Just like Linda

LINDA Barker is everywhere. You can't switch on the telly or open a newspaper or magazine without seeing this celebrated Yorkshire woman. Look, there she is! - reclining on a sofa she's designed for furniture firm DFS. Spotted again: this time with a mass of blonde curls standing next to a fridge in a Curry's ad. And again: with daughter Jessica, modelling the latest fashions for Tesco. And there she is once more, back on BBC1 in Changing Rooms, the TV home makeover show which made her name.

Walk into Fenwicks in Coppergate, York, and you'll find her new fragrance range for the home featuring scented candles, potpourri, room sprays and drawer liners.

These also are available from her new mail order catalogue, Really Linda Barker, which sells accessories for the home picked by the designer. Everything is perfectly pretty and understated.

The idea is that people who watch Changing Rooms and admire Linda Barker's style can recreate the look for themselves - complete with the mother of pearl place mats, faux suede cushions and feather and cinnamon wood computer brush (a very upmarket feather duster).

So it is appropriate that a woman who made her name from makeovers has herself undergone such a transformation. She was the surprise runner-up in this summer's popular ITV jungle challenge show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, losing out to cheeky-chappie cricketer Phil Tufnell.

The show, where famous faces had to tough it out in the Australian outback while viewers picked them off one by one, showed a different side to Linda, who was best known for her cool and simple yet sophisticated style. Stripped of her home comforts (no lip gloss or soft lighting), she showed herself to be a good sport and a willing competitor.

"My profile definitely changed," says Linda, 41. "I was the same person I'd always been, but people's perceptions of me changed."

She admits she was undaunted about going into the jungle, where she would live outdoors, eat rationed food and endure a series of gruelling challenges.

"I am a very outdoorsy person. I was brought up on a farm and I'm not afraid to get mucky," says Linda, who grew up outside Halifax and still has family living in Yorkshire.

Husband Chris and daughter Jessica encouraged her to do the show.

"I knew I'd really like that type of environment and my family said: 'Go for it'. I wasn't really sure, but it was such a good opportunity. In the end, I enjoyed myself a lot. I knew I'd be away for two weeks and that I wouldn't see them, but I had the mindset that I knew two weeks wasn't very long. I'm very secure in my relationship and being a mum... but I missed them terribly."

What was worrying, she admits, was how she might come across on TV.

"It was a scary prospect because I knew I wouldn't have any control over what people saw at home and that I'd be in the lap of the editors. But people got to see the real Linda Barker: there was no strategy and it was nice that it won people over."

In fact, Linda was such a hit that since returning from the jungle, she's been swamped by offers of work - reported to be worth an estimated £1 million. Propositions range from hosting a TV chat show to becoming the face of top beauty and fashion brands.

She says she's been overwhelmed by the success of the show and its effect on her career.

"It's been amazing and brought lots of new and different work. I was ready for a change of direction; to do a different type of show," says Linda, who lives in London and has a second home near Howden, East Yorkshire, which affords her regular nights out in York, a favourite spot being the caf/bar at City Screen.

Life has never been busier for Linda, who is working on a number of pilot ideas for TV programmes. Superstition prevents her talking about these. "You don't want to tempt fate," she says.

One show she can discuss is With A Little Help From My Friends, which marks her debut as the sole presenter on a prime-time show.

Each week the programme, backed by the Friends Reuinited website, will feature a celebrity who has to track down old school mates and complete a series of challenges for charity. The series, which begins on ITV1 next month, will see Linda reunited with Phil Tufnell, who will be one of the celebrity competitors.

So has she used the website? "I haven't," she admits. "But I am still in touch with some of my old school friends."

Another new show is less of a stray from her past. Under Construction is an ITV daytime show where couples compete to win the viewers' vote and claim a state-of-the-art house which they also help build.

Linda says about half her time is taken up by TV work, with the rest focused on building up her design and products business.

"Licensing products is a very serious part of my work," says Linda, who is ranked number seven in this year's Radio Times' celebrity brand premier league.

How would she define her 'brand': "Good design for everyday people at fantastic prices," she says effortlessly. "That was the message we brought to people with Changing Rooms."

Her nine separate brand deals are worth an estimated £6 million, £2 million less than celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, but a considerable way behind Changing Rooms colleague Laurence Llewlyn-Bowen, in fifth place with deals worth £20 million. Loyd Grossman tops the league with £50 million from his sauces and salad dressings range.

It will be interesting to see where Linda is in a year or so, once the spin-offs from her post-jungle marketing frenzy begin to reap rewards.

But there is a price to pay for success. The BBC has asked her to cut back on commercial work or quit Changing Rooms. It was with a heavy heart, she says, that she chose to give up the show which made her a household name. She will feature in one more series after this one.

"It was very hard to give up and I'd loved to have continued, but the BBC gave me an ultimatum. You can't do too much commercial work if you work for the BBC, that's their policy."

And with that, Linda had to get back to business... a voice-over for her latest TV show was beckoning. Or was it for a new ad campaign? Whatever, it's bound to be coming to a small screen near you soon.

The Really Linda Barker mail order catalogue can be ordered by visiting www.reallylindabarker.co.uk or telephoning 0845 450 4025.

Updated: 08:59 Tuesday, September 30, 2003