Margaret Eadsforth thought her image was fine, until one of her friends nominated her for a TV makeover, she tells Catherine Priestley. This week millions of viewers will witness her transformation.

WALKING along London's Oxford Street at three o'clock one chilly spring morning, Margaret Eadsforth felt all alone. Hundreds of miles from home and facing an empty bed for the first time in more than three decades, she just couldn't sleep.

But her worries were worth it in the end because the journey she was on was not just a trip to the capital, but a voyage of self-discovery with the BBC makeover show, What Not To Wear.

Presenters, model Lisa Butcher and singer Mica Paris, agreed that Margaret's sense of style was so poor the only way to improve it was to strip her of her dignity - and most of her clothes - on national television before building her back up with new confidence and a new look.

"I was a dedicated follower of the show, I had the books and loved Trinny and Susannah when they presented it," says Margaret, from Trimdon, County Durham. "But I never thought about going on it myself. I didn't really think there was a problem with how I looked!"

Margaret's friend Heather Clements, a colleague at McInerny Homes, thought otherwise and nominated her for a make-over. It wasn't until the BBC called that Margaret discovered how Heather really felt.

"She said to me, 'now Margaret you are lovely person, but some of your dress sense is awful. You are smart for work' - that was supposed to cushion the blow - 'but stuck in a rut'."

About to turn 50, Margaret had recently lost her mother, her 28-year-old son Anthony had flown the nest and she was grandmother to daughter Claire's sons Tristan, two, and Oscar, one. "I thought it probably was time for a change, thought it would be a bit of fun, so I agreed," she says.

But the experience proved to be more than a bit of fun: it changed her life and instead of dreading the big five-0, it gave her a new lease of life.

After a lifetime in long jackets and flat shoes - an attempt to hide her enviable 34-inch inside leg - she was given the first in a new set of rules, and revealed that her insecurity and self-consciousness went back to her schooldays.

"I never told anyone I was badly bullied at school, so much so that they broke my leg and at the time I was actually pleased. I hated my long legs because they made me so tall. Because of that, I stood out.

On What Not To Wear she was told to be proud of her height, to stand tall and not to hide her assets. "I cannot walk in heels, but I wear them all the time now and I do feel better for it," she says.

Other rules followed - all about making Margaret look and feel better. Like most women, for example - an estimated 70 per cent, according to the lingerie industry - Margaret wore the wrong size bra for 20 years. "But I have to show my cleavage now. I have to follow the rules," she laughs.

She also emphasises her waist, embraces colour and wears the indispensable magic knickers every day.

She now dresses up to go walking, to kick leaves on the forest floor with her grandson, or bird watch with her husband. Her new-found confidence shines out. "It's funny but people definitely talk to me more. They notice me. I look like I want to talk and someone they'd want to talk to."

Margaret was ordered to bin the heated rollers she'd wrapped her long hair around every morning since her last haircut... for her wedding 33 years earlier... and she was whisked off to a trendy Knightsbridge salon for a £500 haircut. The stylists there contacted her usual hairdresser, at Cream, in Trimdon, so they can recreate the look time after time at a fraction of the cost.

Months after filming stopped, Margaret says she still gets phone calls from stylists to remind her not to slip back into her old ways and to live each day according the rules.

"There were times I wondered what I was doing and I lost so much sleep. I hated being away from home, but it changed my life," she says. "It isn't just the clothes or hairstyle they gave me. I've got bags more confidence now. We go out more and I want to be noticed for the first time in years."

Margaret was expected to feature in the second episode of this season of What Not To Wear. But TV schedulers had a change of heart and made her episode the last in the series. "Maybe it is the worst - or I was the biggest mess to start with," she laughs.

One suspects it is because the show promises to be one of the most dramatic from day one of filming. When she was selected from 2,000 women, all about to turn 50, she passed out. She argued with the stylist and snapped at the cameramen who peered at her from above the changing room curtain.

This was the part of the show Margaret's husband Tony was dreading. "He was mortified when I got through because nobody else had ever seen my body, I've always covered it up, but soon millions of people will see it on TV.

"People want me to have a party on the night, but I will lock myself away in my bedroom and watch it alone, or just with Tony."

* What Not To Wear, BBC1,

Thursday, at 8pm.