Whatever happened to… Anne Aston?
As part of an occasional new series, we look back at what happened to the much-loved gameshow hostess Anne Aston
Every Sunday afternoon from the late Sixties to the mid-Seventies, up to 16 million of us settled down to watch the live ITV gameshow, The Golden Shot. But for many of us the highlight of the show was not the gaming, the host or even the contestants aiming a crossbow at an exploding target. It was the glamorous if mathematically challenged hostess Anne Aston, assistant to the show’s presenters, first Bob Monkhouse, then Norman Vaughan and Charlie Williams.
Having worked for her family’s holiday business for much of her teens, Anne landed the part on the show, simply by writing to ask if she could be on it. After an audition with about 100 other women, she made her debut in January 1969. “Working on telly was just how I expected it to be,” she tells us. “It was really grotty behind the scenes. I went from dark hair to blonde because they wanted me to do that or else wear a wig. “It was a glamorous era and girls wore very short dresses and low-cut tops. But today when I see what girls wear on telly… it’s worse than us!” Anne stayed with the show until it ended seven years later in 1975, then went on to star in The Chastity Belt with Frankie Howerd. She then appeared in a stage version of Peter Pan and numerous pantomimes. “I wasn’t an actress and never really wanted to be one, but it was a progression,” she says. She also became a comic-book character called The Hostess With The Mostess, as well as making a record, ‘I Can’t Stop Myself From Loving You Babe’. “My mum and dad bought it, but that was about it,” she chuckles.
For the girl who struggled with basic arithmetic on The Golden Shot, she developed a lucrative second career in property investment with her husband, Eddie Tre-Vett, who she met in 1974 and married in 1986.
Today, aged 70, Anne and Eddie live on the edge of the New Forest. They also spend two months a year in Kenya. But despite her more relaxed lifestyle, Anne says she still wouldn’t mind stepping back into her hostess role once more. “I’d like to do it for a bit of fun but there aren’t many gameshow hostesses now. Women are either doing the shows or co-hosting now, and I’m all for that. I’d have liked a chance of hosting a show, but when I was doing TV, females were mainly just there to look attractive.” Nevertheless, Anne looks back fondly on her time as TV golden girl. “The Golden Shot completely changed my life and is the thing that I’m known for. Everything else I did really came from that. I was lucky because I carried on working for 25 years on different things. I’m very grateful for my life.”
‘Working on telly was just how I expected it to be. It was really grotty behind the scenes’