The TTG Interview: Jane McDonald sings the praises of cruise

I’m a bit shocked that I’m still here – who would have thought?”, a thick northern accent chuckles down the phone. “The pedigree that I’ve come from – you know, reality TV – I should have gone long ago,” she giggles loudly again.

It’s infectious, and I find myself laughing too. Because this is Jane McDonald, who is exactly as she appears on TV – self-deprecating, entirely down to earth and with a Yorkshire accent as strong as when she was first introduced to the British public 19 years ago as the star of the BBC show The Cruise – a programme that regularly attracted around 14 million viewers.

We’ve only been chatting for a few minutes and somehow we’ve reached the topic of underwear. “I used to talk about my M&S knickers [on The Cruise] but it was nice because people said, ‘she’s just like me’. “I’m still buying my M&S knickers today,” she adds as an afterthought. Real difference We’re discussing the disparities between McDonald’s experiences filming The Cruise, (which followed her life as a singer onboard Celebrity Cruises’ ship, Galaxy) and the reality TV shows of today. The key difference, she says, is that in the 1990s (The Cruise first aired in 1998) the emphasis was on “reality”, meaning McDonald’s role was entirely unscripted.

“It was more a docu-soap – it was every day life, doing the jobs that we did and loved. It was a bit scary,” she admits, “but it was just our lives.”

There must have been embarrassing moments though? “Oh yes,” she laughs. “Like when the cameras followed me coming home and bringing my then fiance [Henrik Brixen, who she met onboard the ship but later separated from] home to meet my mum. She didn’t have time to take the washing down so she had her pants laid out all along the radiator – people still joke about that with her now.”

We’re chatting ahead of McDonald’s appearance in a live Q&A at The Global Travel Group’s Conference in La Manga, Spain. It’s a timely choice – it might be almost 20 years since she shot to fame in The Cruise (“I can’t believe it’s so long ago!”) but McDonald is still warming hearts across the UK – both with her singing (this year’s Making Memories tour has already been extended after selling out, and a new self-penned album is set for release next year), as well as with her numerous TV appearances, which more recently included of course, Cruising with Jane McDonald.

The Channel 5 show propelled cruise – and McDonald – back into the living rooms of the UK. In the four-episode mini-series, she sampled new lines, new destinations, and new forms of cruising – an impressive feat for the self-confessed cruise addict, who reveals she still sails every year; albeit for holidays rather than work.

Yet despite her love for the sector, prior to the Channel 5 show McDonald had only ever experienced three lines. The two she worked for – Fred Olsen, Chandris (later renamed Celebrity Cruises when it was acquired by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd in 1997), and another line she consistently holidayed with when her career moved onto dry land – although McDonald remains tightlipped as to which line this is.