EMBARRASSING Bodies is a strange concept.

How can people too ashamed to go to their GP to talk about their ailments, suddenly be willing to flash their bits and bobs in front of millions on TV?

"I am surprised by what people are willing to show on television, although less so than I used to be," admits Dr Dawn Harper, who presents the show alongside fellow medics Christian Jessen and Pixie McKenna.

"It sounds daft but some people might not know their own GP all that well, but I think people are familiar with Pixie and Christian and me, and know what sort of reaction they're going to get from us, so they sort of know us.

"Plus we have the support and back-up of some of the country's top specialists, so I'm sure some people come on so they can access those people," she adds.

The series, and its spin-offs, including Embarrassing Bodies: Live From The Clinic, which returns to screens this month, is a major success for Channel 4.

"I'm always looking forward to the new series," says Harper, although the ailments are always kept a secret.

"We get absolutely no heads-up whatsoever. Obviously it's a sensitive issue, because the team need to talk to the patients to make sure they know what they're letting themselves in for.

"So I think I'm right in saying they speak to a psychologist beforehand."

Harper often gets asked whether she gets nervous before filming. "But I say, 'no, not at all, because I'm an NHS GP'," she notes.

But did she always fancy a career on TV?

"No, definitely not. If you'd said to me eight years ago I'd be fronting one of Channel 4's biggest shows, I'd have laughed you out of court.

"I was a full-time GP in Gloucestershire with three small children. As far as I was concerned, that was me until I was 60."

But fate had other ideas. "I started writing for a website, answering medical questions. From that, I was approached by a journalist asking if I'd consider writing for her women's monthly.

"And then I got a call asking if I'd audition for Channel 4. I said no! While laughing about it with friends and colleagues later, they said I should do it - and the rest, as they say, is history. I love it. I would never have predicted it, but I love it."

People in the limelight often dislike being approached in the street but Harper doesn't mind at all - she sees it as all in a day's work.

"You would be amazed at what I've been shown in the most public of places," she reveals, laughing. "I sometimes find myself saying, 'Erm, we are actually in the main high street and people are staring and they're not staring at me love, they're staring at you - you've got your left nipple out!'

"But if people think I can help them, if it means people go to their GP a bit sooner or whatever, that's great. It's all part of the job."

As for the strangest thing she's seen while presenting the show - surprisingly, it's not an illness or condition, but a guy in Weymouth who'd had the Embarrassing Bodies logo tattooed on his arm while the show was filming there.

Harper recalls: "I said to him, 'You know what, I've been doing this show for seven years and people always ask what I've found shocking. I've always said none of it, but you just shocked me!"'

Embarrassing Bodies: Live From The Clinic begins on Tuesday, April 15 on Channel 4