Monday 28 September 2015

I Love Lorraine

Five years ago, during my students days, I fell for a girl and I’m still crazy about her now. I structure my days around seeing her. I evangelise to my friends about her perfection. I feel my heart skip a beat everytime she tweets me.

That girl, or more accurately lady, is Lorraine Kelly. For 30 years she’s been the sunny Scottish presenter of ITV breakfast, the channel for people who enjoy their morning news softened by anything but the news.

Image: ITV

I’m not the first student or gay guy to fall for Lorraine, but I’m yet to meet anyone else who watches her daily morning show every evening on catch-up. It’s an obsession my friends quickly learn about, accept and tolerate. Now I hope this list will help them understand it. Here’s why I love Lorraine.

  1. Lorraine is a brilliant interviewer. Her interest is always genuine, whether talking to Dr Hilary about make-up on the go, method-actor David Oyelowoa on his true-story film Captive or a tearful Michael Pattimore describing his first year as a widower. That was just last Thursday’s episode.

  1. Her TV house is sublime. Perhaps I won’t model my dream house on white walls and fake windows, but I’d buy the chairs in a heart-beat.

  1. I can cook what they cook. I’ve already got the ingredients in my store cupboard, I know it’ll be simple, nutritious meal to make and chefs Dean and John always look as stunning as their food.
I made John's Aussie Crunch cake, one of the less nutritious recipes on the show

  1. Lorraine knows about life. She’s an experienced journalist who’s reported on the gravest tragedies and lived through setbacks. The diversity of guests, alongside a strong support for various charities off camera, is testament to the power and conviction of conversation.

  1. Lorraine is an ever-present and welcoming friend. Throughout the last five years, when I’ve moved between five jobs and five homes, watching the show has become a rare bit of routine and consistency. In my loneliest moments earlier this year, when I lived in a desperately unsocial and unhappy flat-share, I always knew there was one joy waiting for me at home: watching Lorraine.

If you’ve never watched Lorraine before, why not give it a watch? You may not enjoy the inane and fluffy chatter that seeps into every daytime TV show. But I hope you’ll recognise the craft behind it, learn something, anything about the world and feel just as welcomed as viewer by Lorraine as I do each day.