GLORIA: I THINK HE’LL GO ON FOREVER

I don’t believe Cliff will ever totally get over the last four torturous years. Yes he’s getting much stronger, but in his quiet moments I don’t think he’ll ever get rid of what has happened. At one point he lost so much weight that when he gave you a hug he felt like skin and bones, and although he looks much better now, you don’t go through four years like that without it taking a toll of some sort.

I never for a second doubted him. He’s exceptionally loyal and supportive, and a very good and solid friend and like family. He was particularly so when my late daughter Caron was ill. He would come and stay at her house in Australia – the rest of us would go to bed and they’d sit up talking into the wee small hours. I never asked what they talked about and he never told me, it was all very private.

I first met Cliff nearly 50 years ago. I was in my first week working for the BBC in Northern Ireland in 1969, and Cliff came to do a gospel concert. I suggested we interview him, but the office laughed and said he wasn’t doing anything. I got in touch with the vicar he was staying with and at half past nine that evening the vicar rang to say he’d do it. So I got the interview, which gave me a lot of credibility and helped to solidify my job.

I interviewed him many more times over the years for Radio 2. It was a gradual process to become friends, but then I was invited to his house in St George’s Hill in Weybridge one Sunday for afternoon tea and a game of tennis. From that day, the friendship grew.

There are many other qualities I admire in Cliff. I’ve never ever heard him say a bad word about anybody. When other people sound off and criticise someone he will just say, ‘You know what, I speak as I find.’ I believe he’s a truly honest person. His appetite for work is still very keen and his competitive nature is sharp – he still wants to do the best he can. I don’t see him ever stopping – I think there’ll always be another album, another tour. I have a joke with him that I’m going to wheel him on in his bath chair for his 100th birthday at the Royal Albert Hall!

Gloria Hunniford with her great friend Cliff