Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Stylist and television presenter best known for the show 'How to Look Good Naked' and for boosting women's body confidence.
On the island
Eight records
This particular song, Thorny My Side, by The Arrhythmics, is one of my favourite songs because it reminds me of my sister. She's a huge part of my life still. And I remember playing this song and I remember thinking to myself, and I must have been four or five years old, thinking to myself, one day I'm going to be as cool as my sister.
This is the first seven-inch record... that I bought. And I remember saving up all my pocket money. And my sister took me into town and we went to Ainsley's small independent record shop in Leicester Town Centre. And I remember as proud as punch buying this record, and I still have it at my mum's. It was almost like my rites of passage.
Again, my sister introduced me to this song and it's stayed with me the whole of my adult life and whenever I'm happy this song seems to make sense and whenever I'm sad it makes even more sense.
So track number four, I think possibly is one of the greatest songs written by one of the greatest artists of all time, probably the most talented and moral lyricists of the last hundred years. And every time I hear this song, and it's probably the most played song in my world, I always discover something new about it.
When I was at Central in my first year, we had to make a music video and we chose this song and it's one of my happy memories of Central and believe me, there are not many of those.
So this song is the only song ever that I actually do genuinely believe I'm sexy to.
Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)
Okay, so yeah, so now this song reminds me of the happy years at school. And and I think actually the lead singer on this particular track is probably got one of the strongest voices of in the nineteen nineties.
The PromiseFavourite
So this song, okay, I'm gonna throw myself out on a limb here. I think is possibly the best song ever written, ever, of all time... It's not that well known either. And I know how much it means to me because I get very, very excited when I introduce it to people.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:08Were you surprised when you started working in television at how emotional the journey is that you go on with these women?
I had no idea at all. And when the show started and I started hearing from the first words from my lovely women, they were saying things like, you know, I hate my body... And then all the tears started coming. And I had no idea at all that the emotion was going to be there... Something clicked inside my head... It was like a memory of how I felt about my body. I never expected that to happen.
Presenter asks
3:02Would you ever do it [strip off on television] yourself?
I think I faced my body demons. Not entirely. I'll always have hang ups about my body... I had to go through how to look good naked personally with myself on my own for a long time. And I don't need to face the demons that I've already dealt with
Presenter asks
8:49What was your house [in Leicester] like?
Originally, I was born in a caravan. We lived in a static van... My parents had no money... And so I was born in a static van in a caravan park. So that's my earliest years. And then we got a council house, and it was in the poshest new council estate in Leicester. And I have great happy memories of being in this council house.
The keepsakes
The book
Jonathan Harvey
because I absolutely love that film. It's my coming out film, it's my coming out play, and I saw it when I was at college, and I became a man watching that play.
Presenter asks
14:00How were you being treated [on the estate]?
You know, it was tough. It was really tough. I was bullied as in, it wasn't like a group of people that would beat me up or do anything like that at all. It was a constant social bullying that I went through. So it was constant name-calling... And a lot of the hang-ups that I had throughout being bullied, I still carry with me now.
Presenter asks
20:47How did you lose ten stones in nine months?
One of the one of the earliest memories I can remember of of of deciding to lose the weight was being completely naked, sat on my bed. At the end of my bed was a big old, beautiful wardrobe with this great ornate mirror on it. And I remember... Looking in the mirror and thinking that wardrobe is so beautiful apart from the reflection.
Presenter asks
26:14How did you come out to your parents?
My sister told my parents. My sister and my brother knew that I was gay, and my parents didn't... My sister went home and my mum called me up... And suddenly it felt like... all of my inners were being ripped out of my nose... And my mum said, Mike, you know, we kind of always knew.
“I was fatter for longer than I've been thin now, if you see what I mean.”
“I still do feel like the human Barbie.”
“I think if if I if you had to name what would kill you, I think my success will kill me. Or for trying to find the pursuit of it.”