Lorraine celebrates 40 years on the box (Image: ITV)
Top celebrities and ITV colleagues lavish praise on TV legend Lorraine Kelly in a new documentary this week to celebrate her impressive four decades in TV.
“Everyone’s aware of Lorraine Kelly,” said ex ITV Daytime colleague . “She’s kind of the queen of television.
He added: “She’s carved a niche for herself as one of the most beloved people in the country. You ever meet anyone who hates Lorraine Kelly? If only I could get a bit of that for myself!”
Breakfast TV was in its infancy in 1984 when Lorraine Kelly, now 64, got her first break as Scotland reporter for TVam, aged 24.
This documentary — Lorraine: 40 Unforgettable Years — shows archive from Lorraine’s early broadcasting career and beyond, reporting on some landmark news events in an evolving Britain, from the Eighties to present day.
One present-day colleague, GMB’s Rob Rinder said: “She’s part of the national fabric, you know, and I grew up in a time where TV was everything”.
Ranvir Singh, who presents Lorraine in the star’s absence, said she brought a different style to TV.
She said: “I think she stood out back then and still today because she brought in a very relaxed, familiar, easy brand of TV presenting and indeed reporting.”
Fan, singer Craig David, added: “She’s a woman of the people and I feel like that’s given her this 40-year career.”
Comedian Joel Dommett praised her ability to change gear in a single show.
“To be able to go from, like interviewing Lulu one moment and then the next segment talking about the coil!”
Lorraine and her team of contributors (Image: BBC)
Fellow Scot, Brian Cox said: “She has this unique quality of normalness, you know, and there’s not very many people that have that quality.
“That’s always been for me what is so extraordinary about her. That’s her uniqueness, you know.”
The doc explores Lorraine’s childhood and early life in Glasgow, until she left school to work as a trainee on her local newspaper.
In rare cine footage from Lorraine’s childhood and interviews with her family, friends and primary school teacher, we are given an insight into the origins of Lorraine’s work ethic and values which remain with her today.
Lorraine takes the viewer through some old pictures of herself, never taking herself too seriously.
“I was a wee dumpling!” she jokes.
Her primary school teacher, Miss Speers, tells the show: “She was bright, and you knew there was a little spark there.”
Lorraine: 40 Unforgettable Years, ITV, Wed, 9pm