YOU can hear the genuine excitement in Jane McDonald’s voice as she talks about her forthcoming tour with her new show Making Memories, writes JOHN ANSON.

“It’s without doubt the biggest show I’ve ever put on,” she said, “and I’m as excited as the fans are. I know what’s coming and it is spectacular.”

Calling in at Manchester's Palace Theatre, on Saturday, September 10, Making Memories, Jane believes, certainly vindicates her decision to leave the award-winning daytime TV show, Loose Women, on which she was one of the most popular presenters.

“So many people said to me ‘what are you doing ? This is a massive show you are going to lose.’ But I just felt it was time. You have to listen to what that gut feeling is telling you.”

Certainly Jane has come a long way from The Cruise, one of the first TV reality shows, which in 1998 which made her name.

“A lot of people who haven’t seen me before think I turn up with just a microphone and a frock,” she said. “But Making Memories is definitely not like that. I have trucks, tour buses, a massive light show, costume changes - it’s a big, big show and it’s going to be fabulous.”

The show will feature a number of songs which Jane has written, a sign of her growing confidence as a performer.

“I used to just put my songs into a little medley at some point in the show and hoped that people would like them,” she said. “But I was afraid of making more of them as I was worried that people would say ‘who does she think she is?’

“But now my songs are standing up on their own and I’m amazed at reaction they are getting. When the musical director is saying ‘Jane, these are really good,’ you know you should start believing in yourself.”

Jane’s mum also gave the Wakefield-born singer a massive boost.

“I wrote a song for my mother, The Hand That Leads Me, and when I asked her what she felt she said it made her think of her own mum. That was brilliant, I couldn’t have been more thrilled as that was just what I was hoping for.”

Before heading off around the country on tour, Jane has already done a couple of warm-up shows and the audience reaction, she says, has been amazing.

“I’ve never seen a reaction to a show like it,” she said, “and I’ve been touring 17 years now.

“It has taken me a long time to get to this stage where I’ve got a band that gets who you are and where the fans are with you - it’s a two way love affair,” she said.

For all her success Jane remains remarkably down-to-earth, and that’s something that she believes has helped her through her career.

“I have had a very blessed and luck-kissed career,” she said, “and that is mainly due to the fans who have stuck with me all these the years.

“I realise how flipping lucky I am to still be here with a touring show as there’s not many of us out there now.

“I suppose what’s different about me is that I don’t do it for the money, I do it because I absolutely love it. It’s my hobby and my passion.

“I’ve always been a realist and I would be the one saying ‘let’s not get too excited’ about things but I feel as though I have finally arrived with this new show.”

Last year Jane made her debut in the hit musical Cats which toured the UK .

“No-one could have predicted that,” she said. “When they rang me about it I thought ‘are you having a laugh?’ because no-one had played Grizabella at my age (Jane is now 53 but looks much younger, partly due to the sugar-free lifestyle she adopted after appearing on the reality show Sugar Free Farm last year).

“But Cats was one of the best things I’ve ever gone into and Memories from the musical is an essential part of the new show, I had to do it didn’t I?”

Making Memories will keep Jane on the road until November and in December she will be back on TV in a new series, All at Sea, which she says fans of The Cruise will love.

But before then, it’s all about the Making Memories tour.

“We’re at the tweaking stage now,” she said. “In a way I don’t want it to start because I don’t want it to be over - that’s how excited I am about it.

“The lead up to a tour is always the busiest time but once get that spotlight on you and the band strikes up and the fans are there, there is no feeling quite like it.

“I think you have got to be a certain person to tour and keep going.

“A lot of people get to the stage where they think they can’t do this any more but I’m thinking ‘come on let’s go.’

“I’ve learned never to take anything for granted but I do feel that this is a really special time for me now.”

Tickets for Jane McDonald’s Making Memories on 0844-871-3019.