Anne Diamond

For the Canadian writer, see Ann Diamond.
Anne Diamond
Born 8 September 1954
Malvern, Worcestershire, England
Occupation Radio presenter, journalist
Years active 1979–present
Spouse(s) Mike Hollingsworth (m. 1989), separated
Children 5

Anne Margaret Diamond (born 8 September 1954) is an English radio and television presenter and journalist. She hosted Good Morning Britain for TV-am and the similarly titled Good Morning... with Anne and Nick for BBC One, both with Nick Owen as her co-presenter. Currently she presents a phone-in show on BBC Radio Berkshire on weekday mornings from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and makes regular appearances airing her views as a panelist and stand-in presenter on The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 and BBC London, and is a regular columnist for the Daily Mail.[1]

In 1991, she successfully campaigned for research into cot death following the death of her third son, Sebastian. The campaign, which she co-founded, was reported to have cut the incidence of cot death in the UK from 2,000 a year to nearer 300.[2]

Biography

Diamond's parents were of Irish ancestry, although her father was brought up in Scotland.[3] She was born and brought up in Malvern, Worcestershire, and she attended Worcester Grammar School for Girls.

Early career

Diamond worked at a Butlins holiday camp as a redcoat and chalet-maid.[4] She then began her career as a journalist on the Bridgwater Mercury and Bournemouth Evening Echo.

Television

Diamond began her television career with BBC West in Bristol, before moving over to ATV Today as a reporter and newsreader in 1979. When ATV become Central Television in 1982, she was paired up with Nick Owen, to present the new East Midlands edition of Central News.[5]

The launch of the Nottingham-based service was initially delayed for a month, but then extended indefinitely. With no end in sight to the dispute,[6][7] Diamond left Central and rejoined the BBC in 1983 as a presenter on the nightly programme "Nationwide".

On Monday 6 June 1983, Diamond joined TVAM[8] Greg Dyke the newly appointed programme director spoke with Nick Owen about replacements for sacked presenters Anna Ford and Angela Rippon. Owen suggested Diamond, and later that evening she and Dyke met in a pub and 6 weeks later she joined the station.[9]

Diamond left TVAM in 1989, to become the presenter of the TV Weekly produced by TVS in Southampton. Shown in the afternoon in most ITV regions the programme looked behind the scenes of various television programmes and interviewed various personalities from in front and behind the camera. She left the series in 1992 after the programmes was axed following the loss of the TVS franchise to Meridian Broadcasting.

Diamond was rejoined with Nick Owen to present the BBC daytime show Good Morning with Anne and Nick, which ran four years against ITV's This Morning from 1992 till 1996.

Diamond's presenting has attracted accusations of dumbing down. In commenting on the Fall of the Berlin Wall, she suggested that a major benefit would be that East Germans would have a better choice of shops in the West, leading her critics to suggest that she hadn't fully grasped the event's significance.[10]

In 2002, Diamond took part in Celebrity Big Brother 2, but become the second person to be evicted.[11][12][13]

Since 2003 Diamond has been a regular panellist on The Wright Stuff[14] talking about the issues of the day, she has even been a guest host for Mark Wright.

In 2006, Diamond appeared in Celebrity Fit Club. She was initially made team captain but was later demoted for walking off on her team. It was then revealed that she had received adjustable gastric band surgery before appearing on the show, which provoked much press outrage. It subsequently emerged that the operation had not been successful, although Diamond had quit the show in week seven - she later had a successful second operation.

In 2008, Diamond hosted a series of special 25th year reunion TV-am daily shows on the BBC London 94.9 breakfast show between 27–30 May 2008 along with Nick Owen. Diamond now often sits in for Vanessa Feltz's morning call-in show on BBC London 94.9 on bank holidays and during Feltz's personal holidays.

During 2008, Diamond became involved in co-developing a jewellery range, which she marketed on shopping channel QVC under her own name brand.[15] In 2009, she appeared on the opening episode of the second series of Hole in the Wall on BBC One with David Vitty.

On 24 November 2012, she appeared on The Golden Rules of TV.

Radio

In the late 1990s she presented the breakfast show on the London radio station LBC, variously with Sir Nicholas Lloyd and Tommy Boyd. After a few months presenting her own lunchtime show in 1999, she left the station.

