Each week we shine the spotlight on a member of Dorset’s business community and ask him, or her, for answers to our part fun/part serious questionnaire. This time…

She looks for a can-do attitude, empathy and a sense of humour in a new employee; chooses West Bay as her favourite place in Dorset and would like to be remembered for being a decent colleague, a safe pair of hands and, sometimes, quite funny!

Anne King, Director and Account Executive, Watershed PR & Marketing, occupies the 20 Questions’ hot seat.

Question: What is your favourite TV show?

Answer: Currently the new series of ‘Shetland’. My friend was working in the islands and I spent a landmark birthday there with her which included a private tour of the UK’s most northerly gin distillery. So remote and beautiful.

Q: Who would you like to share a car with?

A: In my fantasy, lottery-winning world: My chauffeur!

Q: The best bit of my job is…?

A: I can’t lie, as an ex-journalist, I do enjoy a bit of fast-moving media relations and reputation and crisis management stuff.

Q: And the worst…?

A: When long-standing clients (in the travel business) were forced to cease trading due to Covid restrictions and feeling completely helpless to stop that happening.

Q: Who was your childhood hero?

A: Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in ‘The Avengers’. I was a shy schoolgirl, but I so wanted to wear a leather catsuit and go round karate-chopping people. And for a while I believed I could.

Q: What’s your favourite smell?

A: Just scrunch up a pile of basil leaves in your hand – heavenly.

Q: Where’s your favourite place in Dorset?

A: West Bay. Not everyone gets West Bay, but I love it there and I’m lucky enough to live not far away.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone starting out on a career?

A: Realise that no-one will ever ask you about your exam grades, but they will always ask what you can bring to a role. Have an answer for that, even if it’s your very first job.

Q: What was your first record/CD?

A: Thanks to a doting grandmother the five-year-old me went into a record shop, no doubt clutching a ten-bob note, and bought the 45 ‘She Loves You’ by The Beatles. I’ve still got it somewhere.

Q: What gets you angry?

A: Litter; bad manners; abuse of the apostrophe.

Q: Do you have a favourite piece of music?

A: For some reason I’m very drawn to Rat Trap, by the Boomtown Rats.

Q: What are the qualities you look for in a new employee?

A: A can-do attitude; empathy and a sense of humour.

Q: What’s your favourite food or dish?

A: Blackened, or Cajun, chicken breast with a baked potato and salad. Never fails.

Q: Steamed sponge pudding and custard or a plate of melon?

A: Plate of melon, if you’re going to force me.

Q: Name the best thing about living/working in Dorset?

A: The sea, the Jurassic coastline – and no motorways.

Q: If you were Prime Minister for the day what would be the first thing you do?

A: Fast-track the implementation of the Social Care Plan; add funding for frontline social care now and 100 per cent commit to having top-class dementia care in every area across the country. Not sexy, but this affects all of us.

Q: What’s your biggest frustration?

A: Not being able to get into that leather catsuit.

Q:  Where’s your favourite holiday location?

A: Tricky. I would really love to go to Venice again. It’s one of those places that is exactly as you hoped it would be.

Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years’ time?

A: Blimey. Still upright, hopefully.

Q: What would you like to be remembered for?

A: Being a decent colleague, a safe pair of hands and, sometimes, being quite funny!

• watershedpr.co.uk