Debbie parties with Gloria Hunniford

Well, the Christmas party season is well and truly here! I had a great time last week at the 10th Anniversary of 'Open House with Gloria Hunniford' in the West End. 

A few years ago, I used to deputise for La Hunniford when she was on holiday. Do you remember the show? Channel 5 every afternoon? Gloria would open her front door and be totally shocked day after day to find 300 guests in her living room.

If the truth be told, it was always easy to get audience members, who were mostly senior citizens, tired from shopping in Oxford Street and needing a bit of warmth and a sit down.

The stars on 'Open House with Gloria Hunniford'

It was a great show. All the big stars appeared on it, stars like Cliff, Boris the Tarantula, SAS members (whose faces had to be blacked out for anonymity while maximising publicity for their books), Daniel O'Donnell and our own Glen Campbell.

Dancing the YMCA!

My moment of glory came when I got to perform YMCA with the Village People! Not lookey-likeys but the real ones, with the camp American cop uniforms and wonderful helmets! Of course, my children have never forgiven me.............

Meanwhile, back at the party......... Gloria was on fine form and looked amazing. I tried to persuade her that she ought to do a range for hair products for us, given that her barnet always looks fab and her husband is a famous hairdresser. Actually, she thought it was rather a good idea........

My friend Paddy Haycocks

Now, apart from Gloria herself, one face our DIY viewers will recognise was that of our own Paddy Haycocks. He was off-duty, so had reluctantly left his Rapesco nail gun at home.

You may not know this about our rapid-fire hero, but he has a rather colourful past. Off screen he worked on zillions of shows for LWT and he was the editor of Gloria's show for many years.

Paddy first appeared on screen (his blonde eyelashes newly tinted) in 1987 with me on the Channel 4 consumer show 'Streetwise' before he went off globe-trotting for glamorous travel programmes.

Paddy is the nicest most fun person and has possibly the best gossip of all my friends. I'm looking foward to seeing him when he next comes to QVC on the 14th Decemeber. We have some great lunches, although he does have to stick to a special regime he's pioneered. It's called the "Waiter, we'd better have another bottle of the Sauvignon" diet!

Be in touch soon,

Debbie x

Comments

[Paddy Haycocks]

Well, at risk of sounding like the founding members of a mutual admiration society, I have to say that Debbie is one of TV's absolute gems. Having worked with more celebrities than you can shake a stick at, she takes my top award. Everybody was thrilled to see her at the reunion. What she didn't mention was that the first time she hosted 'Open House' in place of Gloria, there'd been a last minute crisis. As editor of the programme, I only discovered that Glo was unable to present our 2pm live daily show at 10am that morning. Incredibly, I not only managed to get hold of Debbie (who, I seem to remember, was dropping off her daughters at playgroup at the time) but, at a moment's notice, she rearranged her wolrd to be at the studio by 1pm. She then absorbed a complex set of background notes about that day's guests and interviews, took to the floor at 2pm and went on to present a flawless and impressive live hour. The mark of a true professional! May we share many more gossipy lunches and perhaps, even, an odd glass or two of sauvignon!