Goody-two-shoes, me? I swear and have had dope

IT'S the last thing you expect. But that nice Gaby Roslin has a startling confession to make... she drinks, swears - and has smoked cannabis.

"I'm not as innocent as people think, you know. I'm a cheeky bitch, and a bit more rock'n'roll than people ever imagined.

"Yes, I've smoked grass - quite a lot in college actually and a bit after.

"Why did I do it? Because I enjoyed it. I wasn't some massive pot- head, but I dabbled, like everyone else."

Gaby actually made her candid revelation when we met two weeks ago. Since then Cilla Black, another icon of "safe" TV, has owned up to smoking a joint, way back in the Sixties.

But why has Gaby admitted it now? She says: "Because nobody ever asked me."

She's quick to add that she's not touched cannabis for 15 years and has since become incredibly anti-drugs.

"If I was paid, I wouldn't touch it now," she says. "I don't want to feel out of control. I see what it does to people. I know in the TV industry lots of people take drugs and I don't like that. I don't need drugs.

"Everybody I know who has taken drugs has said 'please don't go near drugs. You're so mental, you speed naturally and it would be frightening if you did!'"

At the age of 38, Gaby says she is sick of playing it safe and no longer wants to host what she describes as "predictable" TVshows. She vows to be more daring.

"I am an outrageous flirt with people and life. I want people to see more of this," she says.

Her wish looks set to be fulfilled next month when Gaby returns to our screens after signing a reputed pounds 1million contract to host a new daily live daytime series with her friend Terry Wogan, and produced by another pal, Chris Evans.

Described by Gaby as "Big Breakfast for grown-ups" - the show that propelled both her and Evans to stardom - it will be unscripted and unpredictable.

"Terry and I aren't going to be the straighter than straight, nice, polite couple," she says.

"Terry and I are f**king left of centre. We will be bloody rude to each other when we want to.

"If he doesn't like what I am wearing, he can tell me and I will tell him to p*ss off! We work well together, he is a gentleman and the great thing about Terry is you don't know what to expect. I don't like same TV. Same TV is boring."

She hasn't felt this excited and rebellious, she says, since her student days at Guildford School of Acting - where she was introduced to cannabis.

Gaby attributes her transformation to the birth of her daughter, Libbi-Jack, two years ago. "My life changed dramatically when I had a child. Without sounding wanky, I found myself again. I was more relaxed and it made me think about what I really wanted to do."

Her first response was to dye her hair red. The next thing was to look at the type of work she was doing.

She had hosted dozens of shows such as Whatever You Want and Children In Need and at the time she was presenting Watchdog Health Check - a programme she found particularly mundane.

"I was bored," she says. "And I was stagnating. I wasn't excited by anything. Last summer, Chris Evans returned from America. We met up and he said 'I think you're wasted' and so it went from there."

Gaby also fulfilled a lifelong ambition to sing on stage when she was offered the part of tough prison warden Mama Morton in the West End musical Chicago.

"Like Libbi-Jack, Chicago has changed my life. I feel liberated. Chris Evans was laughing the other day, saying 'you were never like this before'. I was, but because I am so relaxed, people have noticed I am giving off more."

Gaby has always been outspoken on subjects she feels strongly about, be it vegetarianism - which she credits with helping her lose four stone since giving birth - fur, slow drivers or television.

Today, she is particularly dismissive of the state of television programmes. "I have never seen such a pile of sh**e in my life. I can't sit and watch TV nowadays."

Citing Spooks, Burn It and Ant And Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway as TV she does enjoy, Gaby says: "I was addicted to Pop Idol and was rooting for Will and Gareth all the way. But Reborn in the USA? Why? Haven't we seen this before?

"I am bored of seeing reality TV and Big Brother stars on the front of magazine covers."

What does Gaby's husband, musician Colin Peel, think of her transformation?

"He is really happy I am doing things I want," she says. "I think the reason our relationship is so strong is we both do our own thing. He has never tried to stop me doing anything and I respect him for this."

She repeatedly refers to the fact she is a mum first. "Libbi-Jack is my life. If she was ill, I would have no qualms walking off a live programme to be with her."

The family live in North London just a few yards away from where Gaby grew up with her dad Clive, a former BBC radio broadcaster, and mother Jackie, who died six years ago from lung cancer.

"Every so often serious things come along to remind you how lucky you are," she says. "I still see my dad an awful lot. I always was a daddy's girl!"

Since Chicago, Gaby is "smitten by the acting bug" and she now has her own acting agent. In fact, she was such a success in Chicago that the theatre would love to have her do a second run, but she's just too busy.

"Everybody takes life too seriously so why not have some fun?" she asks. "The world is my oyster."

Channel 5's The Terry And Gaby Show starts tomorrow at 11am.

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