Radio Times - Andrew Duncan meets Gail Porter

Surely there must be more to the elfin-faced TV presenter than being famous for appearing nude in three men's magazines and having her body pierced? She's keen to convince that the blonde pin-up is now an internet nerd, with a TV career on the rise and an ambition as big as her tabloid profile.

Even though I know she's only 5ft 2In and 6st, I assume the apparently under-age waif who enters London's mildly louche media hangout, the Groucho club, wearing a grey bucket hat, jeans and shirt, can't be the Scottish "ladette,' whose naked image was laser projected 100ft high on to the Houses of Parliament last year and whose pierced nipples are the talk of, well, somewhere. Because she still looks about 14, she's always underestimated and patronised, she says. "I've grown up working with people who think I'm younger than I am, as well as female, so they assume I can't do the job. That's what makes me so determined to prove myself. I'm never threatening, but I can be an aggressive little munchkin if you try to undermine me. I say what I think, although if I don't want to answer, I'll tell you, 'move on'."

She insists on buying me a glass of champagne, adding, "I feel quite decadent today, so why not treat you to a wee drink? When you're small you think, 'Eeek, I'm like a mouse and can get up to all sorts of trouble', which is why I'm often mischievous. I was in New York the other day - fell in love with it - and when I went into bars wearing this hat they said [accomplished American accent], 'You've got to be 21, sweetheart' and I go, 'I'm 29. Believe it, and weep.'"

Chirpy and friendly, she has none of the wariness you might expect in a woman accused of "naked" ambition and being yet another blonde telly tatty with minimal talent whose meteoric rise is doomed to end in disappointment. "I'm doing so many things at the moment - Top of the Pops, Dotcomedy, The Big Breakfast, The Movie Chart Show on Channel 5 - that I sometimes go home at night and think, 'Blimey, it's so odd.' This is my period of transition. I'm moving forward. You grow and learn. People say, 'She's not exactly serious. You won't see her on Newsnight.' Obviously not. It's not my bag of fish. I'm fun, and that's it. What you see is what you get, but I'm very ambitious. I've always wanted to be extremely successful in whatever I do, even bar work. Loved it. Now that could be a thing. Gail could own her own pub eventually. I went to my local the other day and offered my services, which I'll probably do for a night. You chat and meet all walks of life."

Her attitude was formed, she says, at six when she saw Star Wars and decided - an almost Damascene experience - she wanted to be Princess Leia "I cried my eyes out, and loved the whole fantasy idea. I still want to be Peter Pan and never grow up. I'm 29, going on ten. I remember once my dad coming into my bedroom when I was crying - and I said, 'I don't want to die, ever.' I still feel like that." Some day, I say, she'll have to grow up. "Why?" she challenges. "There's no reason. I don't want to marry or have a family. There's pressure on women to conform and settle down in a little house. Fantastic if that's what you want, but I'm not interested although I have been in love. Once, properly."

Was that a man she lived with in Edinburgh for two years, or Keith Flint, lead singer of the Prodigy, with whom a six-month relationship has just ended? "I'm not telling, but it wasn't with anyone from Edinburgh. Moving swiftly on, if I meet my soul mate I'll be with him for ever, but I'm not signing anything and don't want a church wedding. Do you think a lot of women secretly feel like that? I don't discuss it with my mates. My mum accepts it. She says, 'I'll have no grandkids and never be the mother of the bride'. I'm absolutely sure I won't change my mind. I'm terribly stubborn about things I believe in."

She had a happy childhood, always showing off, acting out scenes from TV shows. "My dad's dad used to put me on a stool and get me to sing to everyone from the age of three. When you're young and realise you can make peo ple smile and laugh you just want to keep doing it. I make sure I have a smile on my face walking along the street. Strangers react and say, 'How's it going, Gail?' Love it." At school she told her careers master her ambition was to be famous. No hope, he said, and advised her to be a lawyer. "I went to court and was bored after an hour. Law can be fascinating, but I saw divorce cases and it was dull. I looked at the couples and thought, 'For goodness' sake, stop bickering, take half and half, and get on with life.'"

Her own parents, Sandra and Craig, split three years ago, but still work together in the family construction firm. Neither has remarried. "Mum had a little snog when she was on holiday, but it didn't last unfortunately. He lives abroad and she was here, but they had a lovely time. I'm not sure about dad. He keeps his cards close to his chest."

After college she worked as a runner and assistant pro ducer in Edinburgh for four years and then, watching a TV show one night, thought, 'I can do that.' A friend made a demonstration reel which she sent to ten companies and resulted eventually in her presenting BBC2's children's programme Fully Booked. "That was really good fun but I knew it wasn't my niche. I thought, 'Get out early or you'll be labelled, which is dangerous." She has started her own production company, Heroine, and is acting in a film in which she plays one of ten terminally ill patients who devise various scams to raise money to ensure one of them is cured. It is her second acting venture, after Just the Ticket, with Gordon Kennedy, released last year.

