Penny Smith: 'Holmes was moody on GMTV'

Penny Smith has revealed that Eammon Holmes was often temperamental on the GMTV sofa.

Smith, who made her emotional farewell to the breakfast programme after 17 years last week, claimed that her fellow presenter came across as dour after his favourite football team lost a match.

"I'm not sure Eamonn is a huge fan of early starts. I've got friends who one approaches with caution when they have PMT, but they are nothing compared to Eamonn when he was in a mood," she told the Daily Mail. "I learned to keep a low profile when Manchester United lost a game."

However, the 51-year-old praised Holmes's broadcasting qualities, saying: "And yet, he makes me laugh out loud and is a brilliant presenter who simply has a knack of knowing what will work on television. When Fiona [Phillips] joined him on the sofa [in 1997], things calmed down."

Smith also admitted that Holmes's high-profile row with co-host Anthea Turner in the mid-1990s was "possibly the most uncomfortable period of [her] time" on the programme.