goodman, head judge.

-You can do anything.

-We're getting in.

-Sev-en!

-Sev-en! Come on!

-Are we really going inside?

-Yeah.

You bet we are, Eve.

Dreamland is being rebuilt and, though it's still

closed to the public, I've sorted out exclusive access just for us.

Right, there you are.

This looks nothing, of course, like my memory of Dreamland,

-which was always at night.

-No, but...

But I do remember this ancient rollercoaster and it's wood,

-it's all wood.

-Yeah.

It makes a real clatter, that's the nice thing about wood.

Now, they're all electric and they're smooth,

-you hear the screams.

-Yeah.

-This makes a real wood on wood noise, I love that.

-Yeah.

-I was told that over 100km of wood has been used to construct it.

-Wow.

It's very nice that it's so old-fashioned,

because now they're all electric and like trains almost.

-Yeah. So, did you go on it?

-I did go on it, I was petrified.

My brothers liked it much more than me.

-My mother never would go on it, my father occasionally came.

-Yeah.

-And then thought it was madness.

-So, is this, sort of, bringing it back?

All I remember is the flowers and all the things picked out in

-lights, the magical thing about it.

-Yeah.

-There were gentler rides that took you through in my imagination.

-Yeah.

-So, there's a gentle ride.

-A water thing.

-A water thing or a slower thing, a boat-sized thing.

-Yeah.

-Then you'd pass by beautiful lights or flowers, roses, all lit up.

-Yeah.

Well, I must say,

they're doing a fantastic job in bringing this all back to life.

I think the iconic thing about Margate,

when you speak to people who've been there, Dreamland.

-Dreamland.

-And then for umpteen years it's been closed.

And also I think a lot of older people come back,

-because this is how it used to be.

-Yeah.

And it brings back lovely memories of what was.

'Dreamland didn't just appeal to tourists though.

'One man who would be thrilled to see it reopen is Mick Tomlinson.'

He's lived in Margate all his life and as a nipper,

he'd bunk off Sunday school and spend his pocket money at the park.

Dreamland has become a, sort of, lifetime hobby of mine.

Obviously, it had many rides, some we were too young to go on,

and some sideshows, which were very popular.

One comes to mind where I'd be walking past the big scenic

railway ride and there used to be a little theatre there.

And there were big posters outside saying, "Girls in a bubble bath."

So, we raised enough money to go in and have a look at this.

So, in we go and there were these two rather nice young ladies

all in these bubbles and everything else.

We weren't alone, obviously, other members of the public were there.

They'd be saying,

"Come on, lads, give us two and six and we'll stand up for you."

Oh, all right. So, we threw two and six, which we found.

Of course, we were quite disillusioned,

because they were wearing bathing costumes.

But it was all part of the fun.

And these are lovely memories which I have of Dreamland.

Well, there'll be no steamy seaside

shenanigans taking place today, I can assure you of that.

For Eve and I, it's a much more sedate affair.

-Here we go, hold that pole.

-Oh, Len, thank you very much.

-Up we go.

-Up we go, careful.

-Careful!

-There you are, I'll go in first.

-Are we going to sit in the carriage?

-Why not?

-I'll get in there.

-Lovely and tidy.

-Oh, very nice.

-Oh, how's that?

-Lovely.

-Nice, isn't it?

-Nice.

-Now, this is my sort of ride.

-Me too.

Gentle, just round and round, little wave at your mum as you go past.

-Every time.

-Every time, of course, yeah.

And then you have endless photographs of little

-waves at your mum.

-Of course you do.

-Yeah,

-that's what the whole point is.

-Yeah.

-I'd have liked to have

-been on a horse, if I was a child.

-And me, cos they had a sort of...

Yeah, up and down, but we're ready for this now, aren't we?

-This is more age appropriate.

-Age appropriate.

-It is, apparently, a very old one.

-Yeah, this is an original.

Look at that, you can see how it's old, made of old bits.

Yeah, of course you can.

