TV presenter Holly Willoughby steps off the ice to share her tips for saving water. She also talks about the furore surrounding her revealing outfits and explains why she's proud to be a "Stepford Wife".

By Susan Griffin

TV's Dancing On Ice pulled in millions of viewers - and became the most watched show of the year - because it ticked all the right boxes when it comes to essential entertainment viewing, namely tears, tantrums, spangled tights and competitiveness of epic proportions.

But like its closest rival, BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, the show's popularity wasn't only due to the liberal use of sequins and spandex but also the successful partnership of its hosts.

It seems pairing a grey-haired stalwart of the showbiz industry with a beautiful, blonde female co-host will always prove a winning combination.

Like Strictly's Tess Daly, Ice presenter Holly Willoughby, 27, cut her TV teeth on children's live television.

As Holly says when I meet her: "Kids TV is a good place to hone your craft and learn a lot about live telly.

"If you can handle two and a half hours of live TV with kids who are going to do exactly what they want to do and without any explanation, then there are not many situations you can't handle. I think that's why the majority of really good presenters started out in children's TV, like Philip Schofield, her co-host on Dancing On Ice."

Did Holly fall for Schofield's charms? (He was once voted the winner in a poll entitled, Men I Secretly Adore.) Chuckling, she says: "Schofield's like a silver fox. He's very handsome and very dapper and very charming. I can see what women mean," before hastily adding, "I mean he's not my type but I've learnt a lot from him."

Perhaps she's afraid of offending her husband of only seven months, Dan Baldwin. The two met on the set of Saturday morning kids show, Ministry Of Mayhem, when he was a producer and she was one of the unfailingly enthusiastic hosts who could grin and bear her way through gunge and food fights galore.

Holly seems to have made the difficult transition from children to primetime television with ease, where others have failed.

"I was very lucky really. I was doing my last shows of Saturday Morning formerly Ministry of Mayhem when the first series of Dancing On Ice went on air. I don't even know how it happened. It must be a case of right time, right place, as one evening, one of the bigwigs from ITV came over and said 'Congratulations'.

"I just thought, I don't know what you're talking about but I'll just say thank you anyway. But then he carried on and it got to the point where I had to go, 'I actually have no idea what you're talking about.' It was really as weird as that, I must have lucked out."

The programme has bought her to the attention of millions, undoubtedly thanks in part to the glamorous outfits she has worn on the show. One particular plunging ensemble even hit the headlines for the complaints it drew and became a running skit on Harry Hill's TV Burp.

"When I choose clothes for the show, it's checked by my stylist and all the execs, so a lot of people thought the dress was perfectly fine. I still can't see what's wrong with it. A very few people out of nine million viewers complained and it blew up out of nowhere."

She adds resolutely: "At no point have the TV execs asked me to tone down anything. It weirds me out because I wasn't making any kind of statement. You could have literally dropped me from the roof in that dress and nothing would have moved out of place."

A former child model who graduated to a lingerie campaign for Pretty Polly, Holly should really be congratulated, not criticised for celebrating her curvy size 12 figure.

And she's even been heard expounding the virtues of Bridget Jones-style pants, which is refreshingly down to earth. "I don't think I've got anything to hide and I don't think it's a bad thing to say those things. I find the size 0 debate completely dull and boring," she says.

"My only advice to other women would be go and do something far more interesting than worry about the size of your bottom."

She has a similar grounded attitude when it comes to her new-found celebrity status. "If you're in the public eye then it's part of the deal that you'll get papped out and about. That's the bad bit but the good bit is amazing.

"You get to do a job that's fantastic and you live a lovely life. If the only thing you have to worry about is that someone might take a picture, then just smile. Make it a nice one."

Taking some time out from TV, Holly's currently fronting an Ariel campaign to try and persuade us to limit our showers to three minutes.

"I think it's very important that we all try and do our bit for the environment," she says. "Having a three-minute shower is such an easy, simple thing to do."

Isn't this slightly hypocritical from someone who once claimed her favourite place is the bath? "It's not like I have a bath every day and I'm not telling everybody not to have a bath but use it as a treat instead. My bath is my relaxation time and I'm not going to not do that.

"The three-minute shower campaign is for people to do on a daily basis. Just try and decrease your shower by a minute and work from there."

And she's not worried about being accused of jumping on the celebrity eco bandwagon? "I think anyone who's doing anything for a good cause is doing a fantastic thing," she says.

"How can that possibly be a bad thing? You're almost damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'd rather they be banging on about that than banging on about some exercise video."

For now the Ariel campaign, a relaxing holiday with Dan, and moving house are top of her priorities but she adds there are a few TV "projects in the pipeline".

Are any of those likely to be with fellow presenter and best mate, Fearne Cotton? Their first venture, Holly And Fearne Go Dating, was cut short due to low viewing figures. "I think anything on ITV1 is open to more scrutiny but people liked us two working together, so that will definitely happen again."

Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any rivalry between the two, as she says: "It's not like we go to auditions for things and see each other in the line. It doesn't really happen like that!

"I can tell you, there's only one time when I've been completely jealous of Fearne and that's when she interviewed the two Princes. I thought, 'You jammy whatsit!'."

Holly Willoughby is fronting Ariel's "Be Water Wise" campaign, encouraging the nation to reduce their water waste. To join the Three-Minute Shower Movement and visit www.ariel.co.uk/water for your free shower timer.