Gloria Hunniford unmasked as Snow Leopard

Following Heather Small’s departure, Gloria Hunniford was unmasked in the second episode of The Masked Singer 2022 as Snow Leopard.

Tonight viewers met six more masked celebrities, Bagpipes, Rockhopper, Poodle, Panda, Snow Leopard and Traffic Cone following the departure of M People singer Heather Small as Chandelier in the first edition at the weekend.

In the second show, after all had performed, it was Snow Leopard who was unmasked and revealed to be Gloria Hunniford OBE, correctly guessed by panellist Jonathan Ross.

Gloria has been part of television and radio since the 1960s, working for both BBC Northern Ireland and UTV, the latter including as host of their main evening news show Good Evening Ulster. Over in London, she’s presented her own chat show Sunday Sunday for ITV, Pebble Mill for the BBC and currently is a regular on ITV’s Loose Women as well as the Beeb’s Rip Off Britain.

She was the first woman to present her own regular daily show on BBC Radio 2 and has even had a minor music career as a singer in the sixties and seventies. In the 80s and early 90s she was also a regular co-host alongside Terry Wogan on Children In Need.

First to go: Heather Small had her lights turned off.

Have you watched The Masked Singer before?

I have indeed.  I have watched both series because I was very intrigued as it has many layers as a programme.

If you’ve watched before, do you have a favourite previous character?

Swan was a lovely costume.  I like the prettier ones.  Swan was a very intricate costume (although) I suspect it was hard to wear.

What made you decide to take on the challenge?

It was exactly that. I’m of a certain age and it was a challenge.  It sounded like a lot of fun and I thought I’d like to try it.

How hard is it to keep the secret?

Very very hard.  Even to this day only three people in my family know.  You get the point that you are so afraid of mentioning it that as time passes, you look back and think did I actually do that.  I’m looking forward to seeing the finished show.

Were you excited about the big reveal and who do you think amongst your friends/family would be the most surprised?

I think they are all going to be absolutely amazed, particularly my rather grown up grandchildren, because they wouldn’t have heard me do anything like that before or seen me do anything like that before.  I only sing occasionally and after a few glasses of wine so they wouldn’t be expecting anything.  I think it will be amazing.

Gloria Hunniford was Snow Leopard.

What did you think of your mask, your overall look and the character you got to play?

I loved the character and I loved the whole costume.   I think the costume people are utterly breathtakingly amazing and I loved it.

How about the clue packages – what kind of input did you have on those and do you have a favourite nugget of information from them?

Only in as much as you are obviously talking about your life and they are things that you have done.  So yes you do have input but we were trying to put them off the trail quite a lot.    Jonathan of course, I’ve met so I wasn’t surprised that he got it quite quickly.

Were there any nerves when you first performed as your character or did being hidden inside the costume make you feel more confident?

I think when you are hiding behind the costume it does take away some of the nerves.  The biggest nerves that I had was the fact that I couldn’t see where I was going.

What did you think of the panel’s guesses?

I thought some of them were hysterical but it was Jonathan who made the connection with the clues.

If you could wear your mask and costume just one more time what occasion would you choose to wear it to?

I’d love to have it for Christmas day and walk in on the whole family.

The Masked Singer on ITV and ITV Hub continues on Saturdays at 7pm on ITV (and STV/UTV)