The GMTV television critic is venturing away from his usual area of expertise for Richard's Little Britain, in which he samples the delights of holiday camps and caravan parks the length and breadth of the country.
"It's brought back so many memories," says the 35-year-old, fresh from a week filming up and down the UK. "We only ever holidayed in Britain. It was before people used to go abroad, really.
"But I remember the sun was always shining, which means
I must have blocked most of it out because that probably wasn't the case," he laughs.
"What I remember mostly about holidays as a nipper, and this is not because I had issues with incontinence, but I always used to have to sleep on a bed with plastic sheets. You'd hire a family room and I'd always be on the bed in the corner with plastic sheets on it. For some reason it always comes back to me.
"And of course there was always the traditional dragon of a land-lady shuffling around in her slippers."
Arnold has been filming in five areas of the UK to tie in with live broadcasts he will be making from Monday in a week-long tour of the UK's best holiday resorts.
Look out for him in the Haven Holiday Park at Craig Tara in Ayrshire, and the one in Hafan y Mor in Wales, Butlins in Skegness, Center Parcs in Longleat and Pontin's Wall Park Holiday Centre in Devon.
"The powers that be at GMTV decided we wanted to do something on the road this summer that looked at various parts of the country," explains Arnold. "It seemed ideal to pitch up in holiday camps dotted around the UK and have a little bit of a roadshow.
"We've been on the road for a week already filming in places like Skegness, Ayr, Snowdonia, Longleat and also Torquay. And I have to say, we really do live in an amazing country. You forget when you've got your head down doing nine to five. When you actually get a chance to skip around it's amazing the sights you can see."
Arnold has been relishing the opportunity to get off the GMTV couch and get out and about. During his five years on the morning show he has been getting more and more to do and is now as much part of the furniture as Fiona Phillips.
"When I'm not trawling through the tapes, I'm having lots of adventures," he says. "I seem to be their Kiss Me Quick Costa boy. If they're not sending me to the Costa del Sol, it's the Costa del Britain. But it suits me."
Brought up in Hampshire until he was 11, when his family moved to Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Arnold has been an increasingly familiar face on British television since the mid-90s.
After helping launch Inside Soap magazine while still training to be a journalist, he found his niche in radio where he was a regular TV pundit for the likes of Radio Five Live. He got his break on TV alongside Dennis Pennis, aka actor Paul Kaye, on the BBC's The Sunday Show under the guise of Soapy Dick.
"That was a baptism by fire," he says now. "I remember Paul Kaye and I treading the corridors of Granada TV with a BBC crew filming us. We were ridiculously nervous. But I learnt how to do live TV with an audience. I look back at the tapes now and cringe. I look about 11. You can tell I'm dying inside. But it was a great experience and whet my whistle for live TV."
GMTV followed, as have other TV projects, such as his forthcoming show The Animal Roadshow, soon to be shown on STV. But being an avid consumer of TV himself, one thing he refuses to take part in is the current trend for celebrity reality shows.
"It is getting too much," he says. "There are only so many hours in the day you can dedicate to the reality stuff. I've been asked to go into the jungle once or twice, and they've asked me to do Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Mastermind as well.
"Classy though Celebrity Mastermind would have been, I would have shamed myself completely. I really couldn't have sat opposite Mr Humphrys and said 'My specialist subject is Dallas: The Early Years'.
"Even I draw the line at that."
n Richard's Little Britain, GMTV, Monday, from 6am
richard's little stops
AYRSHIRE
"We went to Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, which was beautiful. We saw a Viking re-enactment battle there. The peasants were revolting, as they say. Did we take part? No, but Culzean Castle's pretty special because it overlooks the Isle Of Arran. You forget just how beautiful our country is."
WALES
"We went to Portmeirion in Wales where they did The Prisoner series. It was beautiful but it was twee in an almost sinister way. I found myself dressed in Patrick McGoohan's jacket being chased by this huge white balloon, as he was in the series. But the highlight of the Welsh trip was riding a steam train. I actually drove it and I was worried this 140-year-old train was going to be derailed for the first time."
SKEGNESS
"Skegness was a real eye-opener as it's got to be the cleanest town in Britain. The colours were so vivid, it was like one of those 50s postcards. Skegness to me was the highlight of the trip just because it was like going back in time. It was just packed, and when you go, you have to go on the award- winning beach donkeys."
LONGLEAT
"I had a great time in Center Parcs. Blimey, it's all there. And Longleat was fantastic because we got incredible access. We were feeding giraffes from the back of our van, and it was incredible to get that close to these fantastic beasts. Eyelashes to die for, I have to say. I was slightly jealous of them. It was incredible feeding them, it was like Jurassic Park."
DEVON
"The best fish and chips I had - and we had a few - was in Torquay. There's an award- winning chip shop there, and they do the best Mr Whippy ice cream as well. We also went out on one of these heritage boats from Torquay. They don't just do day trips, you can actually stay on them for a week and go around the coast of Britain, or cross the Channel."
