TVJane’son Cruisecontrol
Jane McDonald on facing her fears and living the dream as she travels the world for popular TV show that sees her take in sights and sounds of Australia
FROM PAGE 25 the (Auckland) Sky Tower. That is something I will never forget.
“Swimming with crocodiles – something else I would never have said yes to. But when your bosses are saying, ‘Get in there, it will be fine’, you do it. And I’m glad I’ve done these things. If I can do it, anybody can do it.”
While she’s hardly old, the singer, formerly a panellist on Loose Women, is also finding herself less worried about what she looks like when she does her travel shows.
She laughed: “The older you get, the less you care. And now I don’t mind that my hair looks a mess and I don’t mind if I’ve got no make-up on, which I would never have done in my 40s. Now, I’m just thinking, ‘Who cares?’ This is who I am. If you don’t like it, switch over.”
It’s been a mixed year for Jane. She won a BAFTA for Channel 5’s Cruising with Jane McDonald and toured the country to mark 20 years since The Cruise.
But she also lost her mum Jean, who was from Coatbridge. To ease the pain of the loss, Jane, who grew up in west Yorkshire and whose dad Peter was a miner from Fife, has kept busy with a Christmas and New Year Jane McDonald & Friends, as well as her trip Down Under and compilation show, 12 Cruises of Christmas.
It also meant she was able to spend the festive period with fiance Eddie Rothe, a former drummer with 60s band The Searchers.
Jane, who has been married twice before, said: “He’s the perfect partner. I adore him. He knows showbiz and says, ‘This is your time, go and do it.’ I miss home but I have an amazing job.
“Everybody wants my job. I love it and I embrace it. I’m seeing parts of the world I would never have been able to see. I am very childlike on it and I get very excited.”
She does get very excitable when presenting her shows. It’s made her a hit with viewers but I wonder if she’s just putting it on for the telly.
Jane said: “It’s definitely not put on, I know that. When you go on your holidays and it’s somewhere amazing, if you just go, ‘Oh that’s nice’, what’s the point?
“People have saved up a lot of money to go on these trips and I’ve had so many letters from people going, ‘Thanks for doing that cruise because I’ve just booked it’, or, ‘We’ve just come back off that cruise and it was amazing’.
“I’m glad people enjoy it. It shows you what you can do when you go on these ships. A lot of people go on a cruise and don’t even get off. And good luck to them, they’ve paid for it, why not? But if you want to have an adventure, there’s so much to do.”
For her latest adventure, Jane spends half the time on land and the other half on the cruise and goes to famous places including the Great Barrier Reef.
She’s been to Australia and New Zealand on a previous show but only for two days and Jane vowed she’d come back.
She said: “And we did. We’ve done everything Australian you can think of. I drank lager, I’ve bought the hat, I’ve seen dingoes, koalas, crocodiles and camels.”
But Jane admitted she’ll never be the new David Attenborough. She said: “I’m not good with animals, so I have to put myself into the zone. When I got the koala, it was like, ‘You have to channel your inner tree’.
“I didn’t speak. I was petrified, thinking, ‘They’ve got big claws and if they don’t like you, they’ll let you know’. Koalas are not cuddly. I think you only got one smile out of me the whole time I was holding it. “I’m not great with dogs either, so meeting the dingoes was quite frightening.” Since Cruising with Jane McDonald began in 2017, she’s been to Alaska, Cuba, Iceland and Cambodia and she’s hoping her next adventure will be India. She said: “I’m looking forward to the amazing temples and the food. “There are so many great experiences to be had.” Jane McDonald Cruising Down Under, Friday, January 4, Channel 5, 9pm.
Everybody wants my job. I love it and embrace it. I’m very childlike