-Made of old bits, yeah, bit like me.

-Bit like me.

'Unfortunately, the carousel won't be moving today,

'which seems more unfair than funfair.

'But it's lovely and I can take the opportunity to discuss Eve's

'Fleet Street career.'

What a wonderful thing, you became the editor of a national newspaper.

-Yeah.

-Now, when was that?

-'87.

-Right.

-It was the Sunday Mirror.

Bob Maxwell, who most people have heard of, offered me the editorship.

I'd edited a magazine called You,

which you got with the Mail on Sunday.

The Mail on Sunday had done very well and he offered me

the editorship.

-It was a male-dominated...

-Completely.

-What was the reaction, there you are?

-Well, it was difficult.

I remember ringing up the printers on a Saturday night and saying,

"Where's the press? Where's the print?

"It's late," and they say, "Let me speak to your boss, love,"

and I said, "I am the boss."

"No, don't be stupid, love. Let me speak to your boss, love."

So, I said, "Well, I am the editor."

"No, no, don't be stupid, love..."

-I mean, that's how it went.

-Yeah.

So, it wasn't easy and a lot of people resented you,

because you'd taken a job that had, more or less,

always been owned by a male. And it hasn't improved.

Yeah, you must've been brilliant, cos it's such a pressurised job.

I think I thrived on it, up to a point.

-But, of course, there were weeks that drove you crazy.

-Yeah.

And there were stories you got and couldn't print that drove you mad.

Yeah.

Now, here's the scoop on my top headline

attraction in magnificent Margate.

One of the smallest theatres in the world, the Tom Thumb Theatre,

was originally built as a coach house in Victorian times and

converted into this charming, little 58 seat playhouse, in the mid 1980s.

Whether they're attracted by the quirky interior design or the truly

diverse range of acts that grace the stage,

it's small wonder that people keep on coming back to this place.

Now, I don't know who had the job of counting them, but there are

reportedly over 4.6 million shells lining

the walls of our next attraction.

The Shell Grotto has been welcoming members of the public since 1837.

While nobody knows who actually made it,

the way it was found is nothing short of incredible.

The grotto was discovered in 1835 by accident, by some children.

Brother and sister were playing and they uncovered a tunnel

and came down here and found the grotto.

They would come down here with lamps around their neck and play.

Eventually, the adults wondered where they were getting to

and the grotto was found.

An amazing story for an amazing place.

Guaranteed to delight everyone, from tiny tots to old fossils, like me.

Finally, my number one tip for Margate is this.

Named after one of Britain's best loved painters,

the Turner Contemporary art gallery.

Situated on the seafront, on the very site where Turner

himself would stay when he visited the town.

It's full of historical and contemporary art and,

what's more, it won't cost you a penny to get in.

Whoa! I love a freebie.

Our day out in Margate is almost over, but, before our dream

date draws to a close, there's time for one last chinwag.

'I've been enthralled by how Eve landed her top

'job on the nation's newspaper, when it was a man's game.

'Over the years, she has mingled with the great, the good

'and the bad.

'Now, I want her to really dish the dirt, spill the beans,

'name some names.'

-Now, you've interviewed so many people.

-Yeah.

Who would you say was the most interesting?

The one, you know, "Oh, I'm going to interview so and so."

Mrs Thatcher was curious. Everybody said she hated women.

If you went to her and you were absolutely direct and said,

"I'm working on the Sunday Mirror, I want to interview you.

"I know our paper is not your favourite paper,

"but I'm going to ask you this, this and this."

I asked her lots of questions about women.

-She was fine.

-Yeah. Now, what about the Queen, did you meet her?

I've met the Queen.

I've been very lucky enough to meet the Queen a few times.

I met her, when I really talked to her was at an event

for the Journalists' Charity, which was started by Charles Dickens.

She's great, cos she comes to these events with loads of journalists.

-You can imagine how much she likes us.

-Yeah.

And we're pushed into a room right up ahead

and on my invitation is says four and a dot.

