TELEVISION presenter Fiona Phillips hosted a beer festival to celebrate a year of her second career as a Dorset publican.

The former GMTV presenter said she loves Dorset and held the festival as a way of thanking Sydling St Nicholas residents, whom she says have made her feel at home in the village. She and her husband Martin Frizell took over the 18th century Greyhound Inn in the village a year ago.

London-based Fiona said she enjoys coming to Dorset when she finds time in her busy schedule.

She said: “I get down as often as I can.

“My husband comes down here more often than me. He’s down about three times a week but we have a brilliant team and managers at the pub. We are very busy all the time so they just keep things ticking over and they hold everything together and they have done brilliantly.”

She said the journalist couple have been made to feel welcome by villagers.

“The villagers have all been really friendly and lots of them said they’d be turning up for the beer festival,” she said.

The pub held a bank holiday beer festival to mark the public holiday, featuring a host of guest ales and an evening of live music.

Fiona said she was indebted to her management team and chef for keeping the business running while she and Martin, who works in London as UK correspondent for Australia’s Channel 7, are busy with work commitments.

Fiona said she was a regular visitor to Dorset before taking on the pub.

She added: “I love Dorset, I’ve been coming down here for years.

“The first thing that really brought me down here is the whole Thomas Hardy thing because I just love Hardy and I love it here, everybody is really friendly.”

Bar manager Fred Hills said there was plenty to keep people entertained at the celebratory beer festival.

He said: “We had got a range of 10 cask ales, the majority of which come from the south west from Cornwall to Dorset, and then we had also got our normal draught ales we have on, which again are all from the South West.

“It was open for everybody to come along and was just a nice way to take advantage of the bank holiday really.”

As well as sampling the ales there was also a chance to enjoy live music from local band Mostly Harmless.