'Power, lies, corruption? I was already quite familiar with those!'

TV PRESENTER Steph McGovern has written a hard-hitting thriller which tackles themes including stalking, grooming, political corruption, terrorism and inequality.

- By Jon Coates

The former host of Steph's Packed Lunch, a top TV business reporter before that, used her two decades of interviewing powerful global figures - including US President Donald Trump as inspiration for characters in her debut novel.

"A lot of it comes from my experiences of being a broadcaster the power, corruption and lies that can happen," she says.

Deadline, which is out now, sees fictional TV business reporter Rose Steedman live on air at a secure location interviewing one of Britain's most powerful men.

With millions watching the broadcast, her earpiece is hacked and a voice says her child and her wife have been kidnapped, and she has to do everything the hijacker tells her in order to keep her family safe.

Steph, 43, says: "This book is all about the hijack but also about why the hijack has happened, who is doing it and what for - how is this going to end?

"It happens over the 20 minutes of live telly but it takes you back in time at various points to find out things about the characters involved."

One of the themes hit close to home for Steph, who is from Middlesbrough and now lives in Tynemouth.

The 43-year-old former BBC journalist says: "Obviously Deadline is fiction but it is inspired and driven by things I have seen in my career.

"I had a stalker, so the stalker in the book is very much the stalker I had, just with a different name and different ending in terms of what happens.

"With my stalker, he used to turn up to places where I was filming and he was convinced we were in a relationship.