TV's queens of mean at loggerheads

They have so much in common. Anne Robinson and Esther Rantzen. Both are rich and famous. Both rose to fame as champions of the downtrodden public, much of which now loves to hate them. And each certainly hates the other.

Hostilities broke out again today as Esther, 60, whose efforts on That's Life and her touchy-feely chat show qualify her for the title Queen of Corn, launched a fresh assault on Anne, 57, who is known to Weakest Link viewers here and in the US as the Queen of Mean. The catalyst for this round of handbagging is the release of Anne's autobiography, Memoirs Of An Unfit Mother.

The Daily Mail asked Esther to review it - and Esther opened her heart to give Anne some motherly advice. Ms Robinson is, concedes Esther, a runaway success, a woman making "squillions", but that doesn't make us love her. "How can the rest of us be pleased for her when she's so outrageously pleased with herself ?" says Esther. "The woman revealed in her autobiography is not a woman to envy."

Esther describes her as a pastiche of her mother - an overbearing woman who targeted the weak. "Did you ever read a more accurate description of herself pulverising the pathetic contestants on The Weakest Link. Can there by any doubt how the Queen of Mean was born?"

At That's Life, Esther was known as a challenging woman to work for. But she says Anne's stewardship of the consumer programme Watchdog was worse. "She was summoned by executives who pleaded with her to be nicer to people."

Esther also raises the question of Anne's spitefulness towards Joan Collins, who she once described as "a tall scrawny-faced middle-aged lady who had only a small amount of wispy hair."

She recalls Anne's battle with the bottle and the court battle which saw her daughter placed in the custody of her husband. She pleads with her rival to reassess her priorities. "What is all that striving, all that self disgust and arrogance, all that greed for?"

They exchanged insults earlier this year when Esther referred to Anne as "a ferocious woman of mature years" and Ms Robinson spoke out after Esther accused her late husband's first wife of bitterness. "She must understand that women who have been abandoned - even if it's for Esther - have a right to feel bitter."

There is no telling how Anne Robinson will reply, but reply she surely will.