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Through: Kate battersby
Anne Robinson is full of surprises. Almost a decade after the last series of Weak Link, she’s still defined by the 12 years she spent hitting contestants with stinging beards – a towering Queen of Villains, satanically shrouded in black. Is he the one I would meet? Plus, her frankness about previous facelifts and her continued dedication to fillers has led me to fear that, face to face, she is one of those celebrities who look neither young nor old, but rather. as if they had been in a fire.
Instead, she turns out to be extraordinarily delicate in appearance, her porcelain skin bearing none of the odd features indicative of Botox overuse. In addition, far from being formidably sculptural, it is rather small, reinforced by a fierce discipline to keep in shape via Pilates, weights and diet.
The surprises don’t end there. Previous interviews have suggested that she doesn’t care what people think of her and that she has no fear of failing in her new role as host of Countdown – not at all, apparently. This time around, the supposed Queen of Mean is shaping up to be “a terrible worry”, admits she was “very nervous” when she started recording in early June, and admits that she really wants to be loved by the audience. the show.
“Of course I do,” she said. “I don’t want people to say, ‘Why did you ruin the show that I watched for 25 years?’ You want to do your best. You don’t want to fail. It would be awful. “
I barely walked through the door of the penthouse Robinson just moved into before she started to apologize. First, that’s what she looks like (as if slender elegance demands an apology – on a hot summer day we’re both in white jeans and a T-shirt, but mine will have cost less. a tenth of her exquisite designer coat), for the “condition” of the magnificent apartment – a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with a terrace, a few blocks from the sprawling Georgian house that had grown too big for her. Various members of the royal family live in this extremely upscale area of west London, with another group near their ‘real home’ in the Cotswolds, a converted barn spanning several acres.
Moments later, however, she starts throwing questions at me – about weight, love life, hair, the importance of a reliable dog sitter – that continue haphazardly throughout the interview. . When I bring the conversation back to her, she whispers to the PR representative perched nearby, “She’s pretty tough, isn’t she?” But the queen of the mean shimmers positively. Obviously Anne Robinson is a hoot.
The weakest link, along with shrewd investments in real estate, made Robinson very rich – £ 50million, it is said. She was already in her mid-50s when the quiz began, although by then Watchdog and Points of View made her famous after a successful career in newspapers. Now, at 76, she succeeds Nick Hewer as head of a national institution – Countdown was the first program to air on Channel 4 in November 1982, with over 7,500 episodes since.
“I was already passionate about it because it’s a smart show that stayed genuine,” she says, “but I didn’t know I wanted the job until it was offered to me. You get offers all the time. I was supposed to do something about the Kings and Queens of England for Channel 5, but in the first week of the lockdown, that got called off. Then Channel 4 suddenly said, “Are you considering the countdown? I thought it was awesome and consulted a trusted friend on TV who said, “It’s like strawberries and cream,” the perfect match.
She chuckled when asked if she should audition. “No. And no, money isn’t like the weak link – nothing is – but the deal is pretty good.
When Channel 4 offered the job, they mentioned that Robinson would be the first female presenter. “I said to myself, ‘Surely we are past all that? She said, rolling her eyes. But she rather likes it to mean that the show is run entirely by women, with Susie Dent in Dictionary Corner and Rachel Riley leading the magic of math. “They’re both fantastic, although the constraints of COVID have been so limited that we haven’t been able to reunite off-screen yet. I admire them both – they’re the gravity that keeps the countdown from being just a game show. “
Having done more than a decade on the weakest link, can Robinson imagine counting down 10 years, when she would be 86? She doesn’t laugh at the idea and doesn’t tremble in horror.
“I don’t know,” she replies, before adding ostensibly, “How old is Mary Berry? The answer is 86. Touched.
Does that make her have a cold sweat, the thought that 86 is only 10 years away?
“What a rude question,” she said, clearly appreciating him. “No. I have the feeling that just yesterday I was the youngest reporter in the Sunday Times newsroom and the only woman.”
But that was 53 years ago, and the countdown filming schedule is demanding. By the time we meet, she has already recorded 30 shows, shot in two blocks of five a day, working three days in a row.
“The countdown is obviously different from the weakest link in a lot of ways, including the fact that I try to have a few minutes with the competitors before I start because I don’t want them to think I’m going to. make cry. On the weakest link, I was keen not to meet them, and even if they said hello to me, I wouldn’t respond, including celebrities.
“I won’t tell any of the countdown contestants they’re stupid. I created this character for the weakest link. I don’t know if I’ll get rid of it once and for all, but I hope I can play from top to bottom. Originally, on the weakest link, I was told, “You seem to know the answers to the questions and you can help alleviate the disappointment of applicants who are rejected. “
Mmmm… that last part… not so much, by the time the show hit the air! “There were times when I would go a little too hard and say to producers, ‘Don’t use this.’ But almost all of the contestants would have been bitterly disappointed if I hadn’t been the Queen of Wickedness.
So was that just a character? When asked to describe ‘the real you’, she replied that she couldn’t – which is unusually weak from a longtime writer. “Oh. Well, I hope I’m quick-witted, a little funny, I hope I have a little compassion and be able to entertain.
She agrees that the weakest bond could not be created now, for fear of the mental health effects of applicants. She declares “absolutely not” on board with such questions. “It’s censorship and unnecessary. Yes, there are too many snowflakes today. In the 1970s, it was the toughest women who adapted to a male world. Now, luckily, smart women of all shapes and sizes are in the workplace, but that means they don’t have steel armor and are more easily upset. I wish they had a course to take, instead of useless masters, that teaches them the game of office life and how to win at it.
Just then, her daughter Emma walks into the apartment, all oversized sunglasses and gorgeous Titian curls, aged 49 and 35. To say Robinson lights up is an understatement. Her bond to her only child (from her first marriage to newspaper editor Charles Wilson) is such that Emma, her husband Liam and their sons Hudson, 12, and Parker, 11, had a great time. part of the confinement with Robinson in his Cotswold barn.
“It was loud, irritating and fantastic,” says Robinson, and it’s clear they are his heartbeat. His free time is devoted to them, as well as reading, acting and happily indulging in his shopping habit. Her second marriage, to journalist John Penrose, collapsed 14 years ago. When asked if she has a partner, she replies, “It wouldn’t be your business.” But she’s sparkling again, and anyway, from the chat she shared between questions, it’s already obvious that she’s single.
“I’m pretty good on my own, although for a few years after I split from Penrose, I was really struggling. You’re dying to get out of something because it doesn’t work and makes you both miserable, but what you don’t think about enough is that you’re not going to move on to something fantastic. I miss having a playmate, but I’m not ready to have someone around me every day. Two nights a week would be nice.
“I have a lot of regrets over the past 50 years, but at 76 I’m sitting here with a new show and no one in my family hates me.”
Is there something Robinson still wants to accomplish? She looks thoughtful, as if contemplating a deep truth. Then the flicker reappears.
“Well,” she said, “I wish I had a good size 8.”
Queen of wickedness? Nope. She’s a darling, this Anne Robinson. I won’t say it if you don’t.
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