Anne Diamond

Anne Margaret Diamond (born 8 September 1954) is a British journalist and broadcaster. She hosted Good Morning Britain for TV-am and Good Morning with Anne and Nick for BBC One, both with Nick Owen as her co-presenter. She has also worked previously for Loose Women, BBC London, and is a regular columnist for the Daily Mail. Since 2003, she has made regular appearances on Channel 5's topical discussion show The Wright Stuff and now its successor, Jeremy Vine.^[1]

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

Early life and career[]

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

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.

Career[]

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 became 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 to ITN before rejoining the BBC becoming a reporter on the nightly programme Nationwide, along with being a presenter on BBC News After Noon.^[8]

On Monday 6 June 1983, Diamond joined TV-am.^[9] 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 they met in a pub. Six weeks later Diamond joined the station.^[10]

Diamond left TV-am in 1990,^[11] to work full-time on TV Weekly, first produced by TVS and later by Topical Television, which she had presented since 1989. The programme looked behind the scenes of various television programmes and interviewed various personalities from in front and behind the camera. Diamond was rejoined with Nick Owen to present the BBC daytime show Good Morning with Anne and Nick,^[12][13][14] which ran four years against ITV's This Morning from 1992 till 1996.

In 2002, Diamond took part in the second series of Celebrity Big Brother, but became the second person to be evicted.^[15][16]

Since 2003, Diamond has been a regular panelist and stand in presenter on The Wright Stuff and from 2018 on its successor Jeremy Vine.^{[citation needed]}

During 2008, Diamond became involved in co-developing a jewellery range, which she marketed on shopping channel QVC under her own name brand.^{[citation needed]} She joined ITV's lunchtime chat show Loose Women as a regular panelist on 14 October 2016 after impressing bosses when she previously appeared the week before as a guest.^{[citation needed]} She departed the show in August 2018, in line with her new role as the sole stand-in presenter for Jeremy Vine. In 2018, she appeared in Channel 5's Costa Del Celebrity.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[17]

She can now^[when?] be heard presenting the mid-morning programme on BBC Radio Berkshire. Diamond kept a regular blog on the BBC website until 2015.^[18]

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".^[19]

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.^[20]

Video game violence[]

On 28 March 2008, in an article for the 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".^[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.

References[]

External links[]

• Fathappens.co.uk Anne Diamond's project
• Anne Diamond (BBC Radio Berkshire)
• Anne Diamond at IMDb