'I DON'T THINK I'D HAVE A CAREER IF I DIDN'T HAVE A FRINGE'

AS SHE TURNS 50, WE CELEBRATE CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN - THE SHARP-WITTED CAMBRIDGE GRADUATE WHO'S BECOME TV ROYALTY

- ELLIE CALNAN

There is perhaps no one on TV with a more distinctive sense of humour - or hairstyle – than Claudia -Winkleman. We've become well accustomed to her razor-sharp wit since she started hosting Strictly Come Dancing with Tess Daly in 2014.

Off screen, Claudia released her memoir Quite last year, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. It carried the tagline "Love, life and eyeliner", and Claudia was praised for her candid take on everything from NHS nurses to melted cheese.

As she turns 50, with a career spanning 30 years, it's hard not to be in awe of her impressive talents. Even if the presenter herself deadpans, "I don't think I'd have a career if I didn't have a fringe."

Claudia grew up in London's Hampstead. Her parents divorced when she was just three years old and her mother went on to marry Daily Express editor Sir Nicholas Lloyd. Claudia recently thanked her parents "for the elaborate ways they have made [her] feel successful".

Before pursuing a career in presenting, Claudia gained a masters degree in art history from Cambridge and became a travel writer. She wrote columns for The Sunday Times and The Independent and in 1992 made her first TV appearance on BBC show Holiday.