ITV star Dr Hilary Jones has shared his co-star Lorraine Kelly’s true colours after working with the Scottish presenter for 35 years. The GP – who has just released his third fiction book, Under Darkening Skies – confessed the pair have read one another’s work and explained what it is really like to work in close quarters with Lorraine.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, he said: “Oh she’s lovely. Lorraine – people often say, ‘What is Lorraine really like?’ and I say she’s exactly as she comes across. She’s engaging, she’s interested in people, she’s genuine and she’s great fun. I’ve worked with her for over 35 years, and she’s written her books as well, so we’ve read each other’s books.”

Lorraine isn’t the only one to have read and enjoyed Dr Hilary’s books. He also got high praise from The Chase star Shaun Wallace, explaining: “Of course, people like Shaun Wallace, I’ve come across on The Chase, a lovely guy – very well read. I read his book as well.”

Another star who provided a quote for Dr Hilary’s book trilogy – which begins in WW1 and ends after WW2 – is prolific author Jeffrey Archer, who worked with him at ITV.

Dr Hilary explained: “Interestingly, we used to work with Jeffrey Archer, one of the pundits at ITV and he was coming in for a while. He said to me one day, ‘I’ve just seen a copy of your book, I really like it!’ and I thought oh my goodness, coming from a bestselling author who has sold millions of books that’s praise indeed. He was very helpful in doing a quote for my first book. 

“I wrote the books myself and obviously I got some advice from the editors I worked with which was good, but no I think I wrote it in my style. Jeffrey Archer famously said he does 14 drafts of every book – I didn’t do 14! I did two or three drafts, but I really enjoyed it. I loved doing the research – I found out so much.”

Under Darkening Skies is the last book in Dr Hilary’s World War series, and charts the discovery of penicillin – as well as the Allies’ attempts to keep it from being used by the Nazis in the conflict. It wraps up the story of heroine Grace after the interwar years, following on from Frontline and Eye of the Storm.

Under Darkening Skies is available to purchase from July 31st.