Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid share message of hope during Christmas show

Piers Morgan reflected on a ‘cataclysmic year’ as he and Susanna Reid hosted Good Morning Britain’s Christmas day programme.

The presenter also cited a mantra he attributed to centenarian Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised millions for the NHS by walking laps of his garden during lockdown, saying: “Tomorrow will be a good day”.

Morgan and Reid, both donning festive outfits, also paid tribute to other heroes of the year, as well as their colleague Kate Garraway, whose husband has been critically ill with coronavirus since March.

Morgan said: “It’s interesting isn’t it? We’ve reached the end of this cataclysmic year, the most difficult year that many of us have ever experienced and we’ve got to a place where we’ve got the fastest vaccinations that have ever been created in the history of science – which is about as good as tomorrow can be…”

The “vaccine scientists, researchers, volunteers who have enabled us to be able to look forward to next year with some optimism…” were among the people listed, with Morgan also mentioning health and care home workers.

Reid said: “My heart goes out to anybody who’s had a relative in a care home who they haven’t been able to see, haven’t been able to hug, hold their hand…”

Their co-presenter Garraway has detailed her family’s struggle during the pandemic with her husband, Derek Draper, in hospital since March battling the virus.

During the pre-recorded special episode, Morgan said: “And of course to all of those who lost loved ones this year or whose loved ones are seriously ill from the virus, thinking particularly of our colleague Kate of course, who won’t be with Derek this Christmas. It’s always a special time I know for the family, and our hearts go out to Kate and the kids today.

“It’ll be a very different Christmas for them obviously and we continue to hope and pray that Derek comes through what’s been a tremendously difficult ordeal for him and for his family”.

Filmmaker Hassan Akkad, who volunteered to be a cleaner on a Covid-19 ward during the pandemic, for £8 an hour, Morgan said, also appeared virtually on the show.

Another guest was nine-year-old Tobias Weller, who has cerebral palsy and autism, and cites Sir Captain Tom Moore as his inspiration. Weller, from Sheffield, who is known as “Captain Tobias” for his efforts has raised more than £100,000 for charity by covering the distance of two marathons in his walker.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and personal trainer Joe Wicks, known as The Body Coach, also shared Christmas messages.

Wicks, who raised more than half a million pounds for the NHS through his online fitness sessions during lockdown and was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, delighted Morgan by saying he doesn’t exercise on Christmas Day, adding: “Christmas Day is all about food and being lazy and watching movies. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in later on.”

Dame Joan Collins, 87, shared a message of hope with viewers and also revealed her ‘secret’ to longevity in show business.

She said you had to have a “hide like a rhinoceros and an inside like a marshmallow”.

Following a quip from Morgan about how she was spending Christmas with what he said was her “longest-serving husband” Percy Gibson, Dame Joan replied: “He’s the best, I’m very lucky… you know, well, five’s a charm… (you) have to kiss a lot of frogs, married many frogs…”

Gibson is her fifth husband and they have been married since 2002.

The show also featured musical performances from the London Gospel Community Choir and Katherine Jenkins.

Good Morning Britain is followed by festive broadcasts of Lorraine and This Morning.