"You're expected to have only one career. Why? There's no reason." She has to keep active. "Maybe I'm obses sive," she agrees. "I don't know if I have OCD [obsessive compulsive disorder], but I tend to switch off the light three or four times, and do very odd things like making sure the ticket on the duvet cover is turned down on the right-hand side. I used to check under the bed every night." Wishful thinking that a man was there ? "Oh, pleeeese, let it be tonight!" she squeals. "No, my gran did it too. I've no idea why." She is also impulsive. "I'd considered having my nipples pierced for ages and one day I was walking past the piercing place and thought, 'I'll do it now.' It was painful, but in a good way. You can have good and bad pain. It made me, 'Ooops, ouch. Mmmm - nice, pleasant.' The attraction is having pretty jewellery in an odd place."

After a robbery at her previous home in north London she moved recently to a Soho loft. "Being burgled is trau- matic. I thought, 'Get rid of your stuff. ' I didn't want any- thing that had been touched. That's my attitude: if bad things happen, block them out. It's very exciting in Soho, like Rear Window- love that film. I face on to the back of another apartment block and when I look out of my win dow a couple of guys wave down to me. Every night we're there, all waving, and we've never spoken. I'm probably better living on my own but I have mates round all the time, which is fantastic."

Social life is restricted now she's on The Big Breakfast. "I get up at four, so I have to be in bed by nine. When friends ring to tell me they're meeting for a drink at 8.30, I think, 'You must be joking. Such decadence.'" She alter nates with Donna Air and there's speculation they are competing for Paula Yates's old job. "I have absolutely no idea about that. We're both completely different. It's like a little family and I feel whenever I go there, 'Hey I'm home.' What better way to wake up? I'd love to do it per manently, but if I'm not right I'd much prefer them to say so. Paula is one person I'd love to meet. That poor woman has been through the mill and survived, yet she's still attacked. I'd be pleased to be half as ballsy as her."

Dotcomedy, which she presents with Chris Addison, has taken over Channel 4's Friday-night lads'-night-out spot, a comedy show about web culture. "I'm a bit of a nerd at the moment. I surf for hours - which is another bad thing for your social life. You can waste an awful lot of time. The programme will appeal to those who are into the intemet as well as guys and girls coming back from the pub. Channel 4 wants slight titillation at-that time in the evening and we'll look at the odd, risque site. I'll let Chris do the titillation. I'm quite polite, do you not think ? I get embarrassed at times."

She hides it well, posing nude - very tastefully - for three men's magazines last year, and was surprised by the tabloid storm. "I'm my own worst enemy. When GQ asked me to do a glamour shoot I was completely flattered. Lovely. I thought the nude pictures were beautiful. I'll look at them in 20 years and think, 'I was like that once.' It was just my backside, but when everyone got upset and I was offered a second chance by FHM, I thought, 'Sod it. I don't care.' And the nation was upset all over again, or certain tabloids claimed to be - before printing pages of pictures. I'm sad we're so hypocritical, but I suppose it sells news papers, which is the point." Her swan song pose was, she claims, for Esquire last August, wearing only satin high heels. "I doubt if I'll ever do a completely starkers set again, although I should have suggested to Radio Times I pose naked with a laptop. Move on," she giggles. "I don't regret anything."

The pictures contribute to the assumption that she's a "ladette". "People think if a girl goes out, has fun, she's obviously a ladette. Where does that word come from? It's prehistoric and insulting. Have another glass of cham pagne." Perhaps, heaven forbid, there are those who assume she's an empty-headed blonde? "No one has ever said that to me before, so thank you. If people think that, they don't know me. My head is absolutely jam-packed. When the odd newspaper article claims I've come from nowhere, I think hang on a minute, I was at college, worked four years behind the scenes in TV, so put it in your pipe and smoke it. I never understand why there's so much bitchiness and I'm upset when I read these articles. Theres a pang in your heart and you wonder how you can make someone feel so badly about you."

But what's a girl to do when her image is distorted by words she never used? She only has to mention - as she did before she met Flint - that she hadn't had a relation ship for two years, and there are headlines saying she hasn't had sex, which isn't, she explains, the same thing. Not that she's into one-night stands. "If I have dinner with someone I want them to like me for me, not the fact I'll take them home. Others do, and it doesn't bother me in the slight est. But I wouldn't like that feeling of, 'I didn't like you much, even though you stayed the night.' Moving on . . . "

Her most constant companion is Jasper, a large toy panther that resides on her bed. "Sometimes I tell him, 'Jasper you're sleeping on the sofa tonight, mate.' He's well trained." There was another mini-stir when she was reported as saying kissing girls was nice. "I just pointed out it's obviously different from boys, unless you kiss a girl with stubble. People misconstrue and wonder, 'What's all this about?' When the press is horrible, my grandpa, who is the happiest, most brilliant man I've ever met, says, 'So long as you're not hurting anyone, dear, it doesn't matter.' "I enjoy everything and I'm confident because I have good friends and family. My little brother [Gordon, aged 25] works with adults that have physical and mental disabilities, and I realise I'm so fortunate to do what I do, have a nice life and make people smile. That's probably too obvious a philosophy for some, and I don't meet many with the same view. Maybe they think I'm stupid. It's unusual in this country to enjoy life. Most people are too worried about what's going to happen in the long run or what others think"

She's not bothered that success might end. "I'll be the best at whatever I do, whether it's running a bar in New York or being a world-famous actress. It's taken a bumpy road to make me realise how silly everything is and how much fun I'm having. I'll live life the way I want, and that takes some courage in this funny old world and funny old industry." She insists on paying for the champagne.