Move over Lara .. I won the sofa war

RICHARD BARBER Picture: PAUL WEBB Stylist: JAYNE BLIGHT Clothes: ZARA

IT has been branded sofa wars - a jealous spat between GMTV's three rival female presenters.

Once Fiona Phillips had announced she was having her second baby, so the story goes, our three contenders were scrapping it out for her coveted seat and the role of Queen of Breakfast TV.

Kate Garraway had been a firm favourite with Penny Smith coming in a strong second - until newcomer Lara Logan came into the picture and made her name as an eye-catching war correspondent in Afghanistan.

Kate, 33, rolls her eyes. "I knew ages ago that I would be filling in for Fiona while she was on maternity leave, and that's never changed," she says sternly.

So why talk of blood on the sofa and nail files at dawn?

Kate says: "GMTV editor Martin Frizell happened to mention at a press conference that Lara would be doing the occasional stint on the sofa, so people just seized on it.

"It is true Lara will be one of a pool of correspondents who'll fill in for Penny during The News Hour from 6am to 7am if she takes any time off while I'm filling in for Fiona.

"That's because they decided that I couldn't cover for Penny too - I'll have my hands full doing my new job five days a week. It would be crackers for me to be rushing around like a lunatic doing news bulletins as well."

So there are no plans to sabotage Lara's broadcasts? No behind- the-scenes wrestling matches?

"'Fraid not, although bagsy the wetsuit if it ever comes to that," she says. "Lara, Penny and I have talked about it and frankly we're a bit bemused by the whole thing.

"It's also slightly sad, if I'm honest, that people might be thinking Penny and I are bitching and scheming away behind Lara's back.

"Traditionally, I've sometimes deputised for Penny, but when Martin Frizell told me I'd be standing in for Fiona it made me feel really special. It meant I could concentrate on this new challenge.

"The plan is that I'll fill in for four or five months from mid- April while Fiona is on maternity leave."

And will Eamonn Holmes - whose contract is up for renewal - still be there?

"I'd personally be very sad if he left. I think he's a fantastic presenter. But I really don't know what he is going to do."

KATE joined GMTV in October 2000 and has been quietly groomed for this moment ever since, presenting the programme once a week and fronting travel segments like Great Escapes.

"That blind, can't-swallow panic of the first morning is now a thing of the past," she says.

"I'm no longer the new girl so everything isn't coming at me as a total shock.

"But the thought of doing it full-time is incredibly nerve- racking. God yes.

"People say it's like you're going into their homes and it's true. You want to get it right. You want to be bubbly and chatty. But it's hard.

"Eamonn said you wouldn't behave in a house you'd never visited before in the same way as you would in the house of an old friend.

"In other words - come on too strong too soon and you'll seem false. You have to let people get used to you."

She won't easily forget the reaction when she first started deputising for Fiona.

"People kept ringing GMTV and asking what had happened to her. That was a teeny bit demoralising. On the other hand, I understand that nobody - me included - likes change. Maybe the reason viewers are uncomfortable with new presenters is that they can smell the nerves.

"What's great about Eamonn and Fiona and Penny Smith is you just know that, whatever goes wrong, they're going to be able to laugh their way out of it."

In the end, the trick, as Eamonn told Kate, is to be yourself. "Which is spot on," she says, "but a totally useless piece of advice when you come to think of it. You've got up at 2.15 in the morning. You've been chauffeur-driven to a TV studio in London. You've been covered in 10 tons of make-up. You've got producers screaming instructions at you through an earpiece. You're absolutely petrified.

"Be yourself? Easier said than done. It's true, though, that you shouldn't try to impersonate someone else's style. I'm not trying to be Fiona, for instance. I'm trying to be Kate"

"In many ways, it would be much simpler to copy someone like Jeremy Paxman. Anyone can ask a series of punishing questions. Anyone can be aggressive. It's much harder to get the same information out of someone by being pleasant.

"I came from a news background. My last job was with Sky. It probably explains why I was a bit pushy to begin with. And I don't think that's right for GMTV.

"Viewers turn on the television in the morning and the last thing they want to see is this girl being nasty to someone."

