In 2004, the beautiful english television presenter and former glamour model
Melinda Messenger appeared on the "Age Swap" episode of Celebrity Swap as 83-year-old Margaret Doyle, supposedly Melinda's old ballet teacher, disguised with prosthetic make-up, a black lycra suit, a red-white wig and fake teeth.
UK TV channel Five has commissioned Flame TV to produce Celebrity Swap, a new three part series following two different celebrities each week as they undergo the ultimate makeover: one star couple will swap gender, another age and a third class. They then try to fool close friends or family. The series follows the pilot Gender Swap,
Model Melinda Messenger swaps ages with Mike Reid: she becomes 83 year-old Margaret Doyle, supposedly Melinda’s old ballet teacher.
Melinda said:
… this was the first time I’d ever done anything quite like that, where I felt very exposed and unsure of myself. Being on TV in a black lycra suit after I’d just given birth, with no makeup on was pretty daunting… I didn’t think for a second that my mum would ever fall for it and was absolutely gobsmacked when she did… I did enjoy it. I loved the idea of becoming another character; for the first time, I could really see why people got something out of acting, which had never really appealed to me before. I was quite sad at the thought of never being ‘Margaret’ again. It was quite difficult to stay in character, but it was so much fun.
The makeup is in the more than capable hands of Neil Gorton and Vanessa White. Neill claims that: ‘You will see these stars transformed to the point where their own mothers don’t recognise them in close proximity.’ Melinda’s transformation involves extensive prosthetics, as you can see above, and her final appearance is remarkable.
More Photo of this Episode are extractly from a video, sorry for the quality..