Selina Scott returns to BBC TV for first time in 30 years

Broadcaster Selina Scott is making her return to BBC TV

The 66-year-old, who was the face of the BBC’s breakfast TV on its launch in 1983 and who started her broadcasting career in Scotland, will make her comeback in the third series of The Real Marigold Hotel in which a group of older celebrities travels around India.

Miss Scott, who visited the city of Udaipur in western India, will star with Dynasty actress Stephanie Beacham, comedian Syd Little and Boris Johnson’s father Stanley, who won fans with his recent appearance on I’m A Celebrity.

“Stanley Johnson was outrageous,” Miss Scott told the Daily Mail.

“He wanted me to take my clothes off and go swimming with him in the lake.

“But knowing what goes into lakes in India, don’t even ask. I made an excuse and said I wouldn’t go in naked and hadn’t brought my costume. Even that didn’t put him off.”

The BBC1 show – to be aired later this year – marks the first time Miss Scott has appeared in a BBC series since leaving for a job in the US in 1988.

In 2008, Miss Scott sued Channel Five for ageism, claiming bosses backed out of an offer to present news bulletins because of her age. They reached a settlement said to be worth about £250,000.

She started out working as a journalist on The Sunday Post in Dundee for two years before working as a press officer for the tourist board on the Isle of Bute.

Miss Scott made her television debut on the nightly news programme Grampian Today, presenting from a North Sea oil platform and at the summit of Cairn Gorm. She later became one of the launch team for North Tonight.