Amanda Byram

Amanda Byram graduated to The Big Breakfast after developing her presenting skills on a daily Irish breakfast television. Her stint on the breakfast was cut short by the axe of C4 but this has hindered her career as she has had a highly successful American television show.

What follows is an interview that took place with Amanda in the summer of 2001:

Believe it or not there are not many things that have survived The Big Breakfast revamp in January 2001. The Boudoir perhaps, even the new look kitchen. In the months that followed the drastic streamlining of Britain's brightest breakfast there were a great many of chops and changes. Out went the slick new look and more importantly out went hosts Donna Air and Paul Tonkinson. With her co-presenters falling on their swords, or stabbed, Byram has been the only one to survive the carnage. She has coped with some grace, despite the power games worthy of the Kremlin and the alarming tendency of her current Co-presenter Richard Bacon - sacked for snorting cocaine - while presenting Blue Peter and hastily hauled in to fill Tonkinson's shoes - to smack and push the guests.

So it has not been the most relaxing five months', shall we say, and to add to Byram's woes, Channel 4 has announced the show will finish next April. It must have felt like the last twist of the knife.

And here she is, sprinting into the Halcyon Hotel in Holland Park, west London. False eye- lashes bristle at the edges of her sloe eyes, heavy foundation is slicked on her face, and a black mole smoulders to the left of her pink mouth. She is trendy in a black T-shirt with slashed sleeves, knee-length denim skirt and kitten heels. - and incredibly late. 'God, I'm so sorry!' she calls in her dark chocolate voice, tinged with Irish at -the edges, 'the driver got lost!'

She rushes over, still apologising, and collapses on the sofa. I like her at once - it would he impossible not to. The first thing she does is to moan how difficult her hair is and the next thing, is to rip off the false eyelashes. 'I've pulled off two of my own!' she gasps, giggling. 'Now where shall I put them?' Shamefacedly, she wraps them in a white paper napkin,

It is 11am and Byram, 28, has been up for seven hours. This morning she interviewed the actress Vickie Gates (Leanne from Brookside), monitored a challenge involving the children's TV presenter Andy Peters; carrying a tray of tea round an obstacle course and presented a feature about swimsuits. Not the most inspiring of: line-ups, given that the show's ratings are languishing under half a million. Byram could not have picked a worse introduction to British television if she had tried. 'Oh, God,' she groans. 'The whole initiation- of The Big Breakfast was just so nerve-racking for me. It was just bizarre. I went in at the deep end so much that it almost overwhelmed me.' So what about the announcement that, the show is doomed

Byram grimaces. 'Well,' she says, 'my contract with The Big Breakfast doesn't end until December... I'm having a blast working on the show and would love to continue working on it ... it's been such an amazing six months but we'll have to wait and see what happens and what I'm offered when my contract is up.'

Byram started as a model in Dublin, then launched Ireland AM, the country's first breakfast television show. She was offered The Big Breakfast job last November. 'I was very aware of everything that had gone on.' She concedes. 'But it's funny, and it was nothing I really worried about. I thought, "If I do this really badly they're going to fire me". But all I could really offer them was that this is what I do, and it's the only way I can do it, and I really hope it's good enough. The one thing I was taught from the beginning and which I brought with me, is, "Be yourself". My co-hast last year in Ireland told me that if you lie to your audience and pretend to he someone you're not, they'll find you out, and they'll hate you. So I was going in thinking, "I'm not Denise, I'm not Kelly, I'm not Liza Tarbuck, I can only be me".'

But it has been a nerve-racking five months. Byram is not a naturally confident person and she has had to watch her co-presenters disappear one by one, like some had murder mystery 'Ohh!' she gasps, when I ask how she felt when Tonkinson was fired. 'He was such a sweetheart! That was such a shocker for me, because Paul and I started together. We relaunched together and we built up a relationship over two-and-a-half months. And then he was gone, and it was such a lonely thing, I shed a tear that day.'

And what about Air? Byram shakes her head. 'A lot of people said that Donna and I didn't get on, which is absolute rubbish. I think everyone wants, to believe two girls on air together cat fight and bitch, whereas the truth of the matter is,' she hesitates, 'she, does have this big personality. I know there was all this stuff about Donna talking over people. But because there were three of us, we were all vying for our own space, and we were all talking over each other. We were all guilty of it, but she took the stick for it. It was going to happen with three presenters and that's why the format changed, because the truth was that it didn't work.'

She picks up her glass of Diet Coke. 'But there was a time about a month ago when I went into Donna's old dressing room with Babette the stylist and I burst into tears,' she says, more quietly, 'I said to her, "This is the weirdest thing. It's like there was this huge deal about The Big Breakfast in January, and making new friends and all that and now I'm on my own - there's no one left!". And Babette said, 'Oh, well, at least you're not gone!'. I said, "Oh, that's a good point! I'm a survivor!".'

Though she can laugh about it, the last six months have been the hardest of her life. Last September Byram gave up Ireland AM to follow her comedian boyfriend, Patrick Kielty, to Britain. (He is from County Down and the pair are known as the Posh and Becks of Ireland.) He wanted to be based in: London for his show, Patrick Kielty Almost Live, so Byram thought she was in heaven when she landed The Big Breakfast, serendipitously, two months later. The joke was that, Kielty had himself presented The Big Breakfast - he stepped in for a fortnight last year when Vaughan was on holiday.

