Anne Diamond - Television

Television

She began her television career with BBC West in Bristol, followed by Associated TeleVision with their ATV Today programme in 1979 and Central News, where she first linked up with co-presenter Nick Owen. She re-joined the BBC in 1983 as a presenter on the nightly programme "Nationwide". Later that year, when the franchised breakfast television company TV-am's chief executive Peter Jay quit, new producer Greg Dyke sacked presenters Anna Ford and Angela Rippon, and replaced them with the practised team of Anne Diamond and Nick Owen. TV-am also became known for the puppet Roland Rat which had been fronting children's programmes at the station from its inception. Greg Dyke left the station a year later and, in June 1984, former BBC Breakfast Time Editor, Mike Hollingsworth was appointed TV-am Director of Programmes. The station's figures slowly picked up, with notable successes including an interview with Princess Michael of Kent over her father's connection with the German Nazi party. Audience measurement figures (BARB) for August 1984 show the station's audience finally overtaking the BBC rival.

After the birth of her first two sons, Diamond was eased back from daily broadcasting onto the weekly programme "Diamond on Sunday". One noted edition in 1989 came from the Berlin Wall as it fell, after Diamond fought with station bosses to cover the world-impact story. Those in charge of production at TV-am did not appear to believe the issue significant and Diamond booked her own air tickets to Berlin and commandeered a satellite dish to broadcast live with the British MP Gerald Kaufmann as the East German government collapsed. Despite plaudits, the incident brought her into conflict with the TV-am management. This coincided with the broadcaster David Frost, returning from an unsuccessful foray into American television with the CBS programme Inside Edition and claiming his right, as a founder director of TV-am, to be re-instated to the Sunday slot. Diamond left the station after a legal dispute over the issue. Shortly afterwards TV-am lost its licence to broadcast (History of ITV).

In 1987, she appeared as the TV-am presenter on an episode of Filthy Rich & Catflap. After TV-am Anne Diamond presented the ITV show TV Weekly produced in Southampton. Shown in the afternoon in most ITV regions the programme looked behind the scenes of various TV programmes and interviewed various personalities from in front and behind the camera. Following the loss of the TV-am breakfast franchise in 1992, Diamond was rejoined by Nick Owen to present the BBC daytime show Good Morning with Anne and Nick. The programme ran for four years against ITV's This Morning.

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.

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 received Adjustable gastric banding 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. In 2009, she appeared on the opening episode of the second series of Hole in the Wall on BBC One with David Vitty.

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