She's back

I WASN'T too hopeful of ever getting to interview Anne Diamond. Just minutes before our scheduled telephone slot, an assistant rang me to cancel and re-arrange a time for the following day. "Anne will ring you from home," she assured me. But the next day passed without a peep from Ms Diamond, the one-time darling of daytime telly.

Another apologetic call from the assistant and a date was fixed for the following week. This time, Anne kept the appointment.

"It's Anne Diamond. Were you expecting me?" she asked, without a hint of irony.

The shenanigans of arranging the interview are a sign of just how much Anne is in demand at the moment.

She's back on daytime TV, co-presenting the ITV chat show Live Talk and is about to start filming a new cook-with-a-celebrity programme called Anne Grills in which she interviews famous faces while they cook for her.

She is also writing a novel, about a woman in the television industry who faces a life-changing decision, although she insists it is not autobiographical.

It all amounts to a big comeback for the TV presenter and journalist, who a few years back was the toast of television.

A former anchor on Nationwide and BBC news reader, Anne helped pioneer breakfast television in Britain by becoming one of the main presenters for TV-am in the Eighties.

By the early Nineties, the BBC wanted to go head-to-head with ITV's daytime magazine show This Morning, and put Anne at the helm with its Good Morning programme.

ITV won that battle eventually and Anne moved to radio, presenting a show for LBC.

Over the years, she has had to cope with personal tragedy. One of her children died from cot death, then three years ago, there was the very public and very painful split from her husband, Mike Hollingsworth.

During her divorce she suffered from depression and began to battle with her weight, all of which was documented in the national press.

Ask Anne about her 'wilderness years' and she's brutally honest. "For two or three years I was getting divorced. You go under and it takes a long time to resurface in any fit state. I was just surviving," she says.

Her mum Marguerite and three sisters were a great support at the time. "Without their help, I couldn't have done it," she adds.

So was she worried about stepping back into the limelight?

"I was a bit apprehensive," admits the 45-year-old who lives in Oxford with her four children aged from five to 13. "But it's my profession. I couldn't suddenly take the decision at this time in my life to be a brain surgeon.

"The opportunity to do something else wasn't there and I knew what I could do to pay the rent and feed the children."

Anne says she has been heartened by the response to her return.

"Up until now, the press has been very supportive. I know they can turn round and slap you down.

"People aren't as fickle. The viewers have been incredible and have been e-mailing me saying 'welcome back'. I think they identify with the fact that I've had a rough couple of years."

Was it nerve-wracking to do live TV again?

"I'm too old to be nervous," she says. "I was really looking forward to it and it feels very good indeed. I feel at home in a TV studio."

Anne co-presents Live Talk, the new ITV afternoon show with a mixture of news, views and celebrity interviews, on Mondays and Tuesdays, commuting to the studios in Manchester.

It's quite a hike, hence her commitment to doing just two days a week. And she is finding the erratic hours are playing havoc with her waistline, which she admits is thicker than when she launched her health and fitness video last year.

"I need to lose a stone and a half. I thought that I'd lose weight when I started working again, but I'm eating a lot of junk food because I'm doing so much travelling.

"I really must go back on a diet. It's harder as you get older. There are more temptations and with four children, the fridge is always full of food."

Her planned cookery show will see her hovering over a hot stove with Chris De Burgh and Mohammed Al Fayed to name but two of the featured celebs.

Anne admits to an interest in cookery. "If you have four kids, you have to be into cooking, it's a big part of my life. But I'm no cordon bleu chef, more of a housewife cook."

As yet, there are no plans to publish a cookery book on the back of the series, but the novel should be out next year.

"It was due to be finished in September," says Anne.

She says that the novel has been a much tougher task than her journalism.

"When you write something factual, you have to do the research and all the facts are in your head, just waiting to come out.

"In a novel, you have to make it up while you go along. You have to write storyboards and it all takes so much longer, but I am enjoying it very much."

Another commitment is her involvement with Recover, a new company in the personal injury compensation field. Anne has a place on the board and will be its public face, helping to publicise the company which seeks to bring a more humane face to the business of 'ambulance chasing'.

And what of the future?

"I've no idea. I'm so busy at the moment, I can hardly breathe. But whatever happens, my family comes first."

u Live Talk is on ITV at 2pm.

u Recover launches its hotline tomorrow: 0800 343434.