Sara Cox ‘s back on TV for ‘The Marvellous Miniature Workshop’

In episode one of The Marvellous Miniature Workshop airing at 2pm on BBC One, Sara and miniaturist Hannah Lemon recreate Manchester’s Crumpsall Library for Leah, a retired social worker who met her late husband there as a teenager. Though the library now lies derelict, Hannah’s intricate model – parquet floors, stained-glass and even Neil’s school cap – brings back its splendour and the love story at its heart.

The Bolton News reported over the weekend, that two places Sara, would like recreating is her father’s farm house and the inside of The Pineapple Pub which her mum used to run at one time.

Sara’s career began in modelling and has now become a national treasure after her epic achievement for Children in Need, running a marathon a day to raise millions for the charity.

Between radio presenting, Cox found time to write her first book, Till The Cows Come Home – a gentle, poignant early autobiography in which she pays homage to her childhood, largely growing up on her father’s cattle farm just outside Bolton, surrounded by dogs, cows, horses and lots of ‘cack’.

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Sara Cox on her memories ahead of ‘The Marvellous Miniature Workshop’

The seeds of chat were sown in her dad’s farm kitchen, her nana’s front room and her mum’s pub – her parents divorced when she was seven but she insists she wasn’t affected, as she went on to live with her mum and stepfather who lived only 10 minutes away from her father.

She initially intended the book to be a love letter to her father, Len, a character who is ‘the calm at the eye of the storm’, but it ended up a homage to her mother, Jackie, the strong 4ft 11in heroine who she describes as ‘opinionated, funny, loving and complicated, but always there’.

The book charts her childhood as she fussed over newborn calves, tumbled over hay bales in the barn, and doted on her beloved pony Gus at Grundy Fold Farm, a smallholding which her father still runs.

Sara said her mother held down a lot of jobs for a long time to keep the wolf from the door, and ran a pub, which has made her appreciate her own lifestyle more.

Sara began modelling when she was spotted at the age of 18 with her sister, who was on a placement in Paris. The work took her on assignments to Milan, South Korea and New York, as well as modelling for ITV’s This Morning, although you get the sense she felt a bit like a fish out of water in a world where looks are everything.

Then a casting came in for Channel 4’s The Girlie Show in 1996.

It launched her broadcasting career, which has since included stints on The Big Breakfast, a decade at Radio 1 and now Radio 2.

The Marvellous Miniature Workshop can be watched on BBC 1 or streamed on iPlayer.