In 2001 she spent a week on The Wright Stuff, and was welcomed back in 2003 after Celebrity Big Brother and has been there to the present day. In 2002 she also returned to television, appearing in Celebrity Big Brother. In October 2004 she joined BBC Radio Oxford, presenting the weekday breakfast programme. In 2006 she left BBC Radio Oxford, presenting her last breakfast programme on 17 March 2006, her replacement being Sybil Ruscoe. Much had been made on the breakfast programme of "Diamond's Dieting Buddies", a scheme whereby Diamond and listeners to the station in 2006 who wanted to lose weight would give one another moral support.[16]

She can now be heard presenting the mid-morning programme on BBC Radio Berkshire Mondays-Thursdays from 10:00 am.

Diamond keeps a regular blog on the official BBC website.[17]

Pantomime

She has appeared in pantomimes such as Snow White playing the Wicked Queen at Stoke-on-Trent in 2005, alongside Ken Morley and Sooty, having said that she "thoroughly enjoyed the experience".[18]

Campaigning

Cot death

Diamond became involved in raising awareness of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) – also known as "cot death" – after her son, Sebastian, died from the syndrome in 1991. She fronted "Back to Sleep", a campaign telling parents to ensure that babies slept on their backs. Since then, there has been a significant fall in incidents of SIDS in the United Kingdom, from more than 2,000 per year to around 300, which has been attributed to the campaign.[1] Diamond was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the only time it has ever been awarded to a non-medic.[1]

Diamond spoke out over the cot death and baby-swap storyline in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders, featuring characters Kat Moon and Ronnie Branning. "I think it's crass what they've done," she told ITV's Daybreak breakfast programme, branding the plot "tacky sensationalism". The episode gathered numerous complaints following its New Year's Eve airing.

FSID named Anne Diamond as their Anniversary Patron for their 40th anniversary in 2011.[19]

Video game violence

On 28 March 2008, in an article for the UK's Daily Mail tabloid newspaper, Anne Diamond contributed to an article concerning violence in video games where she is quoted as saying that the game Resident Evil 4 "shouldn't be allowed to be sold, even to adults" [20][21]

Leveson Inquiry

Diamond has been featured in numerous stories in the British tabloid press since the mid-1980s. On 28 November 2011 she gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press.[22] She gave detailed accounts of intrusion by journalists into her life and her dealings with tabloid newspapers.

Personal life

She married Mike Hollingsworth in 1989, and the couple had five children: Oliver, James, Sebastian, Jake and Conor. But after he had an affair with radio presenter Harriet Scott, they separated.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Peoplematter.tv Retrieved 18 June 2010
  2. ↑ Foundation for the Study of Infant Death, 20 February 2007
  3. ↑ The Wright Stuff, 27 January 2012
  4. ↑ Time for a change as Butlin's says bye-de-bye to the past. The Independent. 4 September 1997
  5. ↑ Roddy Buxton (2 September 2007). A trip to Giltbrook. transdiffusion.org.
  6. ↑ TV launch delayed again. From Arthur Osman. The Times, Thursday, 11 February 1982; pg. 2.
  7. ↑ Television dispute 'may take months to resolve'. From Arthur Osman. The Times, Wednesday, 24 February 1982; pg. 3
  8. ↑ TV-am's 'new look' attracts viewers. By Kenneth Gosling.The Times (London, England), Tuesday, 7 June 1983; pg. 2
  9. ↑ "The Battle for Britain's Breakfast". BBC Two. 8 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Breakfast for two The Irish Independent 18 February 2006
  11. ↑ "Sue and Anne next up for eviction". Mail Online. 2002.
  12. ↑ "Anne Diamond evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother House". Hello Magazine. 28 November 2002.
  13. ↑ Beverley Turner (23 January 2014). "Beverley Turner: A white wedding wasn’t my key to a happy ever after". The Telegraph.
  14. ↑ Anne Diamond – IMDb
  15. ↑ "Anne Diamond's journey: From golden girl of breakfast TV to selling jewellery on QVC". Daily Mail. 6 January 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
  16. ↑ "Celebrity Fitclub". BBC Oxford. 11 January 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
  17. ↑ Anne Diamond Blog. BBC Website.
  18. ↑ Anne Diamond. "Anne Diamond's Blog: I was a panto snob UNTIL". BBC. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  19. ↑ "Cot death charity celebrates 40 years and welcomes Anne Diamond as anniversary patron". Fsid News/Press releases, 28 February 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  20. ↑ Gavin Ogden (28 March 2008). What game is Anne Diamond talking about? ComputerAndVideoGames. Retrieved 18 June 2010
  21. ↑ "'Sickening' - Anne Diamond's chilling verdict on age-rated violent video games". The Daily Mail. 28 March 2008. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  22. ↑ "Witness list" (PDF). Leveson Inquiry: culture practice and ethics of the press. Retrieved 28 November 2011.

External links