Working with dad... we’re like two best mates helping each other out
T THE tender age of 27, Roman Kemp is already well on his way to becoming a household name. The face of Capital One Breakfast, Roman’s star really rose with a third place finish on I’m A Celebrity in 2019, and he’s a regular presenter on TV as well as radio.
More recently he has teamed up with his dad, former EastEnders actor and Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp, on several projects – the pair making a great double act on shows including Celebrity Gogglebox and their weekend show, Martin & Roman’s Sunday Best.
Here he talks about his experience of lockdown, his famous dad and how he deals with pressure. was that first weekend when we needed volunteers for the NHS, and I think 700,000 people volunteered. Those moments bring a massive sense of pride not only to those people, but to the whole country.
I’VE really learnt to disassociate from social pressures. Before, if you went on Instagram and you saw your mates going out, you thought, ‘Ah, I’m missing out, I’d better go out too.’ That’s all changed. I’m a bit of a hermit anyway, but it’s really nice that it’s made people slow down. Now if you want a weekend at home not doing anything, you’re not afraid to have it.
People have relaxed a bit – it’s the most time they’ve ever been able to spend at home – and it’s given everyone this huge sense of gratitude. If you’ve been through something and come out the other side, or if, like me, you’ve been lucky enough not to have been affected, it really puts things in perspective.
People are grateful for tiny things like being able to see their grandparents. I can only speak [as someone living in the] Western world, but I think we were stuck in this toxic way of living, through Instagram and celebrity, and that went within weeks. I really hope it carries on. the radio for comfort in tough times. I get a lot of texts through the day on the show from ambulance drivers or hospital workers, and it’s very easy to forget you are talking to other people when you’re sat in a radio studio. It’s certainly been the scariest time in my life both personally and professionally – having that daunting feeling of trying to be an escape for so many people when you’re just 27.
In the middle of it I had chats with Chris Moyles, Greg James and Johnny Vaughan, and they all said to be as honest as possible, so I’m grateful to those guys for helping me out.
I LEFT school at 15 or 16, so in my own way I’ve been in this industry for 11 years. I’m more just grateful – I’m very, very lucky, having a lot of fun, and there’s nothing I can even begin to complain about.
I’ve had a wonderfully privileged upbringing and had an alright career so far, so for me it’s about wanting to learn and understand about others.
That’s why when the Black Lives Matter protests started I was really keen for us to talk about it, and bring people onto the show who could educate us on it.
IT’S a toss up between my first show on Capital Breakfast, and being in I’m A Celeb. Since I was seven years old I’ve watched that show, and I was walking around in there just thinking, ‘I’m on the show’.
When I came out, people on the street suddenly knew who I was.
“I THINK I’m banned from talking to Jennifer Lawrence ever again, and I always enjoy that story because it was a prank that went wrong. When I first started at Capital I decided to turn up to a junket as a superfan, and reveal a tattoo of her face on my chest. I’ve never seen an interview get cut off like that in my life.
Roman Kemp is backing Gillian’s Cadbury Dairy Milk COCONUTTY to win the Cadbury Inventor 2020 competition. Fans can vote at cadburyinventor.com until September 6.
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