Before we start, this episode contains some conversations you might find difficult to hear.

So do check the show notes for more details.

Hello, I'm Fern Cotton and this is Happy Place, the show that's with you, whatever life's throwing at you.

Today, I'm chatting to Ruth Lansford.

You know, people have said to me, oh, it must be so hard, you know, with your sister dying, your dad, or getting divorced. It's very difficult doing your job. And I said, it's nothing more difficult than if I worked in a bank or on the checkout at a supermarket or I was a bus driver because we all have shit and we all have to go to work and, you know,

you do your job with that going on in the background. So it's nothing, you know, somehow they go, oh, poor you and being on the television, going through that. I go, well, I'd have been going through it wherever I was working. Then someday having to go, right, come on, you'd get back to work now, pull yourself together. I was in a really jolly mood the day that we recorded this anyway, mainly because, I mean, it covers a lot of

what me and Ruth talk about in this chat, but I've just decided that I'm going to be jolly,

even when things are shit. So I was in a jolly mood and Ruth turned up. I was trying to remember when she was in the

studio at what point in my life I met her. I definitely remember seeing her around TV studios,

probably at ITV when I was a teenager and her and Aman just being so lovely to me and sort of almost parental actually at times.

So getting to have this amazing heart to heart with Ruth felt incredibly special.

She's one of those people, and I'm sure you can all imagine this without me having to say it,

who is exactly the same on TV as she is in real

life. She's a sort of person that if you saw Ruth Langford in the supermarket, you could go up to

and be like, oh my God, Ruth, I love watching you on TV. And she'd probably give you a really big

hug, ask you what your name is, and ask you what you're getting for your tea. She's just a bloody,

lovely person. And you'll hear that,

but you will already know that from everything she's done on TV over the last, God knows how many

decades. It was such a fun one. Broadcaster Ruth is obviously a proper national treasure.

She's written a book, a new book, called Feeling Fabulous. Be your best

self, no matter what life throws at you. Yes, Ruth. And it's such a warm hug this book.

I just loved reading it. We talked about a lot. We talked about how she fell into TV presenting.

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