The show must go on…
A rising star in Belfast through The Troubles, Gloria’s love of singing led her to London – where she became one of our biggest names …
Gloria’s first radio show was Good Morning Ulster. But when IRA bombs began to hit the city, the station’s only female presenter doubled up as a frontline BBC TV reporter.
‘Belfast was ring-fenced and security was on high alert – you could find yourself being searched 20 times a day just to go shopping,’ she recalls.
Her most harrowing memory of that time is of the Abercorn Restaurant bombing in 1972. ‘By the time I arrived at the scene, there were scores of people over the floor, screaming in pain and terror. Many had lost limbs.
‘I will never forget seeing a charred teddy bear,’ she says softly. ‘It was so upsetting.’
Gloria also once found herself at the centre of a bombing at the BBC in Belfast, when she was broadcasting live on air.
While many evacuated the building, Gloria made the decision to stay and continue to broadcast. Her transmission controller also remained, alongside her producer.
‘The bomb went off and this mighty building just shook,’ she recalls. ‘It was mayhem but we just continued.’
Then she smiles and adds, with a twinkle in her eye, ‘The show must go on.’
Gloria’s bravery earned her more TV reporting slots, and her sharp dress sense became legendary.
She had everything you could possibly want to hold the camera’s attention – as well as the audience.
‘I was doing the radio in the day and television as it cropped up,’ she recalls.
By now, she was one of the biggest personalities in Belfast. In 1978, in an effort to help people escape The Troubles, she was given a TV show, of her own Good Evening Ulster.
‘It was exactly what people wanted at the time,’ she recalls. All five weekly shows were consistently in the top 10 ratings.
best’s columnist Eamonn Holmes says of the show, ‘It really should have just been called Good Evening, Gloria. She just sprinkled showbiz dust all over it.’
She had a can-do attitude and attracted some big names to the show, including Liam Neeson and Elton John.
In 1980, Gloria went on a trip to London to buy clothes.
‘I’d also made an albums which I was quite proud of. I wouldn’t go for it these days but I was young, so I took the album with me, rang the controller of Radio 2 and said, “Can I drop in for a cup of tea?”
‘He asked me if I listened to Radio 2. I said yes, but asked if he wanted to improve it – he had no women on
‘I miss Terry and his Irish humour to this day’
the station,’ she recalls.
A year later, she got a call to sit in on the legendary Jimmy Young Show in London.
‘No one knew who I was,’ Gloria recalls. ‘I stood in for Jimmy for two weeks. It was ridiculous and unheard of, but Terry [ Wogan] and Jimmy had a famous handover, so I did as much work on the handover as I could. I remember my opening line: “Well, you’ve arrived Terry. And here I am, dirty old dressing gown with egg all down the front of it.”
‘I just took the mic, as I did in Belfast, and he liked it and rose to it. I think the bosses thought if she can handle our biggest star, she can handle anyone.
‘Terry was wonderful. He was always checking if I was OK. He was always there.’
In 1982, Gloria was asked to move permanently to London to present a lunchtime show,
The Gloria Hunniford Show for Radio 2.
As she settled at the BBC, Terry jokingly referred to her as Gus Hunnibun, Hunny Gloryford and even Grievous Bodily Hunniford.
‘I think he did it to get me known. He was a godsend. I didn’t know many people in London then. I miss Terry and his Irish humour to this day.’
Just a year after her arrival, Gloria was given a TV show –
Sunday Sunday.