No sooner had the newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky announced that she was pregnant than the applications to stand in for her started to arrive.

“It’s a very hot spot and we’ve already had plenty of inquiries but they are a bit previous,” Chris Shaw, senior controller of Five, says. “She’s not planning to stop newsreading for quite some time yet and as we approach that date we’ll obviously begin to think about finding someone to stand in for her.”

It is a mere six weeks since Kaplinsky joined Five on a £1 million salary, and one week since Mr Shaw enthused about the “Natasha effect” that had produced a 72 per cent rise in the programme’s ratings.

It is also only a week since Sir Alan Sugar made his controversial remarks about how women should state their intentions about having babies to recruiting employers.

It is believed that Kaplinsky will not be able to claim maternity benefits from the channel because she is employed as a freelance.

As Kaplinsky told The Times in January, she had discussed with Five her hope that she would have children. Even so observers noted that announcing a pregnancy a few weeks into a high-profile job is not what any employer hopes for - even one who has been warned of the possibility.

Has Five shot itself in the foot by spending £1 million a year on a broody presenter? Max Clifford says not. “Natasha will get coverage during maternity leave which the channel wouldn’t otherwise have got, and the person who takes over will attract publicity too. It’s a win-win situation.”

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