Maggie Philbin: Former presenter talks about late husband Keith Chegwin and Noel Edmonds

celeb news maggie philbin

Maggie Philbin, former Tomorrow’s World presenter (Image: Linda Nylind / eyevine)

“I want to vindicate us – it was not us who said you could spread jam on a CD!” she tells me, suddenly serious. I hadn’t even asked. Jam and CDs had not crossed my mind. But it is clearly something that’s been preying on Maggie’s for a while.

She is referring of course to the allegation that Tomorrow’s World, the much-loved former BBC science and technology programme she hosted for seven years from 1983, once boasted the next big thing, compact discs, were so invincible you could even spread them with jam. Take that, vinyl!

But, she asserts again, “I’m pretty sure we have never done that!”

Otherwise, once that’s sorted, Maggie, 63, could not be in more jovial spirits because her wish has finally come true.

Today she is to return to our screens to present Tomorrow’s World once more – testing driverless cars, among other innovations, although certainly not using any kind of conserve on top.

No one was more surprised than her when the science favourite, famous for testing – live – the latest gadgets and scientific advancements of the day, from satnavs to fax machines, was axed from the BBC in 2003.

But its return on BBC Four, for a 90-minute, live, one-off special, has placed her and former co-host Howard Stableford, back at its heart.

Passionately, she tries to explain how much the show means to her.

“They say when astronauts come back from space they spend the rest of their lives looking longingly at the moon,” she says.

“Working on Tomorrow’s World is a bit like that. Everyone who has worked on the programme feels the same way.

celeb news maggie philbin

LOVE OF TECH: Maggie Philbin (far right) with the Tomorrow’s World team (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

“You just want to be back there having those opportunities to hold groundbreaking technology, meet the people who have studied for years to make it possible.”

Those innovations in the 1980s included many things we take for granted today including mobile phones.

“Even when we had the first mobile phone – the first truly hand-held mobile – we could only talk on it for 30 minutes and it cost about £3,000,” she says.

“Obviously no video, pics, GPS. I didn’t imagine not only that one day I would have one, that everyone would have one!”

She adds: “It’s a huge privilege.”

If it sounds over the top Maggie’s passion becomes easier to understand when she takes you back to her love of science and technology as a girl – a love that was not nurtured at her Leicester convent school simply because she was that: a girl.

So she ended up doing a degree in English and drama at Manchester University and in 1978, after graduation, answering an advert for a presenting job on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.

She got it, joining the late Keith Chegwin, John Craven and Noel Edmonds and becoming a memorable children’s favourite for ever more.

She and Cheggers also became one of TV’s golden couples and married in 1982. They had one daughter, Rose, but sadly they divorced in 1993.

The pair remained friends and she has never remarried.

celeb news maggie philbin keith chegwin

GOLDEN COUPLE: Maggie with bubbly Keith Chegwin and their daughter Rose (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

When Keith died of lung disease almost a year ago Maggie released a poignant public statement.

Now she says Rose, 30, who lives in San Francisco and works in technology was able to spend six weeks with her dad before he died.

The pair will remember him on the anniversary of his death “in our own quiet way”.

“Even now it is still very hard to take in,” she says.

“It is just very, very hard to believe. He was an incredible character and a very generous person.”

Clearly it has been a difficult time for Maggie, which no doubt makes returning to her favourite gig even more special.

She never left behind her love of technology, launching her own company Teen Tech in 2008, organising events and competitions for children and presenting the BBC’s science programme Bang Goes The Theory.

But she has always carried a torch for Tomorrow’s World.

Back then she gave five days a week to it despite having to turn down lucra-tive advertising deals.

“I will always do things which I feel are meaningful,” she says. “I’m not interested in television for television’s sake. The word celebrity fills me with horror.”

celeb news maggie philbin

FIRST TV JOB: Maggie, Noel, John and Keith on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop (Image: Unique Television)

Perhaps not for her, then, a stint in the I’m A Celebrity… jungle like her former Swap Shop co-host Noel Edmonds?

She laughs: “I will watch I’m A Celebrity… with interest but I could never see myself in the jungle.”

And she admits she is not sure how Noel will get by without his mobile.

Giggling, she recalls: “Noel had one of the first mobile phones. In Swap Shop he came in one day with this huge briefcase and said, ‘Guess what’s in here?’

“We were all being very facetious and guessing what might be in the suitcase – and inside, was this like radio telephone, enormous! He was like, ‘Look, look, I have a telephone in my suitcase!’ And Keith and I were looking around at all the telephones on desks, all over the office and trying to think what the advantage of this telephone in a suitcase could possibly be.”

It turns out, as we were all to discover via Tomorrow’s World, Noel was way ahead of his time.

Tomorrow’s World Live: For One Night Only is on BBC Four tonight at 9pm.

source: express.co.uk