Former Weakest Link contestant Sonia Strong has revealed that Anne Robinson's cold on-screen persona was no act, as the host deliberately avoided interacting with contestants throughout filming.
Sonia, who appeared on the BBC game show in 2004, told OLBG.com that she caught a brief glimpse of Robinson in the green room before recording began, but the presenter walked past everyone without saying a word.
Anne's intentional aloofness
Robinson, 81, previously disclosed that she made a point of never speaking to contestants before filming to maintain her on-screen character. She told Metro: "One of the rules I had, quite unconsciously on The Weakest Link was that I never, ever met the contestants before."
She added: "Even on the celebrity shows I would come on the programme as the lights were already ready to go and people would say 'Hi' and I'd just keep a straight face and ignore them and that helped to build atmosphere."
Behind the scenes experience
Sonia also revealed that Robinson would disappear from her podium between takes, leaving contestants to film without her for stretches. She explained: "Everything just seems so slow. Every time we had to vote off a contestant, Anne disappeared from her podium."
She noted: "So we were sort of doing a lot of filming without her. I also remember it was really cold in the studio and we didn't get a lot of breaks. We only got one break throughout the whole 7-8 hours of filming."
The original show ended in 2012, but was relaunched in 2021 with Romesh Ranganathan as host. The Weakest Link is available to watch on BBC One.
