'It reminds us the majority of people in this country are good'

As Pride of Britain turns 25, host Carol Vorderman tells us why the awards are as important as ever

- GEORGIA TREVITT

It's undoubtedly one of the most emotional nights in the TV calendar, celebrating the extraordinary acts of ordinary people. And as the Pride of Britain Awards return for a milestone 25th anniversary, host Carol Vorderman who's been involved since the very beginning - tells OK! it means "so much" to her.

"When we did the first show 25 years ago, it was very unlike what we had now," she explains. “It had awards like Sports Personality of the Year, Politician of the Year and Businessperson of the Year, but there was also this essence in the middle of it. I think there were about six awards, so the survivors of the Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland, for instance, were one set of people.

"And there was a wonderful young woman who had meningitis and lost some limbs as an adult, who went on and finished her training as a doctor.

"Everybody in the room - around 300 celebrities - shut up for once and listened. You just knew, standing on the stage, there were no cameras or anything at that event, this was something special. So then, the wonderful Peter Willis - one of the Daily Mirror editors who'd come up with the original concept - and I took it to the ITV bosses and they commissioned it, and that's where it started."

Carol, 63, admits she had no idea it would stand the test of time so spectacularly. "We just knew it was a wonderful thing. It was very positive and became this sort of 'mothership' for all those kinds of award ceremonies on the telly. It reminds us that the majority of people in this country are good people." Meeting the incredible people involved is her favourite part of the job, she says. "It's all about the winners and always has been."