Their house had no bathroom and they used her father's Southern Railway privilege tickets to get them to their most ambitious holiday destination, Cornwall.
She joined the Children's Hour radio circle, and entered competitions which entitled the winners to visit Broadcasting House, headquarters of the BBC.
By bending the truth on her CV, inventing grandparents in Norfolk and describing her father's occupation as a "welfare officer", she succeeded in getting a job with the variety department, being paid £2 5s.
This was a request programme in which members of the armed forces abroad, and their families at home, could ask the "compère" to play a favourite piece of music.
Whilst doing the programme from London, Metcalfe met her male colleague at the Hamburg end of the operation, Squadron Leader Cliff Michelmore.
Self-effacing and gently spoken, she pioneered the art of interviewing stars in their own homes, including the wartime 'forces sweetheart' singer Vera Lynn, the irascible television personality Gilbert Harding, the song and dance man Frankie Vaughan and the stiff-upper-lipped film actor Kenneth More.