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The co-presenters' on-screen chemistry, first on TV-am and then on the BBC's Good Morning with [Anne Diamond] and Nick, led to fevered speculation about the true nature of their close friendship. Was it possible to have that spark in front of the cameras and remain just good friends? Or was there another explanation for the nods, the coy smiles, Anne's gentle flicks of the hair.... and the effortless repartee?
Nick and Anne first teamed up in the early 1980s, working as a presenting team for Central. They went their separate ways when Anne joined BBC Nationwide in London and Nick went into the mad house of breakfast television, otherwise known as TV-am.
Clockwise from top, with Anne Diamond; the younger version of [Nick Owen]; with Anne Diamond, Anneka Rice, Claire Oberman and Rosemay Ford; with his current co-host on Midlands Today Suzanne Virdee
Nick Owen has met some of the most glamourous women in the world during his career on television, from screen legend Sophia Loren to Princess Diana.
Then there was the delectable Joanna Lumley. Nick had been told the former New Avengers star didn't like to wear knickers and there was only one way to find out. The presenter simply had to ask her - in front of millions of views, of course.
Joanna feigned indignation when the question was posed, but went on to admit she was partial to going 'au naturelle'.
'Joanna explained that her mother had told her it was healthier to go without them and she was not too keen on the VPL, Visible Panty Line,' recalls Nick.
'Just to illustrate, she turned her backside to camera and indicated that perfect form within her tight, white trousers and, of course, no sign of a VPL.'
But despite his easy charm with beautiful women, there was only one relationship the British public was interested in. Princesses, actresses and queens (well, Elton John) were one thing. Anne Diamond was quite another.
The co-presenters' on-screen chemistry, first on TV-am and then on the BBC's Good Morning with Anne and Nick, led to fevered speculation about the true nature of their close friendship. Was it possible to have that spark in front of the cameras and remain just good friends? Or was there another explanation for the nods, the coy smiles, Anne's gentle flicks of the hair.... and the effortless repartee?
The great unanswered question is addressed by Nick Owen in his engaging new autobiography, In the Time of Nick. And the answer? Well, let's not rush it. That's not the Owen way.
Nick and Anne first teamed up in the early 1980s, working as a presenting team for Central. They went their separate ways when Anne joined BBC Nationwide in London and Nick went into the mad house of breakfast television, otherwise known as TV-am.
The fledgling show experimented with a number of high-profile presenters - David Frost, Anna Ford and Angela Ripon - before in a moment of inspiration, and not a little panic, Nick was plucked from the sports desk as the main presenter in 1983.
He was asked to select his ideal copresenter. There was only one name on his lips and Anne joined Nick on the sofa. It was D-Day, June 6 and the ratings war with the BBC's breakfast team began in earnest. Frank Bough and Selina Scott never really stood a chance.
Nick and Anne's first guests on national television were Ted Heath, Denis Healey, comedian Dickie Henderson and Uri Geller and TV- am soon became the stuff of broadcasting legend. There was weathergirl Wincey Willis, keep-fit trainer Lizzie Webb, aka 'Mad Lizzie', and Roland Rat, who insisted on calling Nick 'Nickelarse'.
At times, the show was like a TV precursor to Hello! magazine as the celebrities relaxed around the coffee table with Anne and Nick. The A-list of comedy turned out, including Eric Morecambe, Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd.
Bob Hope was interviewed at his home in Beverly Hills. The special on-location broadcast from Los Angeles included appearances by Bette Midler and Jane Fonda, who Nick admits to lusting after since he was a pupil at Shrewsbury School.
Fonda may have been an international star but only one woman ever came close to upstaging Anne in the role of female lead on TV-am.
Pamela Stephenson was then a comedienne on the BBC satirical show Not The Nine O'Clock News and Nick recalls the encounter as being so riotous 'it must be in my medical notes.' Nick had just undergone a minor operation on a slipped disc and was wearing a plaster cast round his middle.
A book had recently suggested Nick was one of the least interesting people in Britain, prompting Stephenson to try to rip off the presenter's trousers, as he recalls: 'Pamela suddenly took it upon herself to illuminate my image by shouting, 'Grab his goolies!' She pulled down my zip and wrestled with my belt.
'Anne was non-plussed and had a small cushion, very small actually, on standby to cover my credentials, should the need arise.
'Pamela was also trying to stuff coloured gel into my hair and I was desperately trying to fight her off. The jostling seemed to carry on for a good minute or so before she revealed I was wearing striped underpants. Then she gave up and sat down again.
'The crew and the rest of my colleagues loved it and I am sure it was very amusing to watch, but I was more concerned with the damage it was doing to my bad back.'
Anne and Nick remained a TV item until 1986 when Nick joined ITV Sport, hosting the flagship programme Midweek Sport Special and major events including the Olympics and the World Cup.
But the duo were reunited by the BBC in 1992 for the new daytime show Good Morning with Anne andNick. Six hundred programmes were broadcast from the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham over the next four years. The show combined a mixture of celebrity interviews, 'real life' stories about courage, grief and love, and tips on how to avoid hairdressing disasters.
The show was at times derided by critics and Anne made her feelings known when Good Morning was axed, throwing a pounds 75 bouquet of flowers on the ground at the feet of the head of broadcasting.
Father-of-four Nick, now aged 56, concedes people either love or loathe Anne but he remains her most loyal supporter.
'She does not suffer fools gladly and this has rubbed many people up the wrong way over the years,' says Nick, who has presented the regional news programme Midlands Today for the past seven years.
'She has laid into colleagues without thinking and I have seen a programme editor reduced to tears. More than once, we would be greeted by a couple of cameramen in the corridor and she would totally ignore them. She simply had not noticed because she was cocooned in her own little world at the time. Trouble is, it just seemed bloody rude ...
'I have seen her at high points and lows, we have shared secrets we would never share with anyone else, we know all each other's respective skeletons and we have a trust that neither of us will ever betray.'
It's a tricky question to put to a man who has been married for 27 years - his wife, Jill, is a nurse. But did he and Anne, you know, ever do it?
'Just how close did we get? Well, we were intrigued too. There was a huge frisson between us and we were very tactile - but no affair. I will leave it at that.'
Nick Owen's autobiography In the Time of Nick is published by Brewin Books.
Caption: Clockwise from top, with Anne Diamond; the younger version of Nick Owen; with Anne Diamond, Anneka Rice, Claire Oberman and Rosemay Ford; with his current co-host on Midlands Today Suzanne Virdee
(Copyright 2004 Birmingham Post and Mail Ltd.)