Sexy? Me? But I'm just a skinny lass from Birmingham

Cat Deeley made her second appearance last week in the top 10 of lad mag FHM's list of the world's sexiest women. "But I'm this skinny Birmingham lass - and I've got no boobs!" she giggles as a rosy blush comes to her cheeks. "OK, it's flattering. I couldn't believe it because I was just doing Amour on MTV at the time, being a VJ. Not a sultry VJ like the curvy Italian girl who did the programme before me, either.

"The producer would ask me to be sexy and I'd whisper in a low voice and by the fifth take I'd be laughing. My flatmate's boyfriend sent me a card saying 'Congratulations - you're one of the most beautiful woman in the world blah, blah'. They obviously haven't seen the girl in the scabby dressing gown, with her glasses half-off, with a hangover, dribbling baked beans down her front on a Sunday morning.

"Let's face it. Most of the time I don't look anything like I look on the telly. Thank God I've got a great stylist, otherwise I wouldn't even wear foundation."

Fresh and super-friendly, Cat is now the undisputed queen of Saturday morning children's TV; the canny lass who keeps Ant and Dec in order on ITV's SM:TV.

Wasn't that the crown once worn by Zoe Ball, the BBC's resident ladette, before she moved on from SM:TV's rival Live And Kicking? "There's always this thing with Zoe Ball," says Cat. "I've never met the woman. I didn't watch her on Live And Kicking. I'm doing my stuff, she's doing her stuff. That's it. I don't want to be seen as competition."

That's extraordinary in a media jungle prowled by such slinky beasts as Gail Porter, Kelly Brook, Davina McCall and Denise Van Outen. They are an ambitious throng, some of whom think that posing in sexy underwear - or nothing but a nipple ring - seems to be the route to a future in TV. Porter's naked rump was recently projected on the side of the House of Commons; a stunt which may have cost her the chance to take over from Ball when Live And Kicking returns in the autumn.

But that is not Cat's way. She doesn't trade on cool, being a babe for whom no one has a bad word, even though she's now at the inevitable sitcom, record offer and dating a rock star (Huey from the Fun Loving Criminals) stage. Small wonder that she cites "nice" as her essential appeal: "Cool is boring. What's cool one day isn't cool the next. I think if you're fake and phoney, viewers can tell."

Very sensible. But then, Cat's probably the only ex-Storm model who is sensible. Spotted by a talent scout when she was 14, she turned down all contracts until she was 16. Now 22, she looks back on those months jetting around the globe with a tempered fondness. "It was a group experience that left me with friends I have to this day," she says.

"I modelled between 16 and 18. There are different ways of handling it. There are some 16-year-old girls who are as grown-up as they are ever going to be and there are others who are less mature."

So, no mucky snaps waiting in the wings? "I can understand why some girls do certain photo-shoots. Sometimes they can be beautiful in an artistic way. But everyone should be protected until they know in their own mind what they want to do. It's easy to get those things wrong."

Cat is living a charmed life but there's a price to be paid. "There was someone in my life until recently but he's not there any more... mutual decision," she explains. "I'd been with him since I was 18. We're still friends and he's an incredible man."And what about those other eight lives, Cat? "Oh, I don't know," she sighs. "I don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow. It's all come about so fast. I'm really lucky, aren't I?"