Gloria, Queen of the entertainment shows. A career celebrated

A bit late but still time to catch up with  Gloria: my life on TV on iPlayer, the ultimate accolade of a  Gloria Hunniford Night on BBC FOUR  last Saturday. It features a set of shows including an interview with film star Audrey Hepburn,  a chat show standing in for her network mentor Terry Wogan and an appearance singing  on the Val Doonican show.  The decades around the turn of the millennium reached  the high point of MOR  (middle of the road) chat and companiable light music on radio and TV before the onset of streaming. Gloria was its high priestness and survives the  transition.

Gloria stands at the head of broadcasters from Northern Ireland who first made it at home in shows which tried to assert normal life amid the early years of the Troubles and went on to make it big in Britain. The high point of the night is  Gloria: My life on TV an hour long documentary which by splendid use of archives captures the flavour of her role in the Troubles before making the giant leap to the networks in London. No question of her spurning those early often “regional” looking shows.. ” I owe Northern Ireland everything.”

My Life on TV is of course a celebration featuring tributes from her locally born successors like Eamonn Holmes and Christine Lampard ( a former BBCNI floor manager) led sadly by Gerry Kelly who died a fortnight ago. But what frankly is there to criticise? No drugs or alcohol dependency, no delayed action abuse revelations, no public fighting over contracts. And although there is permanent devastating anguish at the death of her daughter Caron Keating from breast cancer just as she was making a similar name for herself, no mental health obsession, rather a determination “never to retire” at 86. Enjoy.

Brian Walker

Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London