But of course the gossip was that this was no coincidence. One story that did the rounds was that Byram got the job after she went to Kielty's audition with him, holding his hand. 'But that's rubbish, you wouldn't go to an audition with someone, anyway,' Byram says, unperturbed by this allegation. 'For a start that's really hard on Patrick's part, because it looks like he went for the job, which he never did. And it looks like I didn't get it off my own hat.'

The real story is that she got the job eight months after Patrick was sounded out about it. 'Patrick and I are both with the same agent, Vivienne Clore, and when Johnny left, The Big Breakfast approached Patrick. But he said he had his own show to do. Then our agent said, "What about Amanda?" And they said, "Tell her to come in'. It happened so quickly. I went in and did the worst screen test ever - honest to God - and then I was told, "They want you back". And in two weeks they'd offered me the job.'

Byram does not deny that Kielty was indirectly responsible for her good fortune. Not only did he introduce her to his agent but he also gave her tips on presenting. 'He's always been really critical of me for my own good. Not horribly, he just tells me, 'That's not what you should do and that is", because he doesn't want me to go and do it not having done it before' and look stupid,' she explains. 'And the first few times I'd be like, "Oh you said I was terrible!".' She starts giggling. 'And he'd reply. 'No I didn't say you were terrible. I'm telling you what not to do!' I'm a real old giver-upper.'

They both, she says, had doubts about whether she should follow Vaughan and Van Outen. 'That was a problem, the fear of drinking from a poisoned chalice. You don't want to be compared with Johnny and Denise, and they were wonderful. I was a huge fan of The Big Breakfast, and I thought Denise was excellent and I loved Johnny, and as a team they worked so well, so for us to have to come in...'

Byram shakes her chestnut head meaningfully. 'And there was such a big build-up to their final day. I remember watching it with Patrick. We were staying in a hotel, and it was the Friday, and we had just moved over from Ireland. We were lying in a hotel bed and it was five to nine, and Johnny and Denise were doing their big wave goodbye, and I was thinking, "I can't follow that!'. Oh, that was scary! And Patrick was like, "Oh, damn!".' She laughs. 'Not because he wasn't confident about me, but he was like, "I'd hate to be you on Monday morning!'.'

She and Kielty rented, in Fulham, west London, for four months, but three weeks ago they took the plunge and bought a house off the King's Road in Chelsea. 'My little housie!' Byram says fondly 'We've got nothing - no, I tell a lie. We have a mattress. And, because Patrick is obsessed with gardening now, a lawn mower and a hose. I said, "Oh look, there's a big box, is that the table?". And he said, "No, it's the, hose". So we've got two deck chairs, a mattress, a lawnmower and a hose.'

What is amazing is that Byram and Kielty. are still together after three-and-a-half years of conflicting schedules. 'There've been a few times where I'm having cornflakes and he's having a kebab. Literally,' she says happily. 'It's happened twice, because he works quite late - work for him is night work, so he'll be coming in at 2am. I laughed for a week when he filled in for Johnny. 'We were finally on the same schedule, because I'd been doing the breakfast show in Ireland for about six months by then. I used to sleep all the time, and he would be like, "For God's sake what's wrong with you?'. And then he does it and he's asleep all day, every, day, for two weeks. After that, he never complained again. and I was like: "Yes!"'

'But it's funny, we didn't think about it at the time. We made a point, before I started, of saying', "This isn't going to affect us". And he's in the industry, so that helps. But I used to read articles about Sharon Davies who blamed her and her husband splitting up on The Big Breakfast, and I thought, "This woman has two kids and a husband. What hope do I have?". But you just have to try extra hard. There are times when you think, "God, I can't be bothered. I don't care. I'm too tired to go out for dinner." But you know you're putting your relationship in jeopardy, and you just stop yourself,

Are they, I begin, and Byram cries, 'Nooo!' before I can finish the question' 'We're not engaged!' she says; laughing. 'I'm not a kind of "get me up the, aisle or else" kind of girl. I never have been. I've always said 30 to mid-thirties, and for kids as well, I've kind of set myself a bench mark of 30 to 35, but I don't think you're ever fully prepared - for something like that.'

As if unable to help herself, Byram yawns. 'Sorry,' she says. 'Breakfast just tires you in a way that nothing else really does. I liken it to being constantly premenstrual, no I tell a lie, l don't, Patrick does! I hate to feel I'm missing out on stuff, so Patrick and I try-to go for dinner about teatime. I'm not going to repeat the line Patrick said, which got quoted in the papers, that a night in for us is watching Countdown with a bottle of wine. 'Cos then it was like, "Amanda and Patrick have sex together to Countdown", and we never said that!' She bursts out laughing.

'I kind of say no to invitations during the week,' she goes on, pulling a wry face. 'lt's something everyone knows: don't ask Amanda until the weekend. It's kind of an unspoken rule now. The only thing I did go to was the Brits, and I was in bed by half-12, and it was just a struggle the next day, it was really horrible, so there's no point. Now I think, "Ride it out for a couple of years. It's not a lot to ask, and party afterwards".

Not to worry though, with The Big Breakfast due to finish within the next 12 months Amanda may just get her lie-in…