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"Spud U Like" - FHM Magazine, May 1999.
Children's TV used to be posh version of your parents teaching you how to make butterfly cakes and de-flea cats.Today, it's home to media babes whose canny looks and cheeky repartee help them schmooze into the celebrity premier league. Zoe Ball and Gail Porter have done it, and next in line could very well be Emma Ledden.
Emma is an unassuming Dubliner whose career started like so many TV legends: being abused by puppets. "Oh that was a great place to start," she says, unconvincingly. "I did the music slot on a kid's show in Ireland called The Den. I had to give pop gossip to a turkey called Dustin and a creature called The Sock Monster, who both behaved quite badly. The turkey is still huge in Dublin - it releases records and everything."
Playing straight man to a famous game-bird attracted the attentions of MTV. Which mean Emma kissed Dustin - and Dublin - goodbye and headed for London, to co-host the music chanel's recently-launched news slot, Daily Edition. In a way, then, Emma is part of the Irish pop invasion, epitomised by the talents of Boyzone, B*Witched and The Corrs. And she remains unashamed of her country's dubious exports. "I'm proud of those bands!" she shrieks. "There's room for bands like B*Witched. Anyway, they're laughing all the way to the bank - I'd do it any day."
Despite her speedy ascent, Emma is settling into London life, thanks in part to an instinct for the "craic". "Oh, I can find it anywhere," she says. "I had the best time the other night just by going bowling."
But such spartan living hardly explains her nickname - "Fun Bobby" - derived from one of Monica's short-lived boyfriends on Friends. Fun Bobby, if you recall, was transformed from the world's dullest man to "life and soul of the party" by booze. Emma claims misrepresentation, however. "I'm not a big drinker - I can't take a lot," she says. Can she explain her nickname, then? "I like to think it's because I'm fun to be around, not boring when I'm sober. Yeah, I'm sure that's what they meant."
Emma Leddon co-host's "Daily Edition" Monday to Thursday at 9pm on MTV in the UK and Ireland.
© FHM Magazine, May 1999. All Rights Reserved.
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