Hello - Sally Gray ,Gail Porter and Trude Mostue

Whisper it softly, but top brass at the BBC and ITV are on the lookout for new female presenting talent. In readiness for the millennium and the dawn of the digital broadcasting age, a new generation of TV women must be prepared! With the proliferation of TV competitors these days, staff turnovers in television are higher than ever, and today's crop of more established female presenters are not getting any younger.

It's a career path that has been mapped out many times now, a trail originally beaten by the likes of Gloria Hunniford, Esther Rantzen and Judy Finnigan, and followed by telly favourites such as Anthea Turner, Gaby Roslin, Jill Dando and Fiona Phillips.

Three of the women now making a name for themselves among the front-runners in the race to become media personalities for the millennium are Sally Gray, Gail Porter and Trude Mostue. Different from each other as much in style and personality as they are in looks, they nevertheless share one thing needed to take them to the top: ambition.

Trude Mostue, the glamorous Norwegian veterinary surgeon who captured the nation's fancy in the BBC docu-soaps Vet's School and Vets In Practice, has mixed feelings about the female presenters fronting today's television programmes. "The Anthea Turner school of TV presenters, like Carol Smillie or Gaby Roslin, are a bit scary to me because they're all conforming to a prescribed, 'typical' wav of presenting. Their presentational styles are identical, with a similar formula and a similar look: this nice smiley presenter look.

"I respect what they're doing because they're so good and very professional, but I could never be like them. I can only ever be me, accent and all."

Trude shares a non-English accent with Gail Porter and Sally Gray, both of whom hail from Edinburgh. Fully Booked star Gall, 27, has just finished recording How 2, scheduled for screening on Children's ITV in January. Next month she will present the Electric Circus music slot on BBC1's Saturday morning show Live And Kicking, and also Classics For Kids, for BBC2. And she's evidently proving just as popular with adults as children, judging by the fact that she's recently agreed to pose naked for men's magazine GQ.

Sally, 30, presenter of BBC1's popular weekday morning show Real Rooms, is set to host a fifth series of the corporation's award-winning science programme It'll Never Work and has just recorded a third series of its hit children's quiz show 50/50, for screening in the New Year.

The three girls are open about their ambition. "I always had this burning desire to be famous," says building contractor's daughter Gail, who is tipped as a favourite to take over from Denise Van Outen on The Big Breakfast. "I saw Star Wars and I wanted to be Princess Leia and that was it!"

Sally, reporter for BBC1's National Lottery Live and occasional competition presenter for GMTV, is no less emphatic. "I always wanted to be a TV presenter. That's where I was going and nothing was going to stop me," she remembers.

And Trude, 30, who is under an exclusive contract with the BBC - she is currently doing the "vet's spot" in Live And Kicking and filming a brand new series in Africa called Vet's World - says: "As a girl back home in Norway I'd watch famous people on TV and think, 'God, I wish I could be like that, go on TV and have people recognise me.'"

Perhaps a clue as to where Trude, Sally and Gail may be heading are the TV presenters they admired as children and those they revere today.

"There was and is only one TV person for me," says Trude firmly. "David Attenborough. I'm quite attracted to his khaki shorts! I devoured all his animal programmes in Norway and thought, 'I want to do what he's doing.'"

She then adds, "I do like Carol Vorderman, because I'm very much attuned to her sort of science- based programmes - I actually want to do most of her presenting jobs!

"And I admire Zoe Ball because she has a lot of guts and really goes for it. I get the impression that on TV she's very much herself, with the confidence not to conform to trends or stereotypes. The same applies to Ulrika Jonsson: she doesn't take herself too seriously."

Says Sally: "As a kid I always liked Caron Keating on Blue Peter because she wore funky clothes. I'm attracted to people who are slightly kooky; I'm kooky myself. I don't like watching TV presenters who conform and who don't have any personality. There are too many bland people on TV.

"I think Zoe Ball is great," she continues. "And I really like Gaby Roslin's style, probably because she's very good with people, like I try to be. Anthea Turner is very professional but I wouldn't want to emulate her style."

Gail explains: "I was always drawn to funny people as a girl, so I was mad about Sally James on Tiswas. Today I like Davina McCall, who does Streetwise on Channel 4, because she's very funny. There aren't a lot of funny female presenters on TV. An exception is Liza Tarbuck who's covered for The Big Breakfast quite a lot. She's witty, quick-thinking and gives as good as she gets. I admire that. But neither Liza or Davina is a role-model... I just want to be me."

Gail has demonstrated her "me" factor in a string of TV series including the Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co for ITV and, for BBC Scotland, Up For It and Megamag.

She is ecstatic: "I'm having an absolute ball. I can't believe the things I'm doing. But I just take every day on TV as it comes, as a bonus, because I know how you can be flavour of the month one minute and then not the next."

Trude nods her agreement. "TV is very much a touch and go affair, people can go hot and cold about you. I know Gail and Sally sometimes feel insecure about it, but I'm in a different situation to them. If I fail on TV, I can always fall back on my vet work!"

But architect's daughter Sally, consumer reporter on BBC1's The Really Useful Show, is no less philosophical. "A presenter's life, they say, is about five years. Well, I've been doing, it for seven years and I'm still growing with it. Maybe the five years will only start once I've realised my dream - to host The Sally Gray Show!"

Trude, whom viewers of Vet School saw fluff her practical work, get peed on by an incontinent rabbit, muck up the injection of a kitten, fumble the castration of a bullock, contract ringworm in the line of duty and get told off by her tutor for not doing enough revision, remains unabashed. "I took a big chance by letting the BBC film me becoming a vet. Some people said it could wreck my future career and that I might never be employed, but I trusted the British people to say, 'She was brave, she did the right thing, and now she's passed her exams and she's a vet.' By proving to myself and to the British people that I could do it, I've gained a lot of confidence."

And she's won a lot of respect, too. The powers-that-be at the BBC view her as a major star-in-embryo. She's already done slots for The Really Useful Show and Holiday, and at Christmas she will tie presenting a special Antiques Roadshow - The Next Generation.

All this work has played havoc with the girls' personal lives in terms of romance. Until recently, all three of them were without a special man. But Trude has now broken the mould.

For the last eight months she has been dating a digital-TV software consultant she will name only as Patrick. "He's really nice and makes me very happy," she says. "He accepts I can be a slob every bit as much as a glamour girl. I'm considering letting him be filmed for Vets In Praclice. To actually introduce him to the British public like that is quite a serious statement to be making - I mean, most girls just have to introduce a boyfriend to their parents!"

Sally, who has broken up with her long-time boyfriend, takes a pragmatic approach to the situation. "This is the first time I've been single since I was 16, and I'm loving it," she says. "I feel it's a good time to spend on my own. I' in getting to know who I am."

Gail is even less concerned about the absence of romance in her life. "I've not had a boyfricnd for years," she announces cheerfully. "I don't know why. Maybe men think I'm too young to date! I wouldn't really want to inflict my unsettled way of life on a boyfriend. I've been very busy and I don't think I could cope with a man relying on me as well. I don't like people relying on me, full stop."

Well, can she see herself married one day? "No, absolutely not, never. I'm totally adamant on that point. If you talk to somebody in my family, they'll tell you: 'Gail will never get married.' They know that I'm not a believer in marriage. Who wants to go through all the palaver of divorce?"

Meanwhile, romance aside, all three are deeply conscious that their careers will take them on a rollercoaster ride, and are poised for the invigorating journey that could bring them fame and fortune. These three have their sights set on the top.