This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
Alison Hammond, 51, made her TV debut as a contestant on Big Brother in 2002. She was snapped up by This Morning as a showbiz reporter, and has co-hosted with Dermot O’Leary since 2021.
Dermot, 53, began his TV career on T4 and Big Brother’s Little Brother. Part of the This Morning team since 2014, he is also a Sony Award-winning radio broadcaster.
Here, RT goes behind the scenes on This Morning and chats to Alison and Dermot about what goes into making the ITV daytime favourite.
Talk us through your pre-show routines…
Alison: I come down from Birmingham on Thursday and stay in a hotel. I’m an early to bed, early to rise person, so I’ll be in bed by nine, reading my script. My alarm’s set for seven, breakfast is fruit and juice – though the food we eat on the show is basically breakfast – and I get picked up at 7.20.
Dermot: I normally play five-a-side football on Thursday nights, so I’ll read my notes on the Tube. Then I’ll finish up any reading or viewing I need to do, so I’m not usually in bed before midnight. My six-year-old, Kasper, wakes me up at about six and I get a Limobike at 7.45.
Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary on the set of This Morning. @rayburmiston @rob_parfitt_photography
The chemistry between hosts is really important. Could you fake it if you had to?
Alison: If Dermot and I weren’t talking to each other, I reckon we could fake it.
Dermot: No, we couldn’t. Because when she is unhappy with me – and it’s probably only happened maybe two or three times…
Alison: More like 700 times…
Dermot: I don’t like the idea of making Ali unhappy. One, because she’s such a good friend and two, because she’s basically a Jamaican mother, and you don’t want to get on the wrong side of her.
Alison: I won’t leave until we’ve sorted it out.
Dermot But we have a great relationship. I think I’ve taught Alison to take life a bit more seriously, and she’s taught me to take it a bit less seriously.
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When did you meet?
Alison: Dermot was the first person I met when I came out of the Big Brother house. He interviewed me and gave me some lovely advice.
Dermot: Did I? What was it?
Alison: You said I should go into children’s presenting. He saw something in me. He’s a genius.
Who have you been most star-struck by?
Alison: Lady Gaga. Oh sorry, Dermot, you weren’t there for that.
Dermot: Often the most famous people are the most normal people. It’s the entourage that’s the hardest thing.
Alison: Dermot’s brilliant at getting them onside.
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But it was you who made the famously grumpy Harrison Ford crack up…
Alison: People still come up and talk to me about that [chaotic 2017 interview]. But I can’t take all the credit – Ryan Gosling also helped.
This Morning went through a really rocky patch a few years back. Was that difficult?
Dermot: It was hard, because we were doing a show that, through no fault of our own, was on the cover of newspapers for 50 days on the trot. But in terms of day-to-day stories, I don’t even look at them. Because we’ll finish an item, I’ll look one way and Alison will look the other, and the papers will be like, “Bust-up on This Morning!” It’s all bulls**t.
Alison: You’ve got to be free to say what you want, and give your opinions. If you start editing yourself, you’ll lose the live element that people love.
This Morning presenter Alison Hammond. @rayburmiston @rob_parfitt_photography
What’s the best thing about working on This Morning?
Dermot: Doing live telly with a great team and a really good friend who I trust. I honestly get out of bed every Friday with a smile on my face.
Alison: The food. They used to give us our own plate, but now we have to share. That’s today’s TV industry for you.
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