After Dinner Speakers: Anneka Rice, Helen Chamberlain, Jayne Middlemiss

Anneka shot to fame as the sky-runner in Channel 4’s “Treasure Hunt” (1983-9), a show which is still repeated daily on channels across the world. This firmly established her as Britain’s Action-girl and during this period she was rarely off the TV screens. She presented BBC-2’s “Sporting Chance”, TVAM, BBC-1’s“Driving Force” and ITV’s“Wish You Were Here” and “Family Trees”. She went on to devise and host the award-winning “Challenge Anneka” for BBC-1, juggling Romanian orphanages, soup kitchens and Malawi refugee camps with BBC-1’s “Holiday” and ITV’s “Capital Woman”. The Challenge programme raised millions of pounds of supplies and services and has left an amazing legacy of projects and good-will around the world. The format has been sold on to many other European territories and Anneka is currently involved with negotiations for an American version. Five years ago, Anneka decided to change her life completely to fulfill a lifelong ambition to study fine arts at Chelsea College of Arts. During that time she totally dropped out of all media - so much so that Madame Tussauds melted down her waxwork model! Anneka recently completed her studies but her popularity has remained undimmed by her absence. She has recently taken part in a number of shows, including "So Graham Norton", "Ready Steady Cook", "A Question of TV", "4 x 4", "When Tennis Ruled the World" and "The Chelsea Flower Show". Her radio career includes being the regular stand-in on "The Gloria Hunniford Show", Radio 2. Her Radio 4 work includes "The Waiting Game", a nine-part series on pregnancy; "Start the Week" and "Loose Ends", and she thoroughly enjoyed responding to an appeal from the residents of Ambridge to build a new village hall. She joined Princess Margaret in being one of the few real people to join the cast of "The Archers". In addition to her TV and radio work, Anneka has presented and appeared in a wide range of corporate conferences and events all around the world. Merchandising includes books, board games, videos and a clothing range. She has featured in numerous marketing campaigns and endorsements and has also fronted commercials for Esso and British Gas. Anneka is still involved with a number of her "Challenge" projects. The Romanian Challenge Appeal is now into its eleventh year and the project is going from strength to strength.