Fearne Cotton - The Biography. Nigel Goodall
before or after Fearne, managed to get themselves a career quite like the one she now has. In fact, these days no one ever hears of them. So, whatever raw qualities she possessed, they were enough to turn her into a star while the experience did nothing of the sort for any of the others who started out on the same programme.
Not even the search launched by GMTV in September 1998 to find an additional presenter in the same way as they discovered Fearne two years earlier in a national talent hunt, most likely through an ad in the Stage, brought forth anyone quite like her. Once again, viewers had the chance to vote for a winner three months after the search began. The winner turned out to be Jack Stratton. For a time he joined ‘Des’ and Fearne to co-host both the Saturday and Sunday shows before becoming solo presenter of pre-recorded inserts for the Sunday slot. Although he left in the same year as Fearne departed from Diggit, the show continued to run on under the flagship of Laura Jaye and Victoria Hickson, but again, they would never enjoy the sort of success or popularity that Fearne earned for herself on the show and elsewhere.
As she would later comment, many children’s TV presenters somehow sink without trace after rising from nowhere in the first place. It’s similar to tinseltown Hollywood, which is littered with the corpses of child stars who one day woke to the news that they were ageing and tried to change tack before it was too late. Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney, Margaret O’Brien, and, more recently, characters such as Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin, Corey Haim from Silver Bullet and Goonies’ effervescent Kerri Green were a few, although the list is endless. Even if some of them, such as Jodie Foster and Winona Ryder, continued their work on movies into maturity, their careers were never the same. It was as if the screen itself could not forgive talented precocity in actors so young. The same can be said of children’s presenters, but for Fearne it was different: look back over her career and it’s easy to work out why she has survived beyond the children’s shows. She is upbeat, bubbly, entrancing and full of vitality. There is something very 60s and counterculture about her. And she certainly has a very different approach to presenting to any other broadcaster – it is almost ‘in your face’ but also quite organic and completely unique.
But not everyone thinks the same. Journalist Paul English, writing in Scotland’s Daily Record, considered that to those over the age of fifteen, she is probably just another identikit TV presenter with a snappy line in cutesy patter, crazy dyed hair and a near-nauseating level of enthusiasm straight out of the Vernon Kay book of ‘yeah’ and ‘whoo’-ing. But is that really the case?
In another less-than-complimentary tirade on the Internet, on TV Scoop, online critic and blogger Katie Button wrote that in her opinion Fearne’s image seems to be her one selling point: ‘Young women are supposed to like her, relate to her, want to invite her round to “ours” to eat ice cream, talk about boys and braid each others’ hair. But how can she be one of us when she herself struggles to appropriately adapt her personality for her varying TV gigs? She has the kind of quirkiness that is practised and rehearsed.’ It was, continued Button, ‘the problem with being a female TV presenter at the moment: you perform half-decently at one gig and suddenly you’re booked up until New Year’s Eve 2010. There is such a dearth of proven female talent that once you hit the big time, you’re everywhere. I remain rational enough to know this isn’t Fearne’s fault and that her career is simply benefiting from a fortuitous trend.’
In the flesh, Fearne is taller than expected: about five foot six inches, slim and elegant, with dainty elfin features. She is everything you might expect from a Saturday morning TV presenter: fresh-faced, enthusiastic, with green eyes that are clear and bright and she always smells of a mixture of floral perfume, soap and fabric conditioner.
With no make-up and a whiff of toothpaste on her breath, she once had her hair styled similarly to Kelly Osbourne’s. ‘If I wasn’t working in kids’ TV I think I’d dye all my hair pink or try out Kelly’s Mohican, but I know my bosses would probably chop my head off,’ she admitted. And on the one occasion when she did have some streaks added, she was ‘dead’ pleased: ‘I went into a punk shop in Camden and saw all these different colours, so I picked up the pink, went home and experimented. It got a bit messy and now I’ve got a pink bathroom!’
She has also developed a taste for outrageous clothes, something that comes across whenever she’s on screen: ‘I don’t believe in having to match colours or styles or fabrics. I think you should wear whatever you want. I’m quite spontaneous when it comes to shopping. I don’t go for the classic must-haves like little black dresses. I’ll buy things that will probably only be fashionable for a couple of months but then I can pass it on to friends, a charity shop or even customise it. And I’m a big fan of customising. So if I’ve got something I’ve worn before, I’ll just cut it up, stick a patch on it or paint over it so it looks different. One week I cut off one arm from a long-sleeved T-shirt and bung a stripy legwarmer in its place; I’ll put anything together and see how it looks. I don’t really care if people don’t like my style. If it turns out wrong, at least I’ve had fun trying.’
It was this sort of tomboyish nature and attitude to fashion that made her stand out from other, perhaps less flamboyant presenters of Saturday morning television: ‘I’m more Grunge Chick than Glamour Princess. I can’t do that sexy look – I just don’t feel comfortable if I wear a skirt; I’ll always put a tomboy top on. Tess Daly and Cat Deeley are so glamorous, gorgeous and beautiful that I feel like the clumsy one in comparison. But I don’t really think we’re in some big competition or anything, we’ve got very different styles.’
And even when she’s off-screen it’s pretty much the same: she’s a riot of colour. In 2003 she favoured a typical blue-and-white vest peeping out from beneath a bright pink T-shirt, a Burberry satchel, green flared cords splattered with white paint, a big, funky belt hanging off her hips and bright Converse trainers. And then another time she breezed into a north London restaurant with her blonde hair all mussed up; she was wearing clanking jewellery and had layers of floaty fabrics that appeared to be half-falling off her.
Interestingly enough, her style icon is veteran singer Debbie Harry. At first, this may seem strange when you consider that Harry’s punk band Blondie were at their peak with such hits as ‘Heart of Glass’, ‘Denis’ and ‘Sunday Girl’ two years before Fearne even arrived into the world. And it is perhaps even stranger when you compare her musical tastes to those of her friends. ‘Everything about her was so cool,’ Fearne still raves to this day. ‘That’s why I love vintage. I got four dresses recently for £30 from a shop in Covent Garden called Wow Retro – you can’t get more bargainous than that!’
Equally sacred in her personal iconography was Vivienne Westwood. Ranking her alongside Debbie Harry, she continues, ‘I’ve been a lifelong fan of her clothes and what she stands for. She created punk as a style and a way of thinking, and still sticks by it. She doesn’t follow trends but says, “This is what I’m about” and creates amazing designs. I love how she blends fashions and life; her clothes are almost political. She’s a cool, strong woman and biggest showcase of how to be completely individual.
‘So many young girls feel pressurised to look a certain way and she says, “Do what you want to do.” I met her at the filming of the Queen’s 80th birthday event. I jumped out of my skin when I saw her and staggered over, gushing at her. She was wearing a new badge she’s designed: of a flying willy with sperm coming out of it. The programme producers asked her to remove it and she said, “Absolutely not!” I thought that was wicked.’
In fact, it was Westwood’s approach to individuality that Fearne loved best and this was also something she picked up for herself: ‘I’m a bit of a fashion chameleon – I think it’s good to reinvent yourself every so often. It’s almost as if I have my own little fashion scene going on in my head that doesn’t relate to anything else. I’ll trawl around Brick Lane or Portobello Market in London for some great vintage pieces and then mix them up with the odd bit of Vivienne Westwood or Chanel. Pick and mix is what I like: a touch of something expensive with something really cheap.’
But above all else, she continues, ‘I like to make a statement with what I wear. Hopefully my clothes say that I don’t really care what other