Angel of the North, national treasure and the real deal
FAREWELL TO DENISE
TV broadcaster Eamonn Holmes paid a loving tribute to “Sunderland’s own Angel of the North” Denise Roberston as he said a poignant farewell to his TV friend.
In a moving speech delivered to mourners inside Sunderland Minster, the Irishman described the popular agony aunt as “the real deal” and shared personal memories of their time working together.
Walking with crutches after his double hip replacement operation, he laughed as he recalled taking her advice to marry Ruth Langsford, to get a dog to cope with the ensuing rise in his blood pressure, and to get his hips fixed to be able to walk the pet.
Holmes said: “She was a national treasure, I don’t think we will see anything like that again.
“No one can expect to have a gig for as long as she did – 28 years on one programme.”
Inside Sunderland Minster, he told those gathered: “Make no mistake, the success of This Morning is partly down to this one woman. She had the unique gift of being a companion to a student, a young mum, a divorced housewife or a struggling pensioner – all could relate to Denise.
“And she was a television natural. The phone-in on This Morning after 28 years is still the heartbeat of the programme and is of more relevance now than ever before. Over the past two years Denise’s postbag, as she called it, was full of modern Britain’s problems, and many of them issues she believed politicians had created and should have sorted out and not left to her.”
Holmes continued: “You think when you leave school or university or college that’s you finished with passing tests – until you met Denise Robertson, the matriarch of Studio 8.
“Never was there a more shrewd judge of character. She could spot a fake at a hundred paces, but once you were in as a graduate of the Robertson Academy of Life then you had a mum, an aunt, a best friend, a shoulder to cry on and a friend for life.
“Because Denise was not just Sunderland’s own Angel of the North, not just a devoted mum, stepmum and wife, not just a companion to millions of viewers. And here’s where it gets selfish. She was our Denise as well. At work she was someone to turn to when the going was tough or life was getting wobbly. Relationship problems, bereavements, even new dogs which she advised my wife on, Denise was there for us at This Morning.
“Scores of our staff who have been touched by Denise would like to have been here today but we still have a programme to produce and Denise would understand the show must go on. Because she was a professional who even in her eighties would get in a car and be driven hundreds of miles through the night to appear on the show when a story broke or a running order change meant we needed Denise’s view on an issue. Denise would always rate, she was television gold.”
Holmes said he would always remember Denise with laughter and spoke of how hard she worked, even while fighting the illness that would take her, adding: “We don’t know how many lives Denise saved with her advice, probably hundreds, but there’s no question she was a comfort blanket for millions, a constant and for those suffering dark hours she was a beacon of light.
“We’re all neurotic in telly that one day we’ll get found out, the gig will be over,good while it lasted. There’s a saying that the camera never lies. Well for 28 seasons, twenty eight seasons at ITV, a record in itself, the glass lens never tired of Denise Robertson, it never found her out, because Denise was the real deal.”