Judith Chalmers, best known for presenting ITV’s travel show Wish You Were Here…?, has died aged 90.
In a statement on Friday, her family said she died peacefully at home on Thursday evening, surrounded by her loved ones, after living with Alzheimer’s in her final years.
After a period of declining health, the late TV host had become seriously ill in recent weeks, giving the family time to be together with her.
The retired media personality, born in Cheshire, first started working at the BBC aged just 13 on Children’s Hour before working across major shows such as Family Favourites and Woman’s Hour throughout the 1960s.
She later moved to ITV, where she became the host of daytime show Good Afternoon and, in 1974, became the face of popular travel show, Wish You Were Here…?, which aired 30-minute episodes.
The flagship show ran from 1974 all the way to 2003, with Chlamers being appointed an OBE in 1994.
From Southern Africa to Ross on the Wye to Athens – Chlamers left no stone unturned as she traversed the world over three decades. Her son, Mark Durden-Smith, briefly hosted a reboot of the show in 2008.
She is survived by her husband, former sports commentator Neil Durden-Smith and two children, Mark and Emma.
Tributes have started pouring in for the legendary broadcaster.
‘She was an absolute icon. I hope ITV will pay tribute to her by showing some of her many episodes of Wish You Were Here,’ Facebook user Mark Allen wrote.
‘I’m really sad to read this. My husband and I are very frequent travellers and my love of travel stems back to watching Wish You Were Here as a child!’ Victoria WB shared.
‘RIP Judith Chalmers was a pleasure to watch on the holiday programmes, lovely speaking voice and made the programmes interesting,’ Trudy Bonnett reflected.
In an interview from 2022 with World of Cruising, the beloved broadcaster shared that her ‘favourite country in the world’ was New Zealand.
‘When my husband was in the navy – he was the aide-de-camp (ADC) to the governor-general between 1957 [and] 1959, I got to know New Zealand well.
‘I never realised anywhere could be so beautiful. It’s so empty too – the country has a population of a mere four million – and I love the peace and scenery. The only issue is it’s so far away…,’ she said at the time.
During the chat, she also reminisced about her 30 years of presenting the iconic travel show.
‘I remember there was one episode where I was on a train in Scotland doing a piece to camera talking about the beautiful vistas, when suddenly we went into a tunnel.
‘In another episode, a bat went up my skirt… and then there’s a very memorable trip to Barbados when we went there and back in a single day on Concorde. We landed, had lunch on a beach, and then hopped back on Concorde – it was absolutely outstanding.’
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