RADIO LEARY
From his famous friends to his famous cats, presenter, author and first-time dad Dermot O’leary has a lot to talk about. Ella Dove meets the friendliest – and chattiest – man in media
Dermot O’leary on his career, cats, fatherhood and more
‘My upbringing gave me an inquisitive mind’
is there a person out there who doesn’t love Dermot O’leary? In the run-up to our interview, I’m met with several gushing statements by colleagues. ‘Don’t tell me if he’s not nice,’ said one, pleadingly. ‘I don’t want to know.’ The night before our chat, O’leary follows me on Twitter – a rare occurrence for a celebrity. ‘He’s a people person,’ I’m told as I wait for him on our Zoom call. ‘He likes to know who he’s talking to.’
So, what is everyone’s favourite presenter really like? He greets me from the study of his Camden home, fresh from the shower and dressed in a black T-shirt. There is an ease to his mannerisms, an energy radiating through the screen.
It is as though he’s on springs, moving around constantly as he talks. His face is never far from breaking into a playful smile.
I mention the Twitter following, and he lets out an easy, open laugh. ‘Is that good or disconcerting?’ he asks. I tell him I think it’s a positive thing, a sign he cares who he’s speaking to. ‘I definitely do,’ he replies fervently. ‘I just like to see people one-on-one. That’s why we do what we do, right?’
Indeed, it is this passionate interest in people that has inspired his career to date.
His podcast, for instance, is aptly titled People, Just People, and sees O’leary interview everyone from Ed Miliband and Yasmin Le Bon to Kate Adie. ‘I think there’s a compulsion in modern life for everyone to have a podcast – and they really don’t have to,’ he laughs. ‘But I do love interviewing people. When I did afternoon radio, it was a three-hour show and I always had a middle-hour guest, which I really enjoyed. Then I moved to breakfast and as it was an hour shorter, there was no time for that guest slot. I really missed interviews, and there aren’t many avenues on telly to do that, so my radio producer came up with the idea of an interview-based podcast.’
The idea, he says, is simple. ‘It’s basically me talking to the most interesting people
I can find – some famous and others not. One of my favourites this series was speaking to Matthew Sheahan, who was caught up in the Fastnet yachting disaster of 1979.
Not many people know about it, but it’s a biennial yachting race from Cowes and around Fastnet Rock off the coast of Ireland. In 1979, a sudden weather change caused an extraordinary storm that wiped out five boats. Matthew, who was 17 then, saw his father get hit on the head and drift away. He had to decide when to abandon ship. His story of survival is unbelievable.’
O’leary’s skill lies in his genuine curiosity. ‘It was borne out of my family, really,’ he says. ‘I definitely have the Irish sensibility for meeting new people. There’s that phrase: “There are no such thing as strangers, only friends you’ve not met yet,” and it sounds sloganistic, but my sister and I were definitely brought up like that, encouraged to talk to people. Being an Irish family in a small town in England is strange because, as soon as you shut the door, you live in a sort of different world, with Irish stories and music, Catholicism and potpourri. I think that does kind of lend itself to “the other”, and I suppose it gave me an inquisitive mind.’
School was a mixed experience. ‘I went to a very good and bad Catholic school. Academically, it was terrible, but everyone left being a member of Amnesty International. We all knew about the injustices of East German communism, but no one got their physics GCSE. I failed all my GCSES, except two, the first time around. I retook them and went on to do A-levels, but I also did some work experience in a restaurant, which I absolutely
loved. There was a point when I was about 16 that I was genuinely going to be a chef.’
There is, he tells me, a ‘very similar buzz’ between working at a restaurant and in live TV. ‘To this day, that [restaurant job] is one of my favourite jobs of all time. I’d still love to take my chef qualification. I’d like to learn about wine, too. And maybe I’ll go back and do an MA at some point. I guess it all goes back to curiosity.’
After studying Media and Politics at Middlesex University London, O’leary worked as a runner for a documentary production company.
‘I was photocopying and making tea and learning my trade, while also doing work experience on the radio at BBC Essex,’ he says. ‘Six months in, I mentioned that
I’d like to give front of camera a go, and I started going for screen tests.’
He cites Michael Parkinson, Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton among his broadcasting heroes. He’s particularly effusive about the late Sir Terry Wogan, with whom he shares BBC Radio 2 links – O’leary currently hosts a Saturday morning show, as well as covering for Zoe Ball on the weekday breakfast slot.
