IN just over two months, TV presenter Jenny Powell will be fabulous at 40 - and she's still considered by most to be top telly totty.

Having spent a good two hour lunch in her presence, I'm certainly not going to argue.

As if further proof were needed, only three weeks ago she was snapped by a paparazzo while sunbathing on a beach during a family holiday in Barbados and returned home to find her bikini and its contents splashed across the pages of a Sunday tabloid.

"At first I thought, `Oh no - who wants to see an almost 40-year-old woman in her bikini in the papers? But, after looking at it a few times, I realised it was actually not a bad photograph," she tells me as we wax lyrical over the most delicious pumpkin salad at Hale's coolest restaurant, Earle, owned by her pal - TV chef Simon Rimmer.

There's still a market for Jenny Powell. And it's pretty obvious why she still looks as good as she did when she first appeared on our screens - as the fresh-faced 17-year-old Essex girl presenter of TV pop show No Limits; she eats sensibly and her mind is so active it's threatening to break out into a fully-fledged sprint.

She's great at chewing the fat but chooses the healthy option when it comes to her cuisine.

Saucy

So, while I plump for the deliciously saucy duck pie for my main course, Jenny maintains her reserve with a fresh sea bass salad. Both were delightful, as was the company. "I always wanted to be a dancer. From about the age of four, I was convinced I was born for that. But then, at 17, I did this televised audition to present new show No Limits - it was kind of reality TV before they coined that phrase - and I got the role," Jenny recalls as I sneak another mouthful of pine nuts and feta cheese from our shared starter.

The rest is history. She has been the star of daytime TV, with regular appearances on This Morning and Loose Women, presented pretty much every Saturday morning children's TV show there is and was the hostess on Wheel Of Fortune, alongside Nicky Campbell and John Leslie.

Nowadays, she fronts BBC1's daytime property show To Buy Or Not to Buy, but confesses her ideal job would be a prime-time Saturday night show, filmed indoors - "Where I am warm and looked after," she giggles - at Granada TV.

Jenny's a mum these days, to seven-year-old daughter Connie, and says she feels totally at home living in Cheshire and being based in Manchester.

"I adore Manchester. I moved here at 17 from Essex and fell in love with the place and the people immediately. It's just such a friendly, cool place," she says.

She does have, by her own admission, one eye on her body clock now 40 is looming, though. "I started doing wakeboarding last year because I was suddenly aware of my age. It can be quite a dangerous sport and, to be honest, I just wouldn't have bothered had I been in my twenties." She may be about to turn 40, but the lady wears it well.

Earle , 4, Cecil Road, Hale (0161 929 8869).

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