Anna Richardson: 'Naked Attraction is a peculiar, naked version of Strictly'

Welcome to Metro.co.uk‘s The Big Questions, where we ask, well, the big questions (and the smaller ones too) and this week, we’re diving deep with TV legend Anna Richardson.

The 51-year-old is the absolute queen of the jaw-dropping shows, as host of Naked Attraction – which she believes is akin to Strictly Come Dancing, albeit a ‘peculiar naked’ version – and Changing Rooms, alongside the inimitable Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Or, as Anna dubs him, ‘an Victorian dandy who found himself in 2022’.

But she’s also coming to the rescue of the ‘quirky home’.

Turns out, apaprently half of Brits love a peculiar home and just under a third (29%) live in what they would describe as an unusual property, but, that comes at a loss of our beloved wifi, which, as we all well know, has taken a beating during the pandemic and perpetual life on Zoom. Anna has partnered with TalkTalk on its latest campaign to launch the Future Fibre 900 – touted as being 24 times faster than your run of the mill broadband and five times more reliable.

‘We have this tension. Most of us are having our homes in different ways,’ she explains to us. ‘Think about it, if your home is spread out, we end up losing our wifi and connectivity and now more than ever we need it.’

This campaign is about finding connectivity in a quirky home – would you call your own a quirky home?

It is, yes it’s quirky in that a friend of mine described it as being eclectic. I think she trying to be kind. I mix a lot of vintage stuff and personal stuff with modern. 

So, as you get older, your parents start to become sick, and you lose your grandparents, it’s important for me to collect and display family heirlooms. I’m very interested in art and mixing that with heritage stuff. I have my grandfather’s opera glasses, I have all my dad’s really precious crystal glasses and on my bed, I have my great grandmothers hand crochet bedspread. 

One thing I learned, with the character we have as Brits, it is about expressing your personality. At the moment it’s about maximising and not being minimal. Ramming your home with everything that’s quite unusual and quirky and almost like a theatre set.

Speaking of a theatre set, talk to me about working with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

It’s funny you should say that, I was going to say, the trend at the minute is theatre and I was going to say imagine having Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen living with you 24/7. 

He’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. His talent is awe-inspiring, he’s incredibly intelligent. He used to sit in his room of a night when we were filming and he’s hand sketching his latest wallpaper range, and it was like a piece of renaissance art. Most of us will be sitting going “I need to watch the latest episode of Succession”, he’s thinking about 18th-century art and sketching away. He’s a victorian dandy that’s somehow found himself in 2022.

Having hosted Naked Attraction, how have you noticed the love for the show evolve and have a deeper meaning?

That is very astute and you’re absolutely right. I used to be a format creator and producer and I still keep my hand in and when this was first pitched to me I knew it was going to be a huge success. I remember at the time being wheeled out to defend it, we knew they would have a strong visceral reaction, it was interesting how the newspapers were absolutely outraged by it, saying it was pornography, this and that. 

After I spoke publicly, saying “hang on a minute, if you watch, there is nothing sexy about Naked Attraction, in the way there is about Love Island.” Yes, it’s silly, yes we laugh, yes it’s entertaining, but at its heart, there is a much deeper reason for it. Which is why I present it.

At the heart of Naked Attraction, it’s about visibility, acceptance, identity, and in a weird way it’s also multi-generational viewing. It’s a peculiar naked version of Strictly Come Dancing in the way of multi-generational viewing. 

I was out last night at the theatre and I had an 81-year-old come up to me saying “I love your show, when I can I be on it?” At the same time, I have teenagers (saying it). People tend to watch it with their grandparents or parents. 

It’s about acceptance and identity and I’m hugely proud you have trans people on there who are on their journey of transitioning and they’re there in full vulnerability saying “this is what I look like, this is who I am and I deserve to be loved as well” and I will applaud that all day long.

How has hosting it changed your own ideas towards body image?

This is also to do with ageing, I think, Naked Attraction is about acceptance, you get gorgeous bodies but you also get ordinary people. As my career has gone on hosting the show and getting older my priority is more about health than striving to be thin, or perfect, or trying to keep up with 20 and 30-year-olds. 

You have to accept your body goes through changes as you get older. I have friends going through MRI scans, worried about cancer, it’s more about how do I stay healthy and make sure I’m ok instead of “I have to squeeze into size 10 jeans”.

Having been in the spotlight for so long, how do you navigate a life hosting these amazing shows that start conversations, and days you might not want to engage in public?

I also have a little property in the Peak District, and that’s my home, I’m never happier than wandering my local town, where people know me, in a pair of wellies, grey roots, no makeup on, and walking my dog that’s probably just rolled in some fox poo and stolen a pig’s ear from the pet shop. 

That’s who I am. I don’t care about having to look a part, so I’m very proud of the fact what you see is what you get, really. That’s the balance I try and get.

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