Summer is upon us, bringing with it holidays, ice creams, the seaside and even the occasional day of sunshine. But there is one thing which casts a shadow over this happy time; that creates a void in our lives; that leaves lunchtimes lonely and directionless.

Yes people, the Loose Women summer break is a difficult time for all of us.  Or maybe that’s just me.

Loose Women is an excellent show, bringing laughter to our lunchtimes. The ladies are like our friends and I do genuinely (just a little bit) miss hearing their funny anecdotes and outrageous tales over the summer.

Worse still, are the replacement programmes ITV provides us with in place of Loose Women. What television treat do we have for us this year? Let’s Do Lunch with Gino and Mel.

This is a cookery show (how original) presented by Melanie Sykes where the cheeky Gino D’Acampo grills (get me and my culinary puns) a celebrity on their food likes and dislikes and then tries to rustle up a meal that they will love. Later the audience can also vote on a dish they’d like to see him make. So not remotely like Daily Cooks Challenge then? Hmmn…

But anyway, to get back to Loose women, I don’t begrudge these fine upstanding ladies their holidays, of course not, but between them- there are twelve regulars and hundreds of others for goodness’ sake…they could even wheel out the super-eager Lesley Garrett if absolutely necessary (!) – surely they could make a holiday rota or something?

Denise’s week in Ibiza can coincide with a stint by Lisa in the studio. Carol can live it up in Skegness while Lynda is working on the panel. Etc etc. It’s really not that difficult. Perhaps I should work on the production team.

The only problem would be the role of anchor, as they are on more regularly than the rest. But I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard for the others, on a purely temporary basis. I bet even scatty Sherrie could read the autocue. Well perhaps that’s pushing it. But Carol could. Unless she’s been down the pub. Hmmn, perhaps it’s harder than I thought…

But while we’re on the subject of anchors and on a more serious note, I’ve been shocked at the treatment of poor Kate Thornton.

Fired because of recent bad ratings despite a full two years of good service and a TV Choice Award, Kate has ‘scapegoat’ written all over her.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with her. On the contrary she has performed very well. I was dubious at first, finding her shouty on the X-Factor, but she proved me wrong, showing she was a quick-witted, intelligent and popular member of the team, as well as being a genuinely good interviewer due to her background in journalism.

After the humiliation of her sacking being all over the papers weeks in advance, Kate was given about 30 seconds at the end of the show to acknowledge her own departure, say goodbye and thank the viewers, no flowers, no leaving gifts, nothing.

This comes one week after Coleen Nolan’s leaving show (a real tear-jerker) where they devoted the whole to show to her, named a star after her, got two special guests in to make a fuss of her, allowed her to say her goodbyes and let her sing her own, special (not necessarily in a good way) farewell song.

Not that she didn’t deserve that after eleven years on the show but it just highlights the abysmal treatment of Kate.

My heart goes out to Zoe Tyler too, who also got the boot for no good reason. But she wasn’t on much anyway, as opposed to Kate who was on at least three days every week and even she got given a bouquet of flowers on her last show.

Maybe I should become offer my services to Loose Women. I could tackle all these issues.

I’d make sure every loose lady got treated properly and I’d eliminate unnecessary shows like Let’s Do Lunch with Gino and Mel by re-organising things to get rid of the distressing Loose Women sabbatical. What’s more I’d make sure Carol Vorderman never comes anywhere near that anchor chair. Ever. *shudder*