I’m ready to take Vine show by Storm
Early starts have left Scots Channel 5 presenter feeling a little bit lovesick
SCOTS TV presenter Storm Huntley says getting up at 5am for work on Channel 5’s daily current affairs show is playing havoc with her social life. The 31-year-old is will team up with Jeremy Vine from today when he takes over from Matthew Wright. Storm shares her home with her shih tzu Boo and says she doesn’t have a partner. The early starts mean she will often have an afternoon nap after BY MARIA CROCE work and said: “My dog has a better social life than me. I’m thinking about bed at 8pm.
“I’m as single as you can get. It would be lovely to find my Prince Charming – if he’s out there he should get in contact. I’ve had no luck at all.”
Storm did recently share a photo of herself online with Twilight
movie star Robert Pattinson – but she revealed the pair were just really good friends from when she moved to London aged 11.
She said: “Rob and I were good friends all the way through high school. We got on really well and started school at the same time – he was the year above me – in London.
“Rob’s dad said that on our first day I was apparently walking around the car park balancing on a kerb stone. As I had no friends to talk to, he pulled up and said to Rob, ‘Oh, there’s a friend for you’.
“Rob followed his dad’s advice and said, ‘Hello’. We were friends for ages. I haven’t spoken to him for years but at high school he was a really good friend of mine.
“We did am-dram while at high school. His first big part was Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and we were all a bit surprised. I think he was a bit surprised as well.
“Acting came naturally to him. He was a fairly quiet character and it has all worked out really well for him. I love seeing how he’s getting on and he’s doing really well.”
Jeremy may be a new face and name on the Channel 5 show but Storm, 31, who is originally from Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, will continue her role. She will also keep up a challenge she set herself – to look different every day she is on the show for a year.
She said: “This whole year I’ve been trying to do a different outfit every day, which is quite difficult.”
Storm has vowed to continue with her fun challenge – after realising she had so many outfits in her wardrobe she should make use of them all.
She said: “I had a bit of a clearout about a year ago and decided my wardrobe was ridiculous.
“I thought, ‘I wonder if I could get through a year wearing something different just with stuff I’ve got in my wardrobe. I think I probably can?’”
She has resorted to customising outfits and borrowing from others, including her mum.
A red supermarket dress that proved a hit on the show was borrowed from a make-up artist and she has added collars to existing outfits to make them look different.
She said: “I like style. I like to see what suits people. I like that whole aspect of it so I’ve enjoyed doing this challenge.”
She hopes to move into her own place in London and added: “For more wardrobe space, if nothing else.”
Storm – whose name comes from a combination of a character in the Wilbur Smith book A Sparrow Falls and being born during a storm – suffered an accident when she was burned by water as a toddler.
She said: “It’s not that big a deal. I poured a kettle over myself when I was 18 months old.
“There are plenty of people out there with more horrendous stories than me. I have a scar on my arm and my shoulder. If anything happens to Boo, like if she misses a step, I’m freaking out – and she’s a dog.
“I can’t imagine what it would have been like for my mum. But I have no memory of it – no concept of it at all.”
Storm’s Australian-born businessman dad worked in London and she moved to the city when she was 11.
She said: “It seemed more sensible for me to move down there rather than him coming up every weekend to see us.
“But Scotland is always where my heart is going to be – I’m Scottish through and through. I adore Scotland and go back there as often as possible.”
Her mum renovates properties around Glasgow and has done up homes she lived in, too.
She said: “By the time I was 11, I had never lived in a house with carpets. We were forever doing houses up and carpets are the last things to go in. So, we’d move into a house, mum would do it up, the carpets would go in and then we’d move to the next one that was also a doer-upper.”
After studying economics at Glasgow University, Storm decided on a media career but admits her parents were initially unsure of her choice. She had a stint as a weather presenter at STV Glasgow and also did CBeebies show Down on the Farm.
She said: “Media was not the path they would have chosen for me. They were hoping I was going to get a nice safe job in the City, earn oodles of money and keep them in a nice nursing home.
“Unfortunately, it’s not the path that I chose. But they’ve been
incredibly supportive of me and they realise now the career path I’ve chosen was the best one for me.
“I would probably have died a thousand deaths if I had a job in the City.”
Storm had been a fan of The Wright Stuff since she watched it a student in Glasgow and loved working with Matthew. Now, she’s looking forward to teaming up with Jeremy.
She said: “With live television, you just don’t know what is going to happen. Every show is always a surprise. “Highlights were mostly getting to meet people and seeing a side to them you wouldn’t expect.
“Jerry Springer came on and I was adamant I wasn’t going to like him but he absolutely won me over.
“He was so professional and lovely, remembering everyone’s names, so he was a bit of a surprise. “It’s getting to talk to people I wouldn’t normally get to talk to if I had an office job, I suppose. That’s been the most exciting thing for me. Also working with Matthew – that has been wonderful. He is always up for a laugh.”
However, she refused to answer when he tried to get her opinions on independence and football.
She said: “I think he might have asked me what I voted on Scottish independence and what football team I support.
“But being Scottish and from Glasgow, those are two questions I probably shouldn’t answer.
“I don’t like answering questions like that. My place on the show is not to be controversial.”
She has only met Jeremy a couple of times so far but admits watching him on Strictly “was a treat”.
Storm said: “He comes across as an incredibly nice man, very professional and definitely knows what he’s doing.
“He knows his stuff as far as current affairs are concerned and has got a cheeky sense of humour. I’m looking forward to exploring that.”
Her approach to dealing with live TV is to stay calm.
She said: “A couple of times on The Wright Stuff around Christmas there were decorations on the wall behind me and they’d fall off. There’s nothing you can do. You roll with the punches, get on with the show and have a laugh about it. That’s the joy of it, you never know what to expect.”
My parents were hoping I was going to get a nice safe job in the City earning oodles of money
Jeremy Vine’s show will launch today on Channel 5 at 9.15am.