The new face of Passport to the Sun

The big question on everybody's lips over the past few weeks has been who is the new presenter of the BBC1 series Passport to the Sun? Replacing Liza Tarbuck will be the former Eastenders star Nadia Sawalha who played Annie Palmer. Lion Television started filming the new series on the island three weeks ago and the second series is to be even longer that the first, with ten extra episodes taking the morning show to a total 40 instalments of life in Majorca. Sawalha has starred in a host of television and film productions. Many may have also seen her in hit series such as Casualty, Michael Winner's True Crimes, The Darkening, The Vanishing Man or Second Thoughts. Her career has also featured a number of films, such as Sleeping with the Fishes and Top Tips, in which she starred with Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer. Salwalha, whose sister starred in Absolutely Fabulous as Jennifer Saunders's daughter, has also presented a number of television series including Loose Women and Soap Fever for Granada/ITV and worked on radio. The first series, which went on air in the mornings on BBC1 in January, broke all day time viewing records with an average of two million viewers per day and even more are expected to tune in from tomorrow (Monday) when BBC1 starts repeating the series every morning. The series also gave Majorca priceless promotion which the local authorities would never have dreamt of, or been able to afford. This year the programme will be taking a more indepth look at the island and some of the burning issues while also following the activities of a number of key local characters, tourists and the odd celebrity.