Ever since Jane McDonald emerged from the BBC docu-soap The Cruise, this northern lass has been something of a camp treasure.

The Loose Women presenter is at the top of her game these days with a new album, Jane, under her belt, touring and a recent BBC2 special entitled Return to the Cruise.

GaydarRadio's Neil Sexton and Simon Le Vans caught up with Ms McDonald to find out more.

How are you?
Oh, you know – busy! But that’s how I like it.

Well, we’d complain if we weren’t and we’d complain if we were.
I know, we’re just a bunch of complainers, really. But busy is very good. I’m thinking, ‘Mortgage – get it paid off, girl’.

What are you up to now? You’re everywhere!
Well, I’m still getting over a hangover, actually, from Friday night at Mr. Gay UK. That was wild. It was absolutely brilliant.

Do you like being surrounded by sexy men who are not straight?
Yeah! I love that.

I might go in for Mr. Gay UK one year. I mean the winner, not the competition!
Well, I tried my best, love, I really did, but he wasn’t having me!

It’s always worth a try. You know what? This is like an episode of Loose Women here. I love that show. Do you enjoy being part of it? It seems like you all get on together.
We do, I think that’s what the secret is now. You can actually tell that we’re all really good mates because if we weren’t, we really couldn’t insult each other like we do.

What’s Carol McGiffin like?
She’s got a mouth on her and we love that.

Do you have girly nights out?
Yeah, we do. Carol and I are the drinkers on the show, so it’s just fatal when we go out. But I always tend to stay just that one drink behind her because I know I’ve got to put her home.

Have you ever been chucked out of anywhere?
Oh, many times. Mainly because of Carol!

"Simon Cowell gets on my nerves a bit sometimes when he starts saying, “You just sound like a cruise ship singer”. It’s always about how bad cruise ship singers are. But, as you saw on The Cruise, if you can’t do the job, you’re off!"

Who’s your favourite guest that you’ve had on the show?
I love Christopher Biggins. We had Dame Edna on, as well. It was fabulous.

Tell us about the Joan Rivers incident. She got booted off the show, didn’t she?
Yes! Of course in America you’ve got a ten second delay no matter what, whereas in England we don’t, and she looked straight at the camera and said, “Get your bleep ready now”. In America, they would have done that, but in England we haven’t got that. She just told Russell Crowe exactly what she thought of him.

What was the atmosphere in the studio like afterwards? Were you all just gobsmacked?
Yeah, we were. All I could think about was that my mum was watching this. But my mother just laughed. She said, “I wish you’d have kept her on”.

Personally, I thought it was a bit of an over-reaction on the producers’ part. Was she actually physically escorted out?
Yeah, she really, really was. I mean, she did say she was dragged off with her heels scraping on the floor, but that is a bit of an exaggeration.

Well, if you book Joan Rivers, surely you know what you’re going to get?
Well, you do, don’t you, really? But she did say, “Don’t worry, I won’t swear, I’m here to promote my book and my tour”. But she got so much press out of it. We even made the news in the US, so we were quite cool then.

Did you get many complaints then?
We only got eight.

Who watches Loose Women? It’s got to be students, right?
It’s got a massive student following.

Students and housewives and husbands, let’s not be sexist about this!
You’d be surprised how many men watch it. We get a lot of students because they’re just waking up at that time, and just so many men do watch it because we do help them out slightly.

It’s the secrets of the woman for the straight man. They need to know as much as they can.
Oh, flippin’ heck, they do, don’t they?

Why do you think the show’s become so successful? There’ve been a lot of shows to come and go in that spot, but yours seems to have held on there.
I think it’s because we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We know we’re not question time! We just go on there and have a good chat as if it’s just four girls going, “I don’t believe what happened there, do you?” We are so ourselves on that show and people seem to have taken to us. We’ve got ten solid girls now who sort of rotate and I think it really works well.

I’ll tell you what works about it – it’s like eavesdropping on a bunch of women on a night out and then being able to join in. It’s like being in the cubicle in the toilet and there’s two women having a natter at the mirror doing their makeup. It’s that sort of thing, isn’t it?
Oh, aye!

