ANNABEL’S CAREER TOP 6

1 HOSTING THE TROPHY CEREMONY, WIMBLEDON, BBC1, 2023 One of my biggest jobs ever, because the Wimbledon Final is watched by millions around the world.

2 STRICTLY COME DANCING, BBC1, 2023 One of my major highlights. It’s the most glamorous, wonderful show on TV, so to have been involved with it really feels like a privilege.

3 TENNIS, 1979-1988 I won Junior Wimbledon in 1984, and received the cup in the Royal Box from the Duchess of Kent. My name is in the trophy cabinet so I’m part of Wimbledon history, which I’m more proud of in hindsight than I was at the time.

4 CUDMORE’S CALL, BBC1, 1988 My first job outside tennis and where I met Mel. I was 21 and at a crossroads in my tennis career, unsure if I wanted to continue. I’d never been on a sailing boat, but I loved it. I was among young people, wearing normal clothes rather than training gear, and going for pub dinners. For the first time, I could be free. Within six months, I’d quit tennis.

5 TREASURE HUNT, CHANNEL 4, 1989 I was offered the job covering Anneka Rice, who’d just announced her pregnancy. Having gone to America at a young age, I didn’t know much about my own country, so flying in a helicopter to country homes and castles gave me an appreciation of the UK. I was so lucky.

6 SURVIVAL, CHANNEL 4, 1988 Four people were picked to go to a desert island – me, a prison inmate, a stockbroker and Brookside actor Simon O’brien. We were given a machete, a live chicken, a tinderbox and water-sterilisation pills. Years later, I spoke to a producer who said he’d been a young producer on that show, and that was the beginning of I’m a Celebrity… I think I’d enjoy that. I like a challenge – but I couldn’t eat the bugs!