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What do you remember as the naffest period of TOTP?
Ìý Zoe: When I’ve watched! I went to TOTP when I was 15 with my friend Portia Dean and it was - Spirit in the Sky and stuff like that. When I watch repeats on TOTP2 it’s the really bad 80s clothing, the dodgy hair, the no-rhythm dancing, bad, ripped Frankie T shirts.
I think that it is possibly the most appalling era 'cos there’s some really dodgy music around and some awful clothes. I used to wear vest tops over sweatshirts you know, I am quite ashamed to look back at my record collection from that time. But it was obviously TOTP's fault! I’ve seen Beats International when they were on TOTP, what was he wearing, please? Lindy Layton with her big ear-rings and her big trainers was quite cool but you know, I’m sorry, cardigans were never cool, and bomber jackets and baseball hats..

Do you remember your husband Norman Cook when he was in The Housemartins?
Zoe: I loved The Housemartins and I remember seeing the Happy Hour video on TOTP and actually seeing them on TOTP doing their funny dancing. I don’t remember Norman particularly though. I didn’t fancy him as I remember. I think they were probably far too good looking and they weren’t wearing big billowy shirts. I thought they were kind of cool, but it’s weird that I just do not remember what they looked like at all.


Were you a passenger on the Housemartins' Caravan of Love then?
Zoe: I didn’t like 'Caravan of Love'. I liked all the other stuff and I knew all the words and I still do but no, I didn’t like 'Caravan of Love'.
Tell you who I remember on TOTP, was my era. He was so gorgeous, he was just dancing around with no shirt on, and I used to be so jealous of the girls in the audience being so close to him. And then when we went to TOTP there was no one really cool on, we were really annoyed. Doctor and the Medics and , who wasn't even in the studio, but we were gutted. I remember wearing a bangle on my wrist so that I could see my arm waving around! Cool. I reckon if you watch it back now there is a gold thick bangle waving around. I should’ve just written "Hi Mum!".

Quite intuitive really.

Ìý Zoe: Yeah, I was going places. Sadly I was never one of those girls in the background who was dancing to Simon le Bon.

How did you get to present the show?

Ìý Zoe: I don’t know. I was at C´óÏó´«Ã½ and doing The O-zone and my incredible rapport with major pop stars was obviously something that Chris Cowey (TOTP Producer) looked at and said, "So, come on board ". I was absolutely terrified the first time I did TOTP because all your great heroes have presented it in the past. John Peel was always my favourite, Peter Powell, who became my agent, who I used to quite fancy and these people were my idols in those days.
When I came to do it myself I was absolutely terrified. Also getting those links right before going into a band who often were heroes and if you messed up your intro the whole crowd would be like "oh great", the band would have to stop and start again, so I was absolutely terrified. Because you want to look cool, you want to say something witty and clever in-between each band and when there’s a band on you don’t particularly love, you don’t want to stand there going, "great, it’s Steps, I love them ". I mean nothing against them personally, but it’s like I’m putting my seal of approval on certain bands that I’d really rather not. So you try and make a difference between links.

It must have been unreal to become part of the TOTP phenomenon?
Ìý Zoe: I know! It’s really strange. You get given this gold microphone and you try to wear something really cool and funky and you’re lit and you’re standing in a strange square and your voice automatically turns into Tommy Vance. You pull these really weird faces because the camera’s on you for a couple of seconds and often you’ve got your hair spruced and your cheeks are red. I’d probably have looked more in place in the 80s actually presenting TOTP with some of my fashion faux pas. But yeah I do remember standing there just going, "It’s TOTP" and thinking no, please, you're becoming everything you hate.

When you guys were brought in there was a sex appeal aspect to it, Jamie and Jo and Jayne and Zoe. Were you aware of that?
Ìý Zoe: Yeah I think it was time to move on. I think they wanted to bring in young, new blood and I’m not so sure about the sexy thing, I think obviously Jo is very sexy, Jayne too, I don’t think I’m really known for being particularly sexy, especially when I present TOTP because my mouth’s all over the place, gobbing on that nice golden microphone. But it was really exciting to be part of that team. Then I realised I’d just taken on too many things. I do kind of miss doing it though.
It’s really lovely seeing all the audience as well. It’s when the audience start to make you feel really old I think it’s time to leave TOTP. They’re all 18. They are really young. Also when you see who they get excited about, sometimes I just despair. You know, a boy band would come on and they’d go absolutely mad and then you’d have or or , someone doing something exciting and new or really talented musicians and they’d just all be like (gazes upwards) "Where’s the dancing boys?". Sometimes I just want to slap them, bless them, but some good outfits.

Were there any exciting moments backstage?
Ìý Zoe: One of my favourite moments which kind of summed up the beauty of TOTP to me is were sitting in the dressing room and Mr E from the band was really lovely.ÌýI really like The Eels so I was quite excited to meet them and they were quite amazed by the kids in the crowd. They went out and did their song then came back in and they were like, "God those kids were really into it", really excited about it all. The next thing came on and they were up the front jumping up and down to Steps and they were going, "We love those guys, Steps", but they really got into it and of course you could completely see that they were being ironic of course but I really liked moments like that.
You’d have sitting to the other side of you and some young thing going, "Who’s Lionel Richie ?". I used to get quite, quite nervous. I remember were on and I don’t know why but I kept getting the link to them wrong. I got it wrong about 10 times, and I could just see the whole band standing there going, "For God’s sake, get on with it".
But it’s actually really hard to remember who was on when I was on. I remember being on because I remember thinking Chris Helme was a very sexy boy and trying to do the link as many times as possible!