TELLY presenter Gail Porter lost everything when she became homeless and said letting go of stuff can leave you cleansed.

The star is voicing a new STV show which sees Scots clear out their homes then selling their precious items at auction.

And Gail, who ended up sofa-surfing in her early 40s, revealed: “When I was becoming homeless I put all my stuff into a security locker, because I had nowhere to keep it.

“Then I couldn’t get a flat and couldn’t pay the bills on the locker – so it was all gone. I had to start from scratch.

“I remember telling one of my friends and she said ‘oh my god, I’d be distraught’. I was distraught, for about a day – but then I thought it’s just stuff.

“At the end of the day I thought, I’ve got my daughter and by then I had a roof over my head. It was just stuff.”

Clear Out, Cash In follows auctioneer and star of Antiques Road Trip Angus Ashworth as he travels across Scotland helping people to declutter their homes – perhaps ahead of downsizing, emigrating or simply to get some much-needed space back.

He looks for hidden treasures that could potentially make a decent profit learning about what each treasure really means to sellers and finding out if they can really part with the lots.

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Gail narrates the show and admits she found it tricky to keep her emotions in check during the heartwarming scenes.

She said: “I am a proper cryer and doing this programme was good but tough – I was watching all these things and, because it wasn’t my stuff, I was thinking, ‘yeah you’ll get over it’ – but then it came to the bit and I was like ‘no, keep it’.

“But it’s not just cleansing the house, it’s cleansing the mind.

“It’s quite hard doing these voiceovers sometimes, I keep having to stop because I’m having a moment. I’m trying to watch it and not cry – I get really emotional. It was a great programme to do and I really enjoyed doing it.”

Since recording the voice work for the show, Gail is keen to meet antiques expert Angus in person and get him to work his magic on her home.

The 50-year-old said: “I want to make friends with him – he could come to my house and he could tell me ‘actually you don’t need that’.

“I need someone like him to come and say ‘that is going’.”

Gail Porter rushed to hospital after fracturing her skull by ‘fainting’ during a ‘fit’ at home

But there are some special items that Gail reckons no one – not even Angus – could persuade her to part with, and that’s her toy collection.

She joked: “I’ve got all these toys, like Yoda and ET, and they all talk and interact with each other.

“You set one off and that’s them for an hour, chatting amongst themselves – they drive my daughter nuts but I couldn’t get rid of them.

“Angus would literally have to break into my flat when I wasn’t here to get rid of them.”

While she didn’t have to go on location to shoot the show, working with a Scottish programme has reminded Gail of her love for the country – and she reckons 2022 might be the year she moves home.

NOT N-ICE

GAIL has vowed never to do show Dancing on Ice after fracturing her skull at the end of last year.

The star had just finished a day of filming in late November when she collapsed, hit her head of the ground and ended up with a bleed on her brain.

And the injury left her spooked about damaging herself again.

Gail said: “After it happened I was so frightened of falling over and bumping my head again.

“I have been reading up on Dancing On Ice because it’s back on the telly and how people fall and injure themselves – I couldn’t think of any thing worse. I won’t even go in the ice rink when I am home in Edinburgh.”

The presenter joked that her accident did give her a great excuse to turn down invites over the festive season.

She added: “I fractured my skull at the end of November and I didn’t leave my house again until about January 3. I was too ill – I was in bed for most of Christmas and new year either sleeping or watching Netflix.

“Obviously I don’t want to ever fracture my skull again, but what a good excuse for not going to any parties. As soon as you tell people you’ve fractured your skull, they don’t have any answer to that.”

The star, who comes from Edinburgh but is based in London, said: “It’s so great it’s Scottish, it makes me want to come home so much.

“I was talking to my daughter about it, she goes back to uni in Manchester tomorrow and I feel like now she’s not here, I could live in Scotland.

“I have managed to do almost two years of lockdown and I’ve managed to work online or do voiceovers from a studio round the corner, working from anywhere is doable and I love Scotland more than anything.”

Gail added: “After losing all my stuff it made me put things into perspective – I’ve lost both my parents and grandparents, I have my pictures and memories. The older you get the more you put things in perspective and realise you don’t need stuff.”

• Clear Out Cash In continues on Wednesday at 8pm on STV and the series so far is available to stream on STV Player

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