Elaine C. Smith on Burdz Eye View that was us having a fry-up in the lay-by!

Elaine C. Smith reveals her favourite destinations ahead of her STV series Burdz Eye View series.

“My mum was a bit of a snob and she tended to think Scottish holidays weren’t that good.

So we used to have days out in Ayr and Musselburgh, but holidays were down south in Morecambe or Whitley Bay.

My dad was a mechanic so we always had a car but the journey to Whitley Bay took about 12 hours.

That was because he’d take a Primus stove and cook a full Scottish breakfast on the side of the road.

We were that stupid family sitting in a lay-by having black pudding, sausage, the lot, while all the cars whizzed past!

And we’d be part of a convoy of cars as my aunts, uncles and friends would go, too, so there would be about 18 of us.

But that journey down to England was fantastic, knowing you were lucky enough to be getting away for two weeks.

I remember when I was 12 or 13 being allowed to go to the ballroom with my mum and dad and thinking it was braw sitting there with a coke watching what was going on.

I had just started singing and there was a club in Cullercoats, at the end of Whitley Bay, where The Animals started.

That’s where I won my first talent contest.

When I was playing Susan Boyle a couple of years back the opening night at the Theatre Royal Newcastle was a huge success.

After the high of that my husband and I drove out to Cullercoats and walked past where it all started.

It was like a circular thing going back there. Of course it was much smaller than I remembered and not as exotic but we had lunch and it was really lovely.

The most exotic was place I’ve been is Bermuda.

The Proclaimers and myself were doing the cabaret for John Boyle’s wedding and he told us to go out four days earlier to get acclimatised.

It was fantastic, total luxury. I’d never seen sea so blue.

But I still love Scotland. We have a little house in Dunkeld in Perthshire and that captures my heart more than anywhere now.”

Elaine C. Smith’s Burdz Eye View six-part series is currently running on STV, Mondays at 8pm, and follows her as she visits many of Scotland’s once sought-after seaside destinations.