Lauren Laverne's showbiz weekend
party girl: Lauren Laverne
Lauren Laverne was born in Sunderland in 1978. She found fame as the lead singer of Kenickie and, since the group split six years ago, she has worked on solo material and has contributed to BBC's Johnny Vaughan Tonight and Channel 4's RI:SE
What's your dream Saturday?
"I'll start off quite early. There's a great pub around the corner from my house called The Alma, so I'll go there, have a bite to eat and meet up with some friends."
How do you get ready for it?
"We'll go to one of our houses to get ready, which is one of the funnest bits of a night out. Maybe if I'm DJing, I'll get some records together and decide which tunes I'm going to put on. There might be a makeover involved. I'll probably go to the East End. I do like my über-fashionable clubs, though they can be a bit scary. Afterwards, roll back to my house for a couple of White Russians and then bed."
If you could make a law for Saturday nights, what would it be?
"Everyone has to wear a coat. In the North East it is a mockable thing with physical repercussions to wear a coat in the evening, but I get cold without one."
What's the best Saturday night out you've ever had?
"A brilliant Hallowe'en last year at a mad ball. I got dressed up as a glamorous zombie-type lady at The House of Jazz."
And the worst?
"I played a gig in Leicester on a Saturday once where the venue had been flooded the night before. The sewers had risen and they were literally rinsing the walls down while we soundchecked."
Who would you most like to spend your weekend with?
"Apart from the obvious friends and family, I think a weekend with the late Hunter S Thompson would be an education."
Do you live for the weekend and free time?
"I love my weekends. I work quite hard during the week. I like to just amble through the weekend."
What sort of a Sunday person are you?
"I like to do as little as possible. When I was younger I used to hate Sundays because they were really boring and, of course, as soon as you get older, you realise they're the best day of the week."
Which city is the best for nightlife and why?
"You can have a fantastic time in Sunderland and Newcastle, especially if you're on a budget."
What did you get up to last weekend and what are you doing this weekend?
" I like getting up early on Saturday morning and doing something fun, like going to Spitalfields. Next week I'm off to Glastonbury."
n Glastonbury 2005, BBC2,
Friday 9pm
Times have changed since Terry, Arthur and 'Er indoors
MINDER HOW YOU GO: George Cole and Dennis Waterman
TVTimes, celebrates its 50th anniversary in September. As it counts down to the big day, we continue our weekly dip into its archives to see what had you glued to the box in years gone by. This week, we switch on 1979...
JUST like his character in Little Britain, Dennis Waterman got to write the theme tune and sing it when Minder arrived on screen.
He played Terry, an ex-convict who must tackle a variety of difficult and dangerous bodyguard assignments arranged by his boss.
The boss was, of course, the incomparable Arthur Daley (George Cole), the dodgy ducker and diver with a warehouse full of hooky gear, a trilby hat, fat cigar and, of course, an unseen wife - 'Er indoors.
The key to the show was its cracking cockney wit. Here's a sample from the opening episode: "He's got a degree."
"I never knew that."
"Yeah, sociology. He still does the thieving but now he knows why."
Minder had been created for Waterman to follow his macho, four-year stint in The Sweeney, and it started out in similarly violent style. But neither critics nor viewers took to it. So after a while, the violence was toned down and the comedy played up - and the result was a much loved international hit that ran, on and off, for 15 years. "A nice little earner," as Arthur would say.
Just as Terry protected Arthur, writer Roald Dahl was also on the defensive as he introduced Tales of The Unexpected, a series based on his wickedly twisted, adult short stories. "People who don't know me ask who is this strange, cruel man," he said. "But I'm not such a terrible man, you know. I'm even kind to animals."
The series was sold all over the world, helped by stellar casts. The debut story, for instance, featured Joan Collins as nasty, wayward Lady Turton and no less than Sir John Gielgud as her vengeful butler, Jelks.
Another freak show, this time for children, could be found in Worzel Gummidge, the scarecrow of Scatterbrook Farm. Splendidly rude and sulky, Worzel (Jon Pertwee) used a robin as a hanky, had appalling table manners and lost his turnip head (quite literally) over fairground skittle Aunt Sally (Una Stubbs). Jeremy Austin and the late Charlotte Coleman played John and Sue, the children who befriended him.
Classic sci-fi series Sapphire and Steel was originally aimed at kiddies too, but soon became a grown-up cult. Joanna Lumley and David McCallum starred as the time-travelling detectives out to foil the powers of chaos. Sapphire could see through time, Steel possessed super-strength; she dressed in bright blue, he dressed in grey, and they were as cool as cool could be.
"It's never explained where they come from," said TVTimes, "but despite their human looks they're clearly not from Earth . . ."
The full article contains 2064 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
