'I was told I'd look ugly on television'

As her 90s show returns, Anneka Rice looks back at her time in the spotlight and shares some tough truths

- MARC BAKER

Three decades since Anneka Rice lit up our TV screens in the hit BBC show Challenge Anneka, the daredevil star has dusted off her iconic jumpsuit for a new, four-part reboot – and she couldn’t be happier.

“It’s great to be back,” she beams as she chats about the return of the hit 90s show. It sees her take on a new – often daunting – task each week with a group of big-hearted volunteers. “I think people like to help. It is often very difficult, as the issues we are dealing with now are so big, but coming to volunteer and work with us is like running away with the circus.”

Full of energy as ever, Anneka, 64, says making the series has given her faith that the world of TV isn’t as ageist as it’s sometimes made out to be.

“Me and Dave ‘The Soundman’ [Chapman] from the old series are back and there are 130 years between us, but you never change,” she says. “Inside you are still the same person. I say good for British TV and radio for taking me at inside value, rather than face value.”

Mum-of-three Anneka was one of TV’s golden girls in the 1980s, but although the decade later developed a reputation for questionable male behaviour, she says she encountered very little unwanted attention.

“It only happened once, and someone quite famous – very famous – took me [with him] on the pretence that he had to go back to his hotel and get something,” she recalls. “And so I innocently went and just stood outside and then he tried to drag me in. I just said, ‘What the f**k are you doing?’ and then he went, ‘I am sorry,’ and we carried on and went to an art exhibition. That was my only experience.”