Do you think that men are intimidated by attractive, successful women?

"This is what the experts have told me. According to my psychologist, Dr George Fieldman, men as a rule will go for coy, shy women which obviously I'm not. A lot of the other dating experts told me that men were very put off by me because I 'haemorrhage energy'. But I think that's not the case and guys I've chatted to say that's not the case because they do like a bit of spark - they like a feisty woman. But obviously not all men can cope with that. I think it's really important to be yourself and someone will come along who clicks with you, so don't worry if you're really hyper.

"One good tip is to try and calm down before you go on a date. Dr Sam, my dating doctor, created me some meditation-type CDs to listen to calm me down before going on a date. It's almost like going for a job interview - you have to put your best foot forward."

You are now something of a dating expert - what is the most important rule of dating you learned from making the show?

"I would say to go for a 'light date' as a first date - a coffee date or a drink date - never go for a dinner date as a first date. Just tell them you have an hour or so before you're meeting somebody else.

"It's also good to have a separate mobile phone. I had a little phone I called my Bat Phone just for dating. You can then give that number out on the internet or to any other prospective dates rather than your personal mobile number. When it rang it was like 'All systems go, my god, there's a date coming in, drop everything and run for the phone'. It was really funny! I also had a separate email address and a separate laptop I was using. You need to be wise and safe about these things. I was lucky in that I always had a crew of people with me which suited me fine as somebody who's vaguely familiar from TV meeting somebody completely off the street.

"In fairness though, most of the dates I had were through friends. That was the first dating rule that I had - tell all your friends and your family that you're really serious about finding somebody. I had a party at the start and I got some of my best dates through organising that. I gave my friends a mission statement and said 'Reach out your tentacles and think about who you know for me. Have a look through your mobile phone contacts and get them to think about their contacts and ask them to be really proactive about it'. It was absolutely brilliant - I set up loads of blind dates that way. You've got to be creative about your dating!"