“I Remember” O …Being in a Caravan in Rhyl
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ENTERTAINMENT Anthea Turner, 56, is a TV presenter. In her 30-year career she’s appeared on numerous programmes, including Blue Peter, GMTV and Top of the Pops. Anthea Turner “I Remember” O …BEING IN A CARAVAN IN RHYL. May 25 and June 6, so we’d always T O (Above) Anthea It was on a beach and was owned have our birthday parties together in H with her sister by our next-door neighbours, so we the summer. I remember lots of little Wendy; enjoying OCK P got to stay in it. I remember having girls running round at the parties— St a family holiday ice cream and mum and dad being it was very much a family house. with her mum LAMY and her younger there, as I was an only child—my We had extensive gardens too and A sister Ruth sisters hadn’t arrived yet and I was I could probably climb every tree two-and-a-half years old. in them. The whole family is very into their gardens. …OUR BUNGALOW. It had probably been built around the 1920s by my …MY PARENTS WORKING. HARRIS/ © TERRY grandfather. It was a beautiful house. My mum Jean was a teacher My mum was born in that house, we at a secondary school and were born in that house—everybody my father Brian worked for was born in that house! the family business, which My sisters Ruth and Wendy and was the cabinet makers I all have our birthdays between Turner & Sons. It was 28 Reader’s DIGEST princess, as there were always other …WORKING FOR THE things to deal with. AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION. My headmistress sent As much as I loved it, I wasn’t sure …HAVING PONIES. We used to get me to an educational about ballet as a career, and when on them and go off for what felt like I was nearly 20 I just needed some miles. In those days you didn’t have psychologist, and they money. The Automobile Association a mobile phone with you and Mum discovered this amazing was shift work, which suited me, and just said, “Be back for your tea.” word: dyslexia while I was there they asked me if I wanted to do some broadcasting on …MY JUNIOR SCHOOL. It was the road-traffic reports. I did that and a five-minute walk down the road. were written off as remedial if you then some traffic reports for the local There was a group of teachers had any problems. BBC station—and quite liked it! there who particularly enjoyed Some very good friends of my putting on concerts and plays, parents suggested I see Mary …gETTING A JOB AT A so a lot of drama seemed to Edwards. Of my writing, she said, COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION. go on at school. In those days “Whatever it is, this doesn’t transfer I ran the record library at Signal Radio. teachers had more of a free rein into her vocabulary and she clearly I liked the business of radio and TV to teach how they wanted to teach. knows all the answers. There’s more so than the actual on-air stuff, I don’t think there was much form- obviously a problem with her written though I did some of that too. I fibbed filling to do. work and we need to find out what Sporting a beret for “Le Walk” through it is.” She took me on at this grammar Anthea rides in style with the Channel Tunnel in 1994 …I LEANED TOWARDS MAKING school and sent me to an educational her father Brian ANYTHING, painting anything— psychologist, and they set up by my great-grandfather and through to music, drama and dance. discovered this amazing they used to do a lot of work attached That was definitely my preference, word that nobody can spell: O T to pottery, as we come from Stoke- probably because I’m dyslexic. A lot O dyslexia. From then on we on-Trent. They’d make display work of dyslexics are always looking to do H were able to deal with it. for Wedgwood and Royal Doulton. It things where you don’t have to write OCK P was an industrial time for the UK that stuff down. St …I DANCED CLASSICAL unfortunately isn’t there any more. BALLET. I started when LAMY …GOING TO A GIRLS’ GRAMMAR A I was about six—as far as …MY NORTHERN-MIDLANDS SCHOOL. The headmistress there, I was concerned, it was my UPBRINGING. It’s an environment Mary Edwards, was quite forward- IBRARY/ thing. My most enduring L where you just get on with stuff, thinking and inspirational. I’d had memory is aching feet, and URE where “that’s the way it is and you a tough time before arriving at that T dipping toes into surgical better just deal with it”. school because I’d been to a large spirit to harden them up AR PIC It’s a good thing. My sister Ruth comprehensive where they didn’t T when I was 12 or 13. If I was particularly handicapped so deal with anybody who wasn’t on LLS smell surgical spirit now, A nobody ever had the time to be a track. This was the 1970s, when you © I always think of ballet. 30 | 09•2016 09•2016 | 31 | I REMEMBER Reader’s DIGEST Oasis, which has helped people worldwide. When I first met him, I’ve been in this business he had two or three employees— since I was 26 and fame is now he has 2,500 all over the world and has really changed lives. He’s a by-product of the job. definitely top of my inspirational list. You sort of get caught up in this strange life …REALISING I’LL NEVER, EVER HAVE THICK SKIN. I’ve been in this business since I was 26, so that’s ..TOP OF THE POPS WAS GOOD 30 years, and what’s said in the press FUN. It was an iconic TV programme will always bother me. Fame is a and it’s great to have done something by-product of the job—you sort of get like that. It was the New Romantic caught up in this strange life and it era. Meeting my heroes went with can be a feeding frenzy. the territory, but it’s not a meet-and- Once there was a time when there greet—it’s a massive juggernaut. They were just a few newspapers and a come on, they do their song, they go couple of magazines out. When I off. It’s a factory. started, Hello! magazine didn’t even exist! Thankfully, I think the reality …BEING OFFERED A JOB AT stars take the brunt of it now. You GMTV. I would have preferred to either make a decision to get out of it have stayed at Blue Peter, but from and not have anything to do with it a lot—as I wasn’t quite sure I could Anthea presented Blue Peter from a career point of view it wouldn’t any more, or you just grin and bear it. do the job—but I really loved it. 1992 to 1994. “Those were the glory have been a good idea. It’s always days of children’s TV” very difficult for people to move …ADMIRING PEOPLE WHO’VE …LEAVING TO GO AND WORK from children’s to adult TV. So I went MADE A SUCCESS OF THEIR FOR A RECORD LABEL IN the job. It was the era of Gary Davies to GMTV—and I met some of my PERSONAL LIVES. It’s lovely when LONDON. My boyfriend at the time and Pat Sharp. I never really looked dearest friends in the business there, you see people who have done O had got a job working at Radio One back from there. I was 26. T who I’m still very close to. incredibly well financially or in O and I was going to work for Magnet H business—but I’m always impressed Records (part of WEA Records), but …bEING AT BLUE PETER AT …WORKING WITH THE when I see people who have done OCK P then I met somebody at a party who A VERY EXCITING TIME. They’d St REVEREND STEVE CHALKE. very well personally. Sometimes said, “Oh, they’re looking for a girl to celebrated 30 years so it was one He was the resident vicar on GMTV that’s more difficult. do some video jockeying on Sky.” of their landmark birthdays. At the LAMY and when there was a story that had A Sky was in its infancy at the time time, we’d end up with 6.5 million a moral dilemma, he’d come in. He …gETTING TO AN OLDER AGE GEE/ and I did the audition on a bit of a people watching—far more than D raised quite a lot of money, starting GROUP. All of a sudden, you realise I whim. I linked a few videos together watch now. Those were the glory V with a hospital in Bangladesh and your mortality. I’ve got friends who DA and chatted about music—and I got days of children’s TV. © then founding an organisation called have had scares or have actually got 32 | 09•2016 09•2016 | 33 | I REMEMBER cancer and it’s frightening. Cancer …SOMEBODY ONCE SAID TO ME, research should be close to all our many years ago, “Aim to be the best hearts because statistically, we’re all and the rest happens.” I’ve always at risk from a type of cancer.