Dad's delights

HARRY Gration energetically shakes my hand and gives me a warm, welcoming smile, when I call round to his York home to meet the latest additions to his family. Dressed in a tight-fitting cream-coloured roll-neck sweater - "the perfect colour for baby sick" he later jokes - the BBC Look North anchorman is tall and lean and looks in great shape for his 53 years. Within minutes, he is in the kitchen making me a cup of tea.

Wife Helen, 35, looks equally well considering she had their twin sons Harrison and Harvey a mere five months ago. Her petite size six figure has returned, and her blonde, bobbed hair looks salon-fresh.

The couple are delighted by their new arrivals - although Harry admits to "hitting the floor" when told they were expecting twins.

To look at the boys now with their cherub cheeks and solid bodies, it's hard to believe they were just 4lbs 12oz when they were born five weeks prematurely at Leeds General Infirmary.

But even more remarkable, perhaps, is that they are here at all.

The couple, who have been together for seven years and married for two, thought they would not be able to have children because Harry had a vasectomy. He has three children from a previous marriage: Hannah, 25, Freddie, 14 and Sam, nine.

One solution was to have IVF, but even that procedure held no guarantees.

Helen said: "I thought it would be a miracle if I became a mum. We knew IVF wouldn't be easy and that perhaps we would have to have three goes before it would work. But we were fortunate that it worked first time."

She says because of the route they had to take to have children, they thought long and hard about whether to do it or not.

Helen said: "We didn't enter into it lightly." For Harry, he didn't want Helen to miss out on a chance of motherhood, but at the same time he was aware that he wasn't getting any younger.

"There is some dilemma," he says, relaxing into a deep, comfy sofa in his lounge which overlooks Knavesmire and patting his enthusiastic bearded collie Phoebe. "I'm 53 and I say to myself: 'I want to retire when I'm 60'. Maybe that's not going to materialise, people tend not to retire at 60 anyway.

"In quieter moments, I think that when they are 18 or 20 I'm going to be in zimmer frame in the corner and that I might miss one or two moments."

Despite the considerable number of older dads in the public eye - John Humphrys, David Jason, David Bowie and now the Chancellor of the Exchequer - Harry says people do comment when he's out pushing the double buggy.

"People stop you in the street and ask if they are your grandchildren," he says, with a smile. "One woman even whispered to a friend: 'he's a bit old to be their dad'. I replied: 'yes, but he's still got good hearing!'." Again, there is a broad smile.

Harry says he's more laid-back about fatherhood this time around - and he's definitely a hands-on dad. "I'm just a lot more relaxed about it. I don't get too worked up about things. Helen does most of the nappies, but I'm quite capable. Although it is a bit daunting when they both scream at the same time."

Harry is quick to credit Helen for keeping the atmosphere at the Gration household on an even keel. She appears to have taken motherhood in her stride and when I quiz her as to what stresses her out, she just shakes her head and smiles.

"I don't feel like that. I suppose I never thought I would have children, so I just feel very lucky," she says.

And she is full of praise for Harry. "He's a brilliant dad. Very calm. A play fellow. And he's got a brilliant song: 'Diddley poo'..."

At this, I notice that Harry is softly singing such words to Harrison as he gently bounces him on his knee. This is also the cue for a run of amusing anecdotes about baby sick and the like. Harry admits to losing his cool when he is ready to go to work and the babies are sick on him for the second time that day. In contrast he laughs about the time one of the boys was sick all over his head as he carried him on his shoulders on to a packed aeroplane.

Helen's calm and collected demeanour is all the more admirable when you consider that Harry is away from home a lot because on top of his Monday-Friday stint at Look North, he also works for BBC Sport at the weekend.

It was a sporting commitment that took him away from home when the babies were just six weeks old.

"It was Wimbledon," says Harry by way of an explanation. And it was an interview with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson which kept him from rushing Helen to hospital when her contractions started.

"It was the last match of the season - Everton versus Manchester United, in Liverpool," says Helen, setting the scene.

"I knew the babies would be early and could come at any time so I decided to go with Harry. We packed the hospital bag and even took the dog. By half time, I was getting anxious. My contractions had started. But I thought if I could hang on the match would be nearly over."

Harry picks up the story: "Grandstand wanted me to get an interview with Alex Ferguson. But he kept me waiting for ages."

While Harry was in the tunnel, waiting for the interview, Helen was frantically trying to phone and text him that her contractions were getting closer together - but Harry's phone could not pick up a signal in the tunnel.

When he reappeared, the couple made it as quickly as possible to Leeds, where Helen was planning to have the babies delivered by Caesarean section.

"What ever happened, I had to get her over the border," says Harry. "I couldn't have them being born in Lancashire."

Like her husband, Helen is a high-flyer in the TV world too. She began her broadcasting career with the BBC in Leeds and moved to London in 1994 to become the youngest director for news and current affairs.

She worked on the six and nine o'clock news and Newsnight before moving back to Yorkshire when Harry was re-hired to anchor Look North.

Next week, she returns to her job creating and producing special events which help the BBC connect more with its audience such as its annual sports awards.

Her plan is to work flexible hours so she can do work at home. Her mum lives nearby and plans to help out with childcare too.

Helen says her organisational skills - honed at work - helped her through those first few weeks at home with the boys.

She said: "My health visitor and my mum have said that it's because of my job that I can manage so well with the twins."

But she also admits to a secret weapon in her motherhood mission - Gina Ford's The Contented Little Baby Book, a bible for new mums which argues the best way to bring up baby is on a strict routine of regular feeding and sleeping.

"It's spot-on advice, all of it," says Helen, adding that she managed to get the boys to drop their night feed by seven weeks and to sleep though by four and a half months.

As if on cue, the twins start to make noise. It's 11 o'clock - time for their next feed.

In perfect choreography, Harry brings the small baby chairs into the lounge as Helen goes to heat up their bottles. I decide to leave them to it, they have it all well under control.

Updated: 09:41 Tuesday, October 28, 2003