Showbiz: Trinny Woodall talks ahead of This Morning Live in Birmingham

For the first time This Morning Live is going on tour and it’s at Birmingham’s NEC today and tomorrow.

With appearances from the This Morning family Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Rylan Clark-Neal, Alison Hammond, Sharon Marshall, Gino D’Acampo, Phil Vickery, Lisa Faulkner and John Torode, the show will include all of the lifestyle features associated with the award-winning magazine programme.

On-hand for guest’s fashion needs will be Trinny – and she can’t wait to meet the people of the Brum.

“We’re going to be making over some women at This Morning Live, who will then become our models,” says Trinny.

“We’re going to cover trends, body shapes and all manner of other things on the catwalk, but then, I’m also going to be picking people out from the crowd and make a few over.

“I’m going to try and pick out about five people once or twice a day. They’ll go behind the scenes, have their hair and makeup done, and they’ll walk the catwalk. We’re hoping it will be kind of a fun thing for them.

“I’ll try to pick lots of different women, we have women of all different ages that watch This Morning. So if anyone wants to come round to the Style Stage, that’s what we’re going to be doing,” says Trinny who has a teenage daughter Lyla by ex-husband Johnny Elichaoff, a former musician and businessman who died in 2015. She’s also stepmum to Johnny’s son Zak

Her love for her audience is palpable in everything that she does. Her hit shows with fashion partner in crime Susannah Constantine on What Not To Wear, and Trinny and Susannah Undress the Nation dealt directly with the public and their fashion choices – no matter how quirky.

In 2002, Trinny and Susannah won a Royal Television Society Award for What Not to Wear, before being nominated for the Features Award at the Baftas in 2002 and 2003.

Trinny and Susannah have also made over a number of celebs including Jo Brand, talk show host Trisha Goddard and David Baddiel, as well as stonewashed jeans-loving Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

Despite more than two decades in telly, Trinny still gets excited to meet her viewers.

“When This Morning Live is in Birmingham, more than anything I can’t wait to meet the audience,” says Trinny. who’s been dating Nigella Lawson’s ex-hubbie advertising guru Charles Saatchi since 2013.

“When I do the television show I make over a lot of women, but when I’m performing live I get to meet even more.

“During my career I must have met more than 5,000 women, and they’ve all been so amazing.

“There will be many more people at the NEC for me to meet. They’ll be there to see Holly, Rylan and Phil but if they’re into fashion, hopefully they’ll come and see me,” Trinny laughs.

Trinny first joined the much-loved show when it was hosted by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan between 1988 and 2001. She then took a break to pursue other projects but rejoined the new-look team fronted by Holly and Phil in 2016.

“Filming This Morning is so, so fun. When I very first joined This Morning I started when it was still in Liverpool with Richard and Judy and it was my first TV show – I was so nervous.

“My voice was shaking and I was much younger. I remember I was scared for my two-minute segment. Now, years later, I’ve done so much TV that when they asked me back, I was so excited!

“At the time I’d stopped doing TV in England because of projects abroad. However, when I was asked to return to This Morning I immediately said ‘yes’. It doesn’t take up too much of my week and I get to meet all the real women that we make-over through the show.”

It’s not just the job she loves – if you could even call it a job when it’s so much fun – but the people she gets to share her time with that makes it all the better.

“The team we have are great, I have a lovely woman called Amber who pulls in all the clothes for me with her team, and then there’s a very nice make-up department. It really is just like the family you see on screen.

“I feel like the newest member of the family now, even though I’m one of the oldest there,” says the 53-year-old, who hails from Marylebone, London.

“Phil and Holly are delightful and so are Eamonn and Ruth. They’re all delightful characters in different ways.

“Eamonn is always taking the p***, Ruth is so keen, Phil is quite fashion-conscious and interested but then he’ll ask quite difficult questions that have you stumped.

“Holly is just honest, fun and passionate. She’s a mum with kids who loves fashion and I find her infectious to be around.

“Then, you have me and Gok Wan. I do a certain style of fashion, he does another, and I feel like that works so well. I think that one needs inspiration for fashion and one needs the reality of what we can wear. That’s what the show is always about.

“We’re very careful when it comes to recommending what to wear, making sure the price range is accessible. It’s about selling fashion that is wonderful, and always looks more expensive than it is,” says Trinny, who’s grandaughter of Sir John Duncanson, controller of the British steel industry during the last two years of the Second World War.

Trinny spent 10 years working in marketing before being recruited to write a weekly fashion column – Ready to Wear – for The Daily Telegraph with Susannah. The column ran for seven years.

This chance meeting catapulted them both to stardom – leading to the launch Ready2Shop, their own internet fashion advice business, numerous book deals, and guest appearances on a number of TV shows, as well as their own.

The pair has filmed TV shows in countries including Norway, Sweden, Israel, Denmark, Australia, India, Netherlands, Poland and the USA, racking up viewers of more than 30 million. They’ve written 11 books between them, selling more than three million copies, becoming bestsellers in the UK and USA.

And in 2003, they launched their shapewear range Trinny & Susannah’s Original Magic Knickers, which are sold in 30 countries.

As well as products of their own, Trinny and Susannah have put their names to advertising campaigns including Littlewoods Direct, Nescafé and Westfield shopping centres.

It’s safe to say then that Trinny has pretty much done it all – and that’s the way she likes it.

Most of all she loves the flexibility her career has allowed her in terms of creativity.

“I love appearing live. And I especially love that my career has allowed me to appear in different guises.

What I love now is that the television I do is live. I do Facebook and Instagram streams which are also live – they have a whole different feel.

“With live appearances – what happens happens, if you fluff up you deal with it; there’s no editing. It’s so exciting.”

She’s really looking forward to appearing in Brum – a place where she feels women take exceptional care of themselves.

“I’ve been to Birmingham a few times before when I was filming What Not To Wear. I saw streets around Edgbaston and then the Bullring too. I love the area, I always think the further north you go in England the more women care about their appearance. Not that others don’t,” she adds, laughing.

“It just means they think about it more. Sometimes that means a shorter skirt, sometimes more make-up. They want their nails done, they want to tan, they want their hair done, and I like that. I like any woman who doesn’t want to let herself go.”

Despite so much going on right now with her live appearances, Trinny is always reaching for the next project.

“I am working on a new project that takes up 90 per cent of my life at the moment. I can’t talk about it, but I am very excited!”

For more details on This Morning Live visit www.thismorninglive.co.uk