The ‘Next Top Model’ franchise never fails to pull me in. Whether it’s Tyra, Jay, Sarah or Elle leading the way, I will obsess over it.

So I was thrilled to be invited to the press launch for the new series of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model. It was a few weeks ago now but the show finally launches on Sky Living tonight at 9pm.

Having seen tonight’s episode, I can guarantee you that it’s a goodun. This series has a real X Factor feel to it as the first few epsiodes are centred around ‘live auditions’. The series doesn’t start with the shortlisted girls in place, instead we see all and sundry turn up who think they’ve got what it takes to be the next big thing. Which, as you can expect, leads to some rather hilarious moments as girls who think they’re it strut their stuff for Elle & co.

Just like you get those poor unfortunate souls who think they can sing on X Factor, there are plenty of girls who clearly have been lied to by their nearest and dearest when it comes to how much model pontential they have.

Prepare for tantrums, bitchiness and tears from episode one…and that’s way before the squabbling and backstabbing of ‘the house’ kicks in – that’s still a good few episodes away!

There’s 70,000 hopefuls, 90 bootcamp spaces, extreme makeovers (yey!!!), 12 finalists…and then just one winner.

There are some serious beauties in this series, but I still can’t get over meeting Elle. She looked SO ravishing at the launch that I had to stop myself touching her hair.

She’s FORTY EIGHT for gawd’s sake. How is that even possible?

And it’s not just Elle of course, all the judges are on top form. Julien is as witty (read: catty) as ever and definitely brings in the laughs. Grace continues to be sickeningly stylish and then Charley, well….Charley is just drop dead bloody gorgeous as usual.

I’m not going to give away any secrets, but look out for a familiar face from ASOS amongst the hopefuls (you’ll know exactly who I mean if you shop with ASOS a lot) and I think that the woman that Julien describes as ‘Amazonian’ in tonight’s episode (you’ll see why, she couldn’t be any fiercer if she tried – DROP DEAD SEXY) is def the girl to watch. She’s in my final three, fo sho.

Remember that Irish hopefuls are included this series and thus the hashtag this year is #BINTM. I expect Twitter will be alive with BINTM excitement tonight.

You can watch a sneak preview of tonight’s episode here and it starts tonight on Sky Living at 9pm. See you on the sofa! xxx