‘When I was about eight, my uncle Frankie got a job as a security guard at the
BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush [now the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire], and he used to get us tickets to see Wogan,’ he recalls. ‘I remember my mum, ballsy woman that she is, asking Terry Wogan for his autograph, and he gave me his glass of wine to hold while he signed it. He patted me on the head – and I was in love!’
O’leary secured an agent in his early 20s – ‘the same one I’m with now,’ he tells me, proudly. ‘The moment the camera started rolling, something clicked. I just thought, “Yep, this is what I want to do.” You get your fingers on the mountain, and then you start to crawl your way up.’
‘There is nothing more exciting than live TV’
Fast-forward to the present, and he’s definitely reached the summit. After working as a researcher and warm-up presenter for Channel 4’s Light Lunch with Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins in the 1990s, he got a job presenting for the weekend Channel 4 slot T4, before moving to Big Brother on E4 in 2001. In 2007, he replaced Kate Thornton as presenter of ITV’S The X Factor – a role he held for eight years. In 2015, he announced he was leaving the show to pursue other projects, saying, ‘It’s time for me to move on.’ However, following a late-night phone call from Simon Cowell, he returned again in 2016, affirming ‘I’m really flattered to be asked back. There is nothing more exciting than hosting live TV on a Saturday night and the show is naturally very close to my heart.’
What did that first live X Factor show feel like? ‘I definitely knew I’d stepped up to the big league,’ he enthuses. ‘I suddenly realised that the nation was watching me. The best moment is that 30 seconds before you go on air. It’s such an adrenalin buzz. I always say it was like being the conductor of the campest runaway train in town. Every week you were just trying to steady yourself – and have fun with it, too.’
One of his big highlights was 2010, aka the year of One Direction. ‘That was the series we really felt like everyone was watching,’ he says. ‘It was really special. I’m still in touch with the boys now, particularly Niall [Horan] and Harry [Styles], who I chat to regularly. It’s amazing to think they signed up to that show when they were 16, and now they’re in their mid-20s. I’ve watched them grow. They’re brilliantly erudite, responsible men. I feel really proud of them.’
He is quick to admit there was pressure – and yet from his wide grin, I deduce he is someone who thrives in that environment. ‘The pressure was part of the excitement,’ he confirms. ‘It’s an extraordinary rush that you don’t appreciate until you come off air, then you’re exhausted and starving. When I first started, I was so pumped that I used to just go home, drink red wine and stare at the wall for hours. I’d have to tell myself, “Go to bed, you’re just drunk now. This isn’t going to help anyone.”’
O’leary’s career is multi-faceted. As well as presenting, he has his own production company, and a successful children’s book series, Toto The Ninja Cat, which was inspired by his own blind rescue cat. ‘What has surprised me about the books is the joy and pride I feel when parents tell me that my stories have got their kids into reading,’ he says. ‘I love it when I see children dressed up as Toto for World Book Day.’
He speaks with huge fondness about his cats, one of whom, Silver, sadly died three years ago. ‘We have Toto and another rescue, Socks. I love dogs, too, but cats walk to the beat of their own drums,’ he smiles. ‘Toto recently decided that instead of the perfectly good litter tray, she wanted to go to the toilet in the front garden, so there was a period where she was waking me up at 4am every day by scratching my head.’ And did he get up? He covers his face with his hands. ‘I don’t do it anymore…’
Toto and Socks are no longer the only babies in his life. In June, he and his wife Dee welcomed their first son, Kasper Koppang O’leary. ‘When we brought the Moses basket home, the cats refused to leave it,’ he says, grinning. ‘They were just staring at me like, “Yep, so this is mine now.”’ He revealed his son came into the world to the sound of Elbow’s One Day Like This, a song he played in tribute when he returned to his BBC Radio 2 show, 10 days after the birth.
He met Dee 18 years ago, at a production company they both worked for, and the pair have been married since 2012. ‘We didn’t start seeing each other until after we’d finished working together,’ he says. ‘We spent our first dates seeing each other’s areas of London. I knew there was something there straight away. You get that thunderbolt at first, don’t you? And that has built even more over time.’
When I ask what he’s learned about relationships, he convulses with laughter. ‘How long do you have? Compromise, space, and not giving this person who is meant to be your best mate a hard time – even when she genuinely can’t stack the dishwasher!’
During lockdown, he and Dee both learned to appreciate small joys in life. ‘It’s walking in Regent’s Park and Hampstead and reconnecting with nature, and it’s a cup of coffee in the morning,’ he says. ‘I’ve learned that the world isn’t going to fall apart if you don’t get the eight things on your to-do list done. It’s important, sometimes, to just be.’