Now I wanted to ask you about The Cruise. They’ve just done a little compilation of the show. For anybody who hasn’t seen it, just tell us what The Cruise was about.
It was ten years ago, which is a bit frightening, really – and I’m back-combing for England in every shot!

It was a turning-point in your life, getting that TV show, wasn’t it? You’ve got the job to be a singer on a cruise ship and it turned out they were going to be filming it.
That’s right, four days after I’d signed the contract and said I was going, I got a call from Chris Terril of the BBC and he said, “You’re going to be on it. Do you mind if we film you? You’re British and it’s going to be out in England”. But he didn’t say it was going to be a docu-soap, he just said it was going to be a little documentary. And I’m thinking, ‘BBC2, 1am, nobody’s ever going to watch it’.

"Performing is what I love to do. It’s the frocks, it’s the energy. I’ve got an amazing orchestra – I don’t skimp on the production at all."

But you must have been thrilled, though, to land a great job singing on a cruise ship.
Absolutely! You know, Simon Cowell gets on my nerves a bit sometimes when he starts saying, “You just sound like a cruise ship singer”. It’s always about how bad cruise ship singers are. But, as you saw on The Cruise, if you can’t do the job, you’re off!

And it’s raw and live, as well. If you can’t sing, you can hear that you can’t sing. Now, the one thing that struck me about seeing that episode of The Cruise again where you went out and did your first night and you kind of bombed, didn’t you?
Oh yeah, but that’s a lesson learnt – never put yourself up against a buffet! Never!

What was the name of the dance captain?
Jack!

He’s a very sexy guy – I’m guessing he was probably one of us, to be honest with you.
Oh yes, I think so.

He kind of stepped in and there was a little clip of him going through some routines. It was really quite a bit of a turning point, I thought, seeing it.
Well yeah, because he gave me a little bit of confidence and he said, “Look, you’ve got it all there, girl, you’re just a bit raw around edges”, which everybody knew. I’d come from the clubs and this was my first headlining act. I just needed a little bit of tuition and he was a brilliant choreographer. He works in Vegas full time now. He was the one that said, “Sing a couple of gay tracks, like ‘Victor/Victoria’ and stuff like that”.

Saved by a queen on a ship, then! He turned you into a drag queen, really – shimmering costumes, big moves, camp tracks!
Well, that’s right.

Is it true that your brought out a line of designer clothes and lots of drag queens have been buying it?
Yeah! I think that’s brilliant. That’s a testament to the skills that I have now.

You’ve got a lovely one on the album, actually – there’s a lovely green frock.
Yes, that’s one of mine, darling. I look a bit like a little mermaid there.

I’ve got the album here – it’s simply entitled Jane. Have you chosen all the tracks on this album yourself?
Yes, I have. It’s my record label as well. I just thought, ‘I’m going to do an album for the fans this time’. I am so thrilled that it’s done so well, because I really took a massive risk and a gamble putting this out. But the fans have not let me down once again – I’m so grateful to all my fans.

It’s charted nice and high, hasn’t it?
It went to number seven. Give them what they want!

And you’ve written some of the songs as well, haven’t you?
Yes, I’ve got five of my own on there because I’m thinking about my pension now. It was songs that I’ve been work shopping for a long time because I tour non-stop, so I’ve been sort of trying them out with the fans. Those were the top five that they really liked, so I put them on there and it’s paid off.

I guess that’s one of the things you really like – singing live performance concerts.
That is it for me, that is the ultimate. Performing is what I love to do. It’s the frocks, it’s the energy. I’ve got an amazing orchestra – I don’t skimp on the production at all.

I’m getting the feeling that, in terms of your life, you’re in a pretty good place at the moment.
I’m in a lovely, lovely place. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s lovely when you finally get there, it really is.

Read Our Review of Jane »
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Jane, by Jane McDonald
Label: JMD
Released: 11 August 2008
ASIN: B001CIPTW8

Love Jane? Buy her album Jane online now and save. Plus, check out Jane singing 'Doctor's Orders' on Loose Women below!