Wendy Hurrell

From this unlikely literary seed came the offer to write for the weekly newspapers, the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Advertisers. At the same time, while out as a roving reporter for The Filby Journal, she used her charming interrogation skills to interview Rob Chandler of Broadland 102 (now Heart 102.4). That’s how she landed a Friday morning feature on the breakfast show as ‘Wicked Wendy’. She dressed up as David Dickinson, made sand castles on cold beaches in November, kicked a conversion from Johnny Wilkinson’s rugby tee, and raised 54 quid by gathering an unruly bunch of carol singers to croon at baffled passers-by (it was October).

This feisty spirit attracted the attention of ITV Anglia who gave Wendy a job as a production journalist. Behind the scenes she learned her trade - producing, writing and editing news items, until one day she was let loose on the TV. Her first weather forecast was so embarrassing that she hid behind a pillow with two friends to watch it back. But she soon got the hang of it and became one of East Anglia’s most recognised faces, often appearing at events and in local magazines or newspapers saying something profound or amusing. She was regularly out reporting on the environment or at festivals and shows. Everyone seemed to like her – apart from the swine that threw a clump of wet sand at her while she was live on TV. She survived this though, along with the chaos of boisterous cows and vicious swans – gaining unrivalled experience as a live presenter. She also anchored the main programme, Anglia Tonight.

Then ITV Anglia brought back Bygones, the once hugely popular regional show that more than dabbled in bucolic nostalgia. It was a kind of The One Show, only with tweed rather than neon. She co-presented the show for two very successful series alongside one of the original Bygone faces, Eddie Anderson. Here she drove steam trains, was humiliated by clowns, conducted interviews from motorcycle sidecars and had a cow named after her.

Eventually Wendy felt it time to go and tearfully said goodbye to the countryside to see if she could become a legendary urbanite in London. She appeared ridiculously early one morning on BBC London and it’s been going well since. Within 8 months, she was asked to present the weather from Wimbledon for BBC1 and BBC2. Tennis fans across the country saw John McEnroe and Boris Becker swooning over her promise of dry weather for the entire two weeks. She broadcast live as the one rain shower of the tournament brought the Centre Court roof to a close for the first time in history. 

When not working, Wendy warbles soul songs (though mostly in the shower these days) and massively loves most music. The high point of her singing career so far, was when she recorded two original tracks for Friends and Crocodiles, a feature-length drama by Stephen Poliakoff for the BBC. She appeared on-screen too. Look carefully, she’s wearing a gold dress, standing on the bandstand in the middle of the lake in the party scene. And yes, that really is her singing (turn the sound up – it’s quite brief).

What else? She's been popping up on Inside Out London - saving people in the snow, blooming at Kew Gardens, harvesting oysters and rollerskating. There's a regular Friday gig on BBC London news too, where she has taken a musical balloon ride, danced a marathon and offered mints to strangers on the tube. She used to be a tour guide on the open-topped London buses, loves to travel, is fascinated by Spain and regularly tries out her rapidly developing language skills on unsuspecting Spaniards. The Germans are next - she started lessons this year. Endlessly enthralled by words, Wendy is learning to teach English and has recently finished a TEFL course. Now she has a garden, Wendy loves to be outside nurturing plants and burying bulbs. There is currently a hostile war between her and the marauding foxes who like to dig them up again. She keeps fit by hitting people with sticks on the hockey pitch and lives in London with her idiot cat, Ralph.