Anne in surgery riddle

For a moment it seemed as if an imposter had stepped into Anne Robinson's designer handmade shoes.

The hair, although the familiar shade of red, was cut in a softer style than the customary severe crop.

And beneath it was the face of a woman apparently 20 years younger than Miss Robinson's official age of 59.

The lips seemed much fuller than when they dispense barbed comments at the expense of the unfortunate contestants on the Weakest Link.

The expression was far more wide-eyed than usual. And the skin was flawless, with any previous lines banished to oblivion.

Miss Robinson's appearance, on Five's Terry and Gaby Show, was so startling that several of the programme's meagre audience called in to comment on it.

Some observers said she looked like the young Mary Tyler Moore; some like Sally Magnusson. But none thought she looked like Anne Robinson.

Cynics wondered whether the new look was the result of surgery - she has admitted in the past to shelling out for Botox injections and, with a fortune estimated at £40million, she could certainly afford it.

Yesterday she insisted that her fresh face was merely the result of clever cosmetics. 'I had a new make-up artist who does bigger eyes and lips,' she declared. But Alex Karidis, consultant plastic surgeon at London's Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, said he believed she had 'refreshed' her looks surgically.

'There is no doubt she has had a facelift. She has probably had multiple procedures. It looks like she's had a brow lift which opens up your eyes and had work done on her upper and lower eyelids.

'It also appears that she may have had fat injected into her lips. From her appearance she must be at least six to eight weeks down the line from her surgery.

'She's only done what she should have done years ago. She's refreshed herself - she was looking tired and a little haggard.'

Miss Robinson was probably one of the last guests on the Terry and Gaby show, whose current series ends today. It has never had more than 200,000 viewers and is unlikely to be recommissioned.

Discussing her Botox investment some time ago, she confessed: 'I'd have no qualms about getting anything fixed. When you are on television you can't afford not to look good.'

It was perhaps no surprise that she made a special effort to look her best for an interview with Terry Wogan. He once described her as looking like a 'cross between Cruella De Vil and Hitler's mother'.