Jane McDonald Admits She Was 'Frightened to Death' of Singing at End of Cruising With

Cruising may largely be at a standstill and the country may be about to go into a second lockdown, but this hasn't stopped Jane McDonald from cheering us all up.

The Queen of Cruise announced on Friday (30 October) that she has released a brand new album complete with all her Cruising With Jane McDonald hits.

Entitled Cruising with Jane McDonald Vol.2, the album is a compilation of all the best songs the former cruise ship entertainer performed at the end of her hit Channel 5 show, including Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Spinning Around, Mamma Mia, Let’s Get Loud and New Sensation.

Speaking about the new album on The One Show, Jane revealed what fans can look forward to. "It's very high tempo, there are some great covers on there," she explained to hosts Ronan Keating and Angela Scanlon.

"It's all the songs I did at the end of the Cruising show. It's all about dancing around your kitchen holding your little wooden spoon as a microphone. We need a bit of light relief."

However, while Jane's musical renditions have become an iconic and much-loved part of her Cruising With show, she admitted that she was initially not keen on the idea.

"I was frightened to death," she said candidly. "But thank goodness for Ben Frow [director of programming at Channel 5] he had this idea, he said 'I want you to do a travel show on cruises and I want you to finish with a song at the end and I went, 'please don't make me sing at the end', and he said 'no this has got to be in there'. So all credit to Ben Frow."

Along with discussing her new album, Jane also revealed that she will be back on the water with new episodes of Cruising With – although she was quick to add that these are simply the episodes that she hadn't been able to complete before the pandemic struck.

"I've still gone some to do as when Covid happened I couldn't finish the contract, so I'm just finishing these up," she explained.

"We've done an episode very recently in the UK. I must admit, I had an absolute blast and when people ask me where's my favourite place in the whole world, I say here. We have the most beautiful country. I was on the Thames for a week on a barge and it was absolutely fantastic."

If this wasn't enough, Jane also announced that her new show, Jane McDonald and Friends, will air on 14 November at 10.15pm and viewers can look forward to a whole host of "fantastic guests", including the likes of British singer Gareth Gates.

With lockdown set to carry on until the beginning of December at least, this will no doubt prove to be welcome relief.