So, we're in the dot room.

And I'm the fourth person she comes to, so it's so well organised.

She said to me, "I gather you've been the only woman..."

I think, at the time, who's been chairman of this charity to raise

money for, you know, journalists who are in trouble as they get older.

So, I said, "Yes, Ma'am, they have sheltered housing

"and I've reserved number 22 for me and number 35 for my husband."

Well, she threw her head back and laughed.

If you think about it, it's like her own dear life.

Well, afterwards, every editor said, "What did you say?

-"What did you say?" So, that was great.

-Yeah.

And then after that I was very lucky enough to get an OBE.

'Whoa-ho!

'She's gone toe to toe with the Iron Lady,

'faced up to Fleet Street's most ferocious men

'and even been given a gong by Her Majesty the Queen.

'I wonder if Eve thinks coming to Margate with her parents all

'those years ago set her out on the path for such success.'

You came here as a child with your parents and I think this is true,

I think for everyone, your parents tend to shape who you become.

Oh, sure.

It reminded me of the loveliness of my mother, particularly,

-I mean, collecting all those comics for me and not telling me.

-Yeah.

Then surprising me, then it wasn't a surprise,

cos she did it every holiday, but it was something I looked forward to.

-Yeah.

-And they really had no money and they were determined to give us

the best in a land they knew nothing about really.

-Yeah.

-And, considering me and my brothers did OK...

-I think you did better than OK.

-It's amazing that they did so well.

I'd love to believe, wouldn't I, that they

could look down and say, "Oh, there she is, she's in Margate again."

I don't think they can,

but it's reminded me of all the good times we had.

-Yeah.

-That's better than anything, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Well, I tell you what, I'm so happy that we met.

Apart from the fact that you've been so entertaining,

I got an opportunity to come back here, to Margate,

-where I haven't been for 50 years, I guess.

-Yeah.

-Maybe more.

And you've picked the most gorgeous day. It's been great, hasn't it?

It's been great. It's been lovely.

It was on my bucket list, a day out with Len, by the seaside.

Couldn't be better.

'Eve Pollard, what a formidable lady, eh?

'And what an honour to spend a day in her company, reminiscing

'about her childhood holidays, here in marvellous Margate.

'We arrived in style,

'sampled some salami...'

All I can say is it's a big one.

'..and talked Fleet Street, behind the scenes.'

I remember ringing the printers up on a Saturday night and saying,

"Where's the press? Where's the print?

"It's late," and they said, "Let me speak to your boss, love,"

and I said, "I am the boss."

'But we haven't quite finished yet.'

-Eve, I've got something here for you.

-No, not more salami.

No, no, no, no.

-This is the Holiday Of My Lifetime scrapbook.

-Oh, look! That's lovely.

-This is full of fabulous photographs.

-Yes, it's just a little

thing to remember the day by.

My special gift, for a very special lady,

is a picture book of memories from our time together.

This is lovely. I've told you much too much.

THEY LAUGH

'And I've got one final surprise that will, hopefully,

'keep her memories of Margate alive for years to come.'

-We thought on the train going home...

-Oh, yes!

-..the Girl magazine.

Shall I tell you how much I love this?

A - I love it, and B - I'm going to show it to Claudia's daughter,

my only granddaughter.

-Yeah.

-And just see what she makes of it.

The trouble is, if you read the first episode here,

you might have a job getting the next issue.

I think I will, since it was June 1955.

-1955, yeah.

-But there we are, we can make it up ourselves.

-Yes.

It's beautiful. It's brought it all back.

-So, listen, can I give you a cuddle?

-Please.

-And just say thank you so much, I've had such a great day.

-So have I.

-We've caught the sun.

-We've caught the sun, we've had some fun.

We've laughed. We've caught the sun, we've had some fun.

'And I can't wait to tell Claudia what a day I had with her mum.'

But, for now, it's so long to the magical town of Margate.

And thanks for the memories that made up

the holiday of Eve Pollard's lifetime.