Multi-Coloured Swap Shop star looks unrecognisable 46 years since kids' TV fame

Maggie Philbin was portion of the iconic kids' TV amusement Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and has gone connected to person a palmy TV career, including presenting Tomorrow's World

Maggie Philbin, the beloved prima of Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, is hardly recognisable today, 46 years aft she archetypal became a household sanction connected children's TV. Now aged 69, Maggie besides became celebrated for hosting Tomorrow's World, the BBC's flagship subject programme, starting successful 1983.

Her imagination came existent successful November 2018 erstwhile she had the accidental to contiguous Tomorrow's World erstwhile more. The amusement that captivated viewers with its unrecorded demonstrations of cutting-edge gadgets made a astonishment return. It came backmost for a one-off unrecorded special, with Maggie rejoining 3 different archetypal hosts for the 90-minute show.

The revival of the legendary series, which was axed by the BBC successful 2003, thrilled nary much than Maggie herself. Reflecting connected her clip with Tomorrow's World, Maggie likened her fondness for the amusement to astronauts' longing for abstraction aft their missions, reports OK!.

"Working connected Tomorrow's World is simply a spot similar that. Everyone who has worked connected the programme feels the aforesaid way," she shared with the Express. "You conscionable privation to beryllium backmost determination having those opportunities to clasp groundbreaking technology, conscionable the radical who person studied for years to marque it possible.

"Even erstwhile we had the archetypal mobile telephone - the archetypal genuinely hand-held mobile - we could lone speech connected it for 30 minutes and it outgo astir £3,000. Obviously nary video, pics, GPS. I didn't ideate not lone that 1 time I would person one, that everyone would person one! It's a immense privilege."

If it sounds implicit the top, Maggie's passionateness becomes easier to recognize erstwhile she takes you backmost to her emotion of subject and exertion arsenic a miss - a emotion that her Leicester convent schoolhouse simply did not nurture due to the fact that she was a girl.

Her thwarted technological ambitions led her to prosecute English and play astatine Manchester University instead. After earning her degree, Maggie leapt into television, joining the ranks of Multi-Coloured Swap Shop successful 1978, wherever she became portion of a legendary line-up alongside the precocious Keith Chegwin, John Craven, and Noel Edmonds.

Joining the pantheon of TV's astir beloved couples, Maggie wed Cheggers successful 1982. The mates had their girl Rose unneurotic earlier going abstracted ways successful 1993, though they preserved an amicable narration pursuing the divorce.

Maggie honoured her ex-husband's representation with a heartfelt nationalist statement aft helium sadly died from lung illness successful 2017. Rose, present 36 and moving successful tech retired successful San Francisco, was fortunate to beryllium capable to walk six weeks with her begetter anterior to his death. She and her parent planned a low-key remembrance for the day of his passing.

She admitted: "Even present it is inactive precise hard to instrumentality in," acknowledging the trouble successful coming to presumption with his departure. "It is conscionable very, precise hard to believe. He was an unthinkable quality and a precise generous person."

Maggie ne'er mislaid her zest for tech, yet mounting up Teen Tech successful 2008 to connection engaging events and competitions for kids. She besides became a household sanction presenting Bang Goes The Theory connected the BBC.

Yet her clip connected Tomorrow's World remains beloved to her heart. She spent 5 days a week connected the show, adjacent turning down charismatic advertisement offers. Maggie stated, "I volition ever bash things which I consciousness are meaningful. I'm not funny successful tv for television's sake. The connection personage fills maine with horror."

Reminiscing astir moving with Noel, she said: "Noel had 1 of the archetypal mobile phones. In Swap Shop helium came successful 1 time with this monolithic briefcase and said, 'Guess what's successful here? '".

"We were each being precise cheeky and guessing what mightiness beryllium successful the suitcase and inside, was this similar vigor telephone, enormous! He was like, 'Look, look, I person a telephone successful my suitcase! ' And Keith and I were looking astir astatine each the telephones connected desks, each implicit the bureau and trying to deliberation what the vantage of this telephone successful a suitcase could perchance be."

But past would tell, arsenic revealed connected Tomorrow's World, Noel was really good up of his time.