‘EVERY SINGLE EPISODE HAS AN EFFECT ON ME’
Hayley talks about her new series, and the subjects she has covered
EIGHT years ago, Maesteg girl Hayley Pearce was working in a call centre serving tea and chopsing for Wales.
Now, following a whirlwind rise to fame, she’s got her own TV documentary, a podcast, and still works part-time outside of the media.
Nearly a decade after coming into the public spotlight on BBC Three show The Call Centre, she’s back with a new series of Hayley Goes...
The 31-year-old once again immerses herself in the subjects with an open mind and an honest opinion, and this series covers topics like post-lockdown mental health, nakedness, puppy-loving and highend sports car enthusiasts among others.
“I know it sounds cheesy, but every single episode I do has an effect on me,” said Hayley, who lives in Maesteg and loves where she’s from.
“Whether it is just that I learned a lot, whether a show changed my mindset, whether it’s just that I met a cool contributor, I leave them a different person, people inspire me from just being around them. It might not be an episode that’s changed me but, that they might be so inspiring, have a different mindset, different background. That in itself is wicked.”
Learning about new subjects and in turn presenting that to an audience is something that seems to work for Hayley, who acknowledges that there certainly are not many TV presenters like her, with a strong Valleys accent and no-nonsense reactions.
“A lot of people say like, their kids love me and look up to me. And I’m ‘WTF, really, really?’ I still can’t get my head around that because in my eyes, I’m like, ‘Look, why’d you look up to me? There’s nothing to look up to me about,’” she states.
“I suppose I could say that, if you’re not the sharpest tool in the box it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t do well in life. I wasn’t articulate in school. I’m not now. I’ve got ADHD, I find it hard to concentrate and read books. I learned from being around people and picking up stuff.”
In this new series of Hayley Goes... one of the topics, Naked, sees her join subscription website OnlyFans and chat to fellow contributors to see what the fuss is all about, learn about body acceptance and how society views nudity.
There’s more to it than “getting your kit off”, she asserts, she also explores the effect posing on such sites might have on future career choices, leaking of image content, and attitudes to nakedness.
Meanwhile, in an episode about learning disabilities – which will air later this year – she meets contributors with cerebral palsy and those who are paralysed. It had a big effect on her.
“It’s an amazing episode,” she said. “That’s the only episode I’ve done which has made me have real gratitude for my life. And I looked at my life differently after that.”
Looking at life differently, or coming at a topic fresh, is what Hayley Goes... excels in.
“I don’t want to pull myself down,” Hayley adds. “But the good thing about me is, it’s worked in my favour is that I’m not educated, so I do learn along the way with things.
“I will give my honest opinion. Sometimes they might edit that because I might be too honest,” she laughs.
Reflecting on her brushes with academics and experts during her series, she said: “I’ve sat with professors, doctors, I never went to uni, I’ve been to thousands of unis now, I’m fascinated. I left school at 16 and I visited them thinking ‘ wow, is this what uni is like?’ and the professors, scientists with their Master’s or PhD are nervous chatting to me like.
“They are the ones educated to the max, know all these big words, and go silent on me?”
Hayley said she would love to go back to university, possibly to study psychology, but she’s also keen to keep her options open.
She’d love to be picked for Strictly one day, but one thing she’ll always be confident of is knowing where she came from.
“A lot of people from the BBC Three audience remember me as ‘the tea lady’. People still come up to me and grab photos with me, I’m fascinated by it if anything.
“Being the tea lady is what I was known from. So I don’t want to change too much,” said Hayley, but being proud of her roots and growing in a professional (and personal) sense don’t have to clash.
“It’s just natural progression to have growth and get better as a presenter and do more things, different subjects. I’m lucky, I’ve still got this series going and eventually I obviously will end up doing more.
“Some people only think that I’m this funny presenter, who says it as it is. But that’s because I’ve been allowed to say it as it is.”
Admitting she’ll do anything, but does have a line she won’t cross – if she feels she’s not being her authentic self: “I’ll do anything unless I don’t want to do it,” she says, with a delivery that lets you know she definitely won’t. “Don’t get me wrong, my producers will tell you I’m a nightmare as well. I’ll tell them straight, ‘ I’m not doing it, that’s not me, I wouldn’t say that.’
“Of course, we’ve got a script with a story to tell. But the ins and outs of it is me being me. I just feel like you’ve got to be that person because as soon as you start doing stuff for other people, or for the producers, you’re not being you.
“I don’t care then if people don’t like my shows, I can watch them and go ‘that was me’”.
■ You can watch the new series of Hayley Goes... on BBC One, 10.35pm, tomorrow. All episodes will also be on iPlayer.