Your TV guilty pleasure
I don’t think anything should be a guilty pleasure, but equally there are definitely shows that you can’t share with other people – the things, if someone asked what you were watching, you would throw your computer across the room. In that sense, my guiltiest pleasure is Dance Moms. It’s an unbelievably trashy and vile reality show about this woman, Abby Lee, who is a tyrannical dance teacher from Pennsylvania, and all of the pushy mums who send their kids to her. It’s a bit troubling, but I love it. I also love Gemma Collins: Diva Forever – she’s an absolute icon.
The last show that made you cry
The Office Christmas specials, which I think are absolutely perfect in every single way. It’s such a consistently funny and moving series, with the nicest ending. I would watch them again, again and again.
The show that should never have been cancelled
Top of the Pops. Growing up I watched it religiously every Friday night, and I cried when it was cancelled. When someone like Eminem got a No 1, and they were there in the studio, it was like the most exciting thing. I felt honoured that these stars would grace us with their presence. It was so exciting and fresh – I would get dressed up in a tank top and flares, and dance on my own in the sitting room while my parents looked on worriedly. Friday and Saturday nights were great back then – we had Blind Date and Gladiators, and then SMTV on a Saturday morning. Everyone watched the same thing. I think it united the country.
… and the show that should be cancelled
I feel quite guilty and mean saying this, but The Witcher on Netflix is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I love fantasy, but that was seriously tough to watch. The characters were all over the place, and there were these goat people that kept on turning up for some unknown reason. The Witcher (played by Henry Cavill) is very attractive, but he didn’t quite hold the show together like they probably thought he would.
Your favourite show when you were 10
I was probably a bit older than 10, but I loved [ITV talent show] Popstars, which, if you rewatch, now is one of the funniest TV shows ever made. It’s so low-budget: they had the copyright to about three songs, and they sing them on repeat the entire series, and they do the rehearsals in a school gymnasium, tuna sandwiches and Walkers crisps just in shot. Darius was an amazing comedy character, too. I was addicted to it when it was first on – I think my biggest achievement at school was winning a sweepstake for naming every single member of Hear’Say.
The TV role you wish you had played
I’m not sure there is one. In all of the shows I love that have incredible funny women at the centre of them, they are the only people who could have played those parts.
The best episode of TV ever made
Brass Eye’s “Paedogeddon” special is absolute genius. The idea that people went along with it is mind-blowing – I feel grateful every single day that I haven’t been conned into doing something like that because I’m very gullible. I feel quite sorry for them in a way – but also: imagine saying “cake is a made-up drug” that seriously?
The Other One is on BBC One, 9pm, Fridays,, and is available as a boxset on iPlayer
