Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery: June 24

This week on Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery, QI‘s Alan Davies opens up on his difficult childhood, and how it’s taken him many years to reconcile losing his mother at the age of six.

After collecting her in a London cab Alan and Julia set off to Loughton, in Essex, where he shows her, in Spring Grove, the two houses, side by side, where he lived in until age 17. One contains the few memories he has of life with his mum, and he recalls the joy he felt when, as very young boy he would make her laugh. He tells of how her cancer was hidden from both her and the children, and how this made the trauma of losing her all the worse.

Then, it’s off to Staples Road Primary School where he says he was able to cope with the help of a very special teacher, Mrs Thorogood. But then he was forced to leave the school early to attend his father’s alma mater, The Bancroft’s School.

There, he recounts the endless years of harsh treatment from teachers and fellow students. But then it’s back to Staple Road where Mrs Thorogood has come to meet them.

When asked about her memories of the young Alan, she describes an emotional but imaginative young boy, and she tells him, for the first time, that she could especially relate to him because she had lost her father at the same age.

Finally, over a pint at the bar at his favourite drinking hole, The Gardener’s Arms, Alan reflects that being a parent himself makes him realise what a hard job it can be.

9pm Wednesday on ABC.