STAR PROFILE:

Kirsty Young, Crimewatch, BBC1, Thurday, 9.00pm.

Image: Feisty sty presenter. Best known wn for: Being the he glamorous face of televised crimefighting. Early life: Born November mber 23, 1968 in East ast Kilbride. Her r father, a policeman, walked lk d out when h she h was two months old. Her mother then married a joiner and the family moved to Stirling in central Scotland. She went to Switzerland to work as an au pair after leaving school. Career: Her first break was working as a continuity announcer on BBC Radio Scotland. She went from reading the 6am fishing reports to hosting phone-in radio shows, before being poached by STV to co-anchor the lunchtime news programme. After a spell as roving reporter for Film 96, she was snapped up as anchorwoman for FiveNews when the channel was launched in 1997. She joined ITN in January 2000 as the co-presenter of the lunchtime news, and won praise for her professionalism during the rolling ITV news coverage on September 11. Her two-year stint at ITV ended when she returned to a newlook FiveNews as the main anchor; she left in August 2007 and currently presents Radio 4’s Desert IslandDiscs and the BBC’s Crimewatch. Love life: Young married millionaire Nick Jones, the owner of trendy media club Soho House, in 1999. They have two daughters, Freya and Iona Jones. Don’t mention: Her dangerously high blood pressure during pregnancy, which doctors feared could develop into pre-eclampsia, a potentially lifethreatening condition. Quote: “I’m not leading a sort of Dynasty lifestyle. I don’t bathe in champagne.”