Trish: I was trained in how to deal with racist bomb parcels

CHAT HOST TELLS OF GUN COP TIPS

CHAT show host Trisha Goddard was trained by the Special Branch to deal with racist bomb threats at the height of her fame.

The 62-year-old, left, was also given a safe house by the national security service when she was living in Norwich in the 1990s.

At the time she was the host of her ITV daytime show Trisha.

And she recalls a terrifying incident when an armed unit arrived at her home after intercepting a chilling death threat.

Mum-of-two Trisha, who now lives in America, said: “We were stuck at Anglia TV in Norwich which is like another planet.

“We were kind of in a bubble.

“I never really thought about my colour to be honest but there were a couple of incidents.

“At the time we had Special Branch come to our house and teach our kids how to open parcels in case there was a bomb in it.

“We also had safe places. I used to tell my kids where they could go in Norwich.

“That was because of my colour and not because of anything I had said.”

Recalling the time an armed unit turned up at her house, she told DJ Fat Tony’s podcast The Recovery: “I was watching television with my then-husband and there was all this commotion in the drive, headlights, cops with flak jackets and armed units around the house banging on the door asking if I was all right.

“I had to say, ‘Yes I am all right.’ And then you are told why it happened and that is even scarier.”

Trisha also revealed her daughters were taunted at school in Norwich due to Leigh Francis’s impression of her on his Channel 4 comedy show Bo Selecta.

The Channel 4 series, which aired between 2002 and 2006, featured Francis – screen name Keith Lemon – impersonating celebrities including Michael Jackson, Craig David and Trisha by wearing face masks.

Trisha said: “I hated it. I have only recently discovered how bullied my children were in Norfolk over the character.”

Leigh has apologised for the impersonations and phoned Trisha’s daughter Billie, now 30.

Trisha accepted his apology and Channel 4 have removed Bo Selecta! from their archives.