Kate says she's a fan of Carol Vorderman. "People like Julia Roberts are naturally unbelievably beautiful. What I admire about someone like Carol is that, although she's a very pretty woman, she's achieved what she has by a mixture of ambition and brain power."

She also admires former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam.

"I have a friend who used to be a researcher for her. About 10 years later, right at the height of the Good Friday Agreement being signed in Northern Ireland, my friend received a card from Mo congratulating her on the birth of her baby.

"To still have time for that sort of detail when you're dealing with life-changing decisions is incredibly impressive. It's a lesson I've never forgotten.

"I may be rushing around the place, interviewing the likes of Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner, but I'm still going to make time to send my gran a birthday card."

Kate is the older of two children. Her brother is a teacher, living in Cornwall. Her father is a retired scientist and her mother is a special needs teacher.

"They married when Mum was 17. They're still together, still in love."

But neither was pleased when Kate announced she fancied a career in the media. "As far as they're concerned, journalists are parasites. But I'm a Taurean..."

Stubborn then? "I see it as having stamina, thank you very much."

She left Bath University with a degree in English and History and worked for Radio Oxford, reading traffic and travel reports.

"And the joke was that I couldn't drive. Dad used to get up, bless him, and drive me into work for 4am so I could then report on local traffic jams."

Her parents are now as proud as punch of Kate's achievements. "They used to watch me every time I was on TV. But Mum's got a bit sneaky recently.

"I found out that she makes Dad go downstairs and switch on the television to see what I'm wearing. That means if we talk later on the phone and I ask her if she watched me that morning, she can say 'Loved the pink jacket, darling.'"

In 1998, Kate married television news executive Ian Rumsey, who she met while they both worked for Meridian TV.

BOTH are keen to have a family one day. "Oh, definitely. Most of the women at GMTV have had babies. At the moment though, I've got this new job and the biological clock isn't ticking too loudly. We'll see..."

With a 2.15am wake-up call every morning so she can be in the studio at 3.30am, it can't be easy conducting a normal relationship.

Kate says: "It does mean that Ian and I have to be very careful or we'd never see each other.

"Fortunately, we both very rarely have to work weekends so from Friday night to Monday morning is sacred to us. We might go out for dinner with friends on Saturday night or go to the cinema.

"During the week, we usually cook a meal and sit down for a couple of hours together before I head off to bed. Luckily, Ian has to be up by 5:30am to get to work so he's not far behind me."

The history of breakfast television, of course, is littered with presenters who came to grief, including Anthea Turner who conducted a famous feud with on-screen partner Holmes. Kate pulls a face. "Don't tell me."

Does she not worry about embarrassing episodes from her past surfacing?

"Hand on heart, I've never been involved in any massive scandals."

This is very disappointing. Can't she reveal just one skeleton in her cupboard?

"Oh, all right," she says. "The reason I often wear roll-top sweaters is to hide my Adam's apple. Because I can reveal today for the first time that I started life as a man called Keith and I have three love children called Kevin, Kylie and Ken."

It's her cheeky sense of humour, perhaps above everything, that will see Kate Garraway through the choppy waters of breakfast TV.

It will also stand her in good stead in her dealings with Holmes.

"He's already started teasing me. But I can take that. Not that he'd do it if he thought I was fragile.

"Anyway, I tease him back. I like to think I give as good as I get."

Kate's just bought a new wide-screen TV with "wrap-around" sound.

Viewers hardly notice Kate's slight lisp, but she insists: "On this huge screen with its wall-to-wall amplification, you can hear every little vocal tic.

"And it's horrible seeing your own head twice its normal size."

She's also constantly disappointed when she plays back difficult interviews that she thought went rather well.

"Because you alone were aware of the chaos going on in your earpiece, you're quite pleased if you haven't fallen apart.

"But if you play back the same footage later you look horrendous.

"I think they should run sub-titles at moments like that.

"Something like 'This may be bad but, take it from us, it could be a whole lot worse.'"

No doubt Kate Garraway will carry her job off brilliantly - and if she doesn't, there are others waiting in the wings...

Copyright 2002 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.