ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

What was your first TOTP show with Jimmy Saville like?
"I remember someone saying to me "Don’t talk to Jimmy Saville, he will talk to you" and of course he wasn’t like that at all. He was great. He was actually lovely to do the first show with 'cos he was very encouraging, laid back about it all. There was no competition about it. I’d gone and got a special outfit for it, had my hair done like a leopard which was fine until I washed it! - and there I was with Saville. I just remember being really embarrassed because when I saw it on telly the following night I seemed to slide down the screen and cover Jimmy. But it was great."

What were your thoughts on the fashions during the time you presented TOTP?
Simon Bates always wore the same beige jacket didn’t he! It was a problem when they said you couldn’t wear this colour because it didn’t look good on screen. When I was first doing TOTP I lived in Liverpool and I used to run round all the shops to get things. But when I was living in London it was a case of the day before the show going to Hyper Hyper which was so '80s and flamboyant. If there was a bow - it was big! If it was a colour - it was the most vibrant! The outfits always cost more than your fee. Who cared though because it was great."

Any particular memories of certain bands?

"It was incredible to be on with people like . I’d seen them from the beginning doing stuff and I’d had them on a local TV programme and suddenly there you are on TOTP with them -Ìýthat happened with them so many times. came in and was incredible. Outside his dressing room he had two women who were like sumo wrestlers guarding the door. The security at Television Centre is so strict but he actually had these people guarding the door. Every time I went to my dressing room, which was next door they would stand up, as if to say "Woaah". I wasn’t even trying to get in, I was just trying to get to my room. When I think about it all of the people I’ve met through doing TOTP - phenomenal."

OK then. - Relax. Thoughts?
"Well I was familiar with the track. I used to send demos out of it before it had been signed to a record label - so I’d had it for a long time. I still don’t think it was disgusting or anything. Mike Read on Radio 1 thought it was awful - or did he - who knows! Of course it goes straight to No.1. I think it was going to go to No.1 anyway but as a result of Mike’s outburst it was banned. Subsequently on TOTP you could only play the No.2 record. Never mind, but I think now it wouldn’t make any difference."

What did you think of the party atmosphere that was created in the TOTP studio?
"Funny really. People going round trying to get everybody to dance, everybody banging into each other, huge hair styles, padded shoulders and lots of dancers who looked like woodstain. It was funny standing there when it was going on but it worked on the telly. It was a good atmosphere. You did get excited and afterwards the real party did start 'cos you’d often just go to the bar and you would be hanging out with . I got stuck in the lift once and just managed to get into the studio as it started - can you believe it! Do you remember the shows we had to dress up as pantomime people? Yes we had to get dressed up as a character in a pantomime - I don’t know what I was but I was standing in a big flarey skirt."