Shropshire-born Anna Richardson's diet of TV food show hits

In doing so she captures the true – and often surprising – extent of their eating habits.

But the presenter's own diet isn't all carrot sticks and lettuce leaves. In fact, she confesses: "I'm partial to a really grubby backstreet curry, washed down with a load of shandy."

She adds: "Me and my partner, TV director Charles Martin, are always saying, 'God, can you imagine if the cameras were here?'

"Last night, we had friends round for a roast dinner. I thought, 'I'm going to eat slowly, I'm not going to have all the added extras, no bread for me'. I suddenly found myself two glasses of wine down, having pudding with custard, the Italian chocolates, everything. I know what I'm doing, but I still do it."

Vicar's daughter Anna is a fond fan of her home county. "You've got to love Shropshire," she says. "Wem is a particular favourite."

She also recounts how, as a youngster, she and some classmates raided the kitchens of their strict boarding school at Abbots Bromley, just over the Staffordshire border, at midnight to stock up on biscuits and crisps.

"We're all secret eaters; we all fall into the traps," says the 43-year-old, whose honesty and humour have made her a hit with viewers on shows like Secret Eaters, The Sex Education Show and Supersize vs Superskinny. She's also written a Body Blitz Diet book, promoted as "perfect for anyone who wants to bust their gut in as painless a way as possible".

"I've just been doing the voice-over for Secret Eaters, so I can see myself in the monitor to match the words to the pictures. In this episode, I was looking at myself going, 'I look awful'," the brunette presenter admits.

"I'm like any other woman in that I'm very self-critical. I might be the diet guru, but I'm a very ordinary person as well. I think it means people can identify more strongly with me, because I'm not a skinny minnie.

"I'm not Gwyneth Paltrow and I'm never going to be Gwyneth," she adds. Secret Eaters has a serious message behind its light-hearted approach. In episode one of the new series, we meet Surrey office workers Faye and Laura, who can't understand why they are overweight.

After volunteering to be tracked by hidden cameras and private detectives, however, it emerges that the pals have been loading their plates with huge portions and munching sugar-laden treats.

Confronted by evidence of their secret scoffing by Richardson the blushing pair then embark on a healthy eating plan.

Despite the show being in its third series, Richardson insists participants still haven't worked out how to hide their habits.

"They know what they a re letting themselves in for and the same rules apply, they always know there are cameras going in their house," she explains. "But this year we've had to be bigger and cleverer about the cat and mouse games."

So does Richardson get fans of the show snooping on the contents of her supermarket trolley?

"Thankfully no, because they all think I'm TV presenter Dawn O'Porter," she says, laughing. "Whenever I do get stopped and anybody says, 'What are you doing with that?', I say, 'I don't know what you're talking about, I'm Dawn!' She can be very, very useful sometimes.

"People seem to think that me, Dawn and Claudia Winkleman are exactly the same person."

Perhaps it's because, like O'Porter, Richardson has gamely thrown herself into the action on the shows she fronts. She ran naked into the sea to celebrate her body on Supersize vs Superskinny, and had an STI screening on The Sex Education Show.

It was for the same series that she had one of the most personal screen experiences ever, when, at the age of 37, she agreed to take a fertility test. The results turned out to be below average, and the presenter admits the experience was "quite traumatic".

"I was very upset, and it really threw me. But I think the only reason I was happy for that to be broadcast was because I thought, 'If this in any way chimes with other women watching – and it will do – then we're all in that same boat, I'm sharing the difficulty of that with other people'."

Richardson - who now lives in North London with Martin, her partner of 18 years – is still interested in starting a family, but doesn't want to go through IVF and isn't sure about egg donation.

"She loves her job but admits to worrying "a little bit" about being pigeonholed.

When asked what her father, a retired vicar, makes of some of her previous on-screen antics, Richardson says: "He learned many years ago to roll his eyes and go, 'That's just my daughter'."

"I think he's proud of me underneath it all," she adds. "He said to me recently, 'As long as you're happy, that is what's important in life'. And he's right."

* Secret Eaters returns to Channel 4 tonight.