Who is the weakest link? Stars vie for Robinson role

To quiz show hopefuls cut down to size by Anne Robinson's withering insults, the idea might suggest a horror movie. The caustic host of The Weakest Link is planning to turn her life story into a Hollywood blockbuster.

Among those Ms Robinson is tipping to play her as an ambitious young reporter are Renée Zellweger, the Texan actress who played the lead role in Bridget Jones's Diary, and the former Brookside star Anna Friel.

The turbulent life and times of Ms Robinson, who earned £11m last year, are the stuff of celluloid dreams. They include years of alcoholic excess, a broken marriage, burning ambition and the highs and lows of 30 years as a journalist on Fleet Street. Ms Robinson has now achieved success on both sides of the Atlantic with The Weakest Link and spawned a host of copycat programmes around the world. Her book, Memoirs of an Unfit Mother, was published last year and will provide the basis of the film. It chronicles her alcoholism, critical weight loss, troubled marriage to Charles Wilson, who later edited The Times and The Independent, and the loss of her daughter Emma in a custody battle in 1973.

Ms Robinson, born in Liverpool to a poultry wholesaler mother, began her Fleet Street career on the Daily Mail and rose to become the assistant editor of the Daily Mirror. But her career featured a series of dramatic highs and lows because of her struggle with drink and her volatile relationships.

Ms Robinson told the People-News website her story was about to become a film, and the project was at the stage of finding a scriptwriter. She said Ms Zellweger and Ms Friel were already in talks.