DAME JENNI MURRAY

We used to go to Blackpool a lot when I was a kid, because it wasn’t very far away from our home in Barnsley. Then when I was six my father decided we should go a little bit further, and kind of abroad, which of course the Isle of Wight isn’t, but you have to go across the sea to go to it.

I remember driving down to Southampton and taking the ferry across to Cowes and how exciting it was to cross the sea, even though it was only the Solent.

We then drove all over the island, stopping in B&Bs. There were no fancy hotels for us.

What I remember best about it is going to the cliff and there were The Needles with the lighthouse at the end. How amazing. The cliff has coloured sand in layers. My dad said: “Come on, we’ll go to the gift shop and get one of the tubes with all the coloured sand in it.” But I insisted I

wanted to dig my own. It’s probably risky to dig bits of sand out of the cliff side, but I had a little jam jar and spade and I very carefully took little bits of it out and took it home. I don’t know what happened to that jar…

We went several times as a family and much later, I returned when I was a television reporter in Southampton.

The best ice cream I’ve ever had in my life was from Minghella’s. Much later I interviewed old Mr Minghella, and I told him how much I loved his ice cream. His son Anthony [the late film director] had been at Hull University at the same time as me. So we chatted – and I ate quite a lot of his ice cream as well.

My husband and I have recently moved down to the coast near Lymington and what I love more than anything is sitting on the little promenade at places like Barton on Sea, where I can see The Needles and the very cliffs where I dug out the sand.

Right the way through my life the island has had significant memories.

I say to my husband, “Why don’t we go over to the island?” and he says, “Have you seen the cost?!” But I will persuade him.