TV Soap, Vol 3 No4

Mann, I Need a Break

It may sound glamorous but Holiday reporter Collette Mann says tripping around the world looking for stories for Ten's new travel show is hard work.

Imagine spending 28 days flying to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Tough job but someone's gotta do it, and she was the producers' first choice.

The versatile actor (ex-Prisoner) and entertainer brings her own irrepressible style to the new infotainment show. "It's different to the other travel shows on TV because Holiday is more presenter-driven," she says. "It focuses on the reporter's reaction to different places. We're allowed to have fun and I get to send up a lot of things, too."

Viewers will go shopping in New York with Collette, take a behind-the-scenes look at Barney's, one of the world's most expensive department stores, and run amok in FAO Schwartz, the toy store made famous in Tom Hanks' movie Big.

"I thought I'd go down to the basement of Barney's to see if I could grab a bargain. Cheapest thing I could find was a pair of earrings worth my annual salary!"