Dolly Parton may be known for her glamorous wigs and full face of make-up, but Alex Jones says, before she becomes Dolly on stage, she is “still absolutely striking”.

The TV presenter first met the American country singer, who is said to be “tickled pink” about her Welsh roots, in a dressing room before an interview at the start of her long stint as The One Show host.

“In front of me she transformed into Dolly and I thought how special that we all know her as this vivacious, very made-up beautiful woman,” she recalled in a chat about her most memorable guests for the show’s 20th anniversary.

“But actually she was equally striking and equally impressive because she is just a nice person.”

Jones told Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2 that, as a young host, she was called into Dolly’s dressing room.

“She was like, ‘Come in darling… come and sit’,” she said.

“She had no make-up on, so it was before she becomes Dolly.”

Jones continued: “Her hair wasn’t done, she was bare-faced and still absolutely striking, so beautiful.”

Jones said she had never come across anyone “so comfortable in their own skin”.

“We chatted about all sorts of things, what she was going to do in the UK, how long I’d been doing the show, was I nervous, how she deals with nerves, all of this.”

As she watched the star transform in what for some would be a private moment, Jones said Dolly did not bat an eyelid.

“She knows who she is and she is just very at ease with herself and I thought how amazing to be that self-confident, but in a lovely way,” said Jones.

“In her heart she is just gorgeous.”

Jones also defended her “old school choices” while appearing on Kay’s programme Tracks of My Years, which included Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 and Glenn Medeiros’ Nothing’s Going to Change My Love for You.

She said the Medeiros song takes her back to “really happy times as a kid” in the back of a VW camper van singing along with her sister while on holiday in west Wales.

“I think it was the first time I’d fallen in love with a boy in my class and it just brings back happy memories.”