Sofa so good as Bill makes comeback
BILL Turnbull was buzzing to be back on breakfast TV with his old pal Susanna Reid yesterday – as he told viewers he felt “80 per cent” fine following prostate cancer treatment.
The pair, who co-hosted BBC Breakfast until Susanna left six years ago, opened its ITV rival Good Morning Britain with a big hug. Bill, 64 – standing in for Piers Morgan while he’s on holiday – said: “I can’t believe this is happening!” Minutes later Bill’s name was trending on Twitter as viewers expressed their delight at seeing him back on screen after a break of four years. Afterwards he said: “For me, personally, especially after the past couple of years, I would never have dreamed it would happen again. It was wonderful...but I felt rusty, really rusty. I was holding on to Susanna’s coat-tails! Eventually I was able to relax into it. I am buzzing really.The reaction has been lovely.”
Bill, diagnosed in 2017, revealed he was coming to the end of his cancer treatment, saying: “I haven’t had a scan for a while, so I don’t really know what the picture is on the inside, but I feel remarkably healthy. Just sometimes you have a dip.
“On days I am feeling well I think, ‘I have got cancer, so what’.And then on a morning you don’t feel well, that can bring
you down. But I would say 80 per cent of the time I am up there.”
Afterwards Bill, who interviewed 2019 BGT winner and photographer Arthur Edwards with Susanna, tweeted: “Well that was fun.” He continues co-hosting until tomorrow.
Good Morning Britain is on ITV on weekdays from 6am-9am.
ONE of the great TV comebacks has been Bill Turnbull to live breakfast television. The 64-year-old presenter, who is living with prostate cancer, has enlivened the morning show – with many viewers preferring him to the combative incumbent Piers Morgan.
Bill has done much to highlight this disease, the most common cancer in men. And his decision not to use warlike phrases like “battling” cancer, while incorporating lifestyle changes to increase his overall health, is an exemplary approach to cancer management that should inspire us all.