Scarlett Moffatt has shared her love of growing up in County Durham as she sung the praises of the North East in a heartwarming new podcast.
The former Gogglebox star, 32, took a nostalgic trip around the streets she grew up in in the first episode of new podcast series Show On The Road from Auto Trader. Scarlett told presenter Alex Legouix of her beloved home county: "There's just such a sense of community, and it's such a wonderful place to live."
The first episode saw Scarlett embark on a whistle-stop tour around Shildon, from her old school to the house where she and her family filmed Gogglebox. The eight-part series will also see Sunderland's own Lioness legend Jill Scott visit the training grounds in Manchester where her football career took off.
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"I feel like home for me is where my family is," Scarlett shared as she drove around her childhood stomping ground. "We're sort of like the Geordie Von Trapps, really. We're a very close family - all of us live five minutes' away from each other."
And when it comes to the North East, the star said, there's nowhere you'll feel more welcome. "The people are so friendly up here. I think that was the main difference when I moved down to London - not saying Londoners aren't friendly, yous are - but it's just that sense of community that felt like it was missing," Scarlett said.
She added: "You know all your neighbours around here. If it's heavy snow or whatever, everyone goes round - a bit like the olden days. People make stew and send it to your house, they make sure you're all alright. It's hard to feel lonely up north."
The pair later drove past Scarlett's former primary school in Shildon, where she reminisced about her childhood memories. "From an early age, I realised that my interests were a lot different than my friends'," she admitted.
"I think it comes from my dad - me and my dad are really close, and from the age of five we would go metal-detecting, and we would go and do civil war re-enactments where we would dress up," she laughed. Scarlett said that another favourite childhood pastime was to go alien-hunting with her dad - she even has the middle name Sigourney after Alien star Sigourney Weaver, inspired by her dad's love of all things extra-terrestrial.
The road trip also saw Scarlett go past her old family house, where she and her parents filmed Gogglebox from 2014. "I owe a lot to Gogglebox. It really did change the course of my life," she said.
Scarlett is expecting her first child, a baby boy, this summer with boyfriend Scott Dobinson. "When me and Scott found out that I was pregnant, I don't think I've ever been so chuffed in my life," she said on the podcast. "It was just pure joy."
Listen to the Show On The Road podcast here.
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