HERE COMES A COLD FRONT
As if The Real Full Monty wasn’t daunting enough, now Coleen Nolan and her fellow celebs have signed up to strip off on ice! GEORGIA HUMPHREYS reports
COLEEN NOLAN laughed out loud when co-presenter Ashley Banjo told her his idea for their new series of The Real Full Monty. The pioneering TV show will see a group of brave celebrities, including Coleen and Ashley, yet again bare all in a daring dance routine – but this year, it will take place on ice.
The line-up for the show – the aim of which is to raise awareness of cancers in intimate areas of the body – includes Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas, actress Linda Lusardi, Love Island star Chris Hughes and journalist Dame Jenni Murray.
Half of the celebrities had never skated before rehearsals started in September. Meanwhile Blackpoolborn Coleen, , 55, who starred in ITV reality show Dancing On Ice in 2009, jokes it’s ’s “traumatic” having to don n skates again.
“I think, if we pull it off, it will be spectacular,” ar,” adds the star, who found fame ame with her siblings as the e hugely successful Irish ish girl group The Nolans olans (first formed as The Nolan Sisters s in 1974).
“My initial worry was, ‘It is going ng to lose the emotion tion that it has every year’. As long as we still ll make sure we still get et the message across ss and that it still brings ngs out the emotions that we want people to feel, I’ll give it a go.”
The Covid-19 19 pandemic has as made rehearsals, and nd filming the show, how, tougher too; there’s only one ice rink that’s open, notes Coleen, and it’s five hours away from her house. Then there’s all the testing before the celebs meet up too.
“The easiest thing to do would have been to go, ‘Do you know what, we will postpone it until next year’, but we all feel that this year, it’s more important than ever. Everyone’s so focused on Covid – we all are – that we all forget about all the other things, and to check ourselves. ourselves.”
Coleen hopes The Real Full Monty on Ice re reminds people how key early detection of cancer is in saving lives. Following the previous series (it first aired in 2017), she has had “messages from people going, ‘I checked myself while I was watching the show and found a lump’.”
“Luckily, the people who got in touch with me, one lady, it was nothing, it was a cyst. And another lady it was cancer, but because she caught it early, she was absolutely fine.”
The bubbly, outgoing Loose Women host has a very personal reason to be raising awareness about this topic; her sister Bernie died from breast cancer in 2013, and two of her sisters are currently battling the disease. Linda, 61, has been undergoing treatment for liver cancer while Anne, 69, has stage three breast cancer.
How has Coleen been coping since their diagnoses?
“It has been a difficult year for every single person,” notes Coleen, who shares 19-year-old Ciara with her second husband Ray Fensome, who she divorced in 2018, and Shane Jr, 31, and Jake with first husband Shane Richie.
“In some respects, that’s what gets you through it, because you think, everybody is suffering in some way this year. Whether it be physically, financially, emotionally, we’ve all gone through it. You don’t feel so alone.” She continues: “But it’s really hard when you’ve had
somebody diagnosed with anything this year, because obviously when Linda and Anne were first diagnosed, my initial thing was I wanted to jump in my car, and go straight to Blackpool and see them.
“I think they got diagnosed in April, and the first time I saw them was when we started a new series of the Nolan show we do for Quest Red, about five weeks ago [docu-series At Home with the Nolans is currently airing].
“They were so ill during the treatment and we couldn’t be there; both of them, at one point, had to go into hospital.
“Anne was in hospital for about 11 days and none of us could go and see her. It’s just horrendous. But, for everyone going through that it’s horrendous, and I guess that’s what gets you through it, that you’re not alone.”
Something Coleen discusses in the new Quest Red series is how her sisters’ cancer has made her consider having a mastectomy.
We see the siblings talk about their options to a geneticist, who “put our minds at rest more”.
“But, if it came back that we carried a form of the gene and our best option would be to have a mastectomy, then I definitely would,” she adds.
One positive is that she and her kids are all very aware of cancer.
“My daughter checks herself all the time,” says Coleen.
The easiest thing to do would have been to...postpone it until next year, but we all feel that this year, it’s more important than ever...
Coleen Nolan on Covid’s impact
■ The Real Full Monty on Ice is on ITV tomorrow and Tuesday at 9pm