Dermot, 53, began his TV career on T4 and Big Brother\u2019s Little Brother. Part of the This Morning team since 2014, he is also a Sony Award-winning radio broadcaster.<\/p>\n
Here, RT goes behind the scenes on This Morning and chats to Alison and Dermot about what goes into making the ITV daytime favourite.<\/p>\n
Talk us through your pre-show routines…<\/p>\n
Alison: I come down from Birmingham on Thursday and stay in a hotel. I\u2019m an early to bed, early to rise person, so I\u2019ll be in bed by nine, reading my script. My alarm\u2019s set for seven, breakfast is fruit and juice \u2013 though the food we eat on the show is basically breakfast \u2013 and I get picked up at 7.20.<\/p>\n
Dermot: I normally play five-a-side football on Thursday nights, so I\u2019ll read my notes on the Tube. Then I\u2019ll finish up any reading or viewing I need to do, so I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n
![\"Alison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/RT-TMAlisonDermot-BTS-366-bebc1b8.jpg\" "\\"RT-TM_Alison&Dermot-BTS-366\\"")
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Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary on the set of This Morning.\u00a0@rayburmiston @rob_parfitt_photography<\/p>\n
The chemistry between hosts is really important. Could you fake it if you had to?<\/p>\n
Alison: If Dermot and I weren\u2019t talking to each other, I reckon we could fake it.<\/p>\n
Dermot: No, we couldn\u2019t. Because when she is unhappy with me \u2013 and it\u2019s probably only happened maybe two or three times\u2026<\/p>\n
Alison: More like 700 times\u2026<\/p>\n
Dermot: I don\u2019t like the idea of making Ali unhappy. One, because she\u2019s such a good friend and two, because she\u2019s basically a Jamaican mother, and you don\u2019t want to get on the wrong side of her.<\/p>\n
Alison: I won\u2019t leave until we\u2019ve sorted it out.<\/p>\n
Dermot But we have a great relationship. I think I\u2019ve taught Alison to take life a bit more seriously, and she\u2019s taught me to take it a bit less seriously.<\/p>\n
Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google<\/a> When did you meet?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Dermot: Did I? What was it?<\/p>\n Alison: You said I should go into children\u2019s presenting. He saw something in me. He\u2019s a genius.<\/p>\n Who have you been most star-struck by?<\/p>\n Alison: Lady Gaga. Oh sorry, Dermot, you weren\u2019t there for that.<\/p>\n Dermot: Often the most famous people are the most normal people. It\u2019s the entourage that\u2019s the hardest thing.<\/p>\n Alison: Dermot\u2019s brilliant at getting them onside.<\/p>\n Want to see this content?<\/p>\n Accept and continue<\/p>\n But it was you who made the famously grumpy Harrison Ford crack up…<\/p>\n Alison: People still come up and talk to me about that [chaotic 2017 interview]. But I can\u2019t take all the credit \u2013 Ryan Gosling also helped.<\/p>\n This Morning went through a really rocky patch a few years back. Was that difficult?<\/p>\n 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\u2019t even look at them. Because we\u2019ll finish an item, I\u2019ll look one way and Alison will look the other, and the papers will be like, \u201cBust-up on This Morning!\u201d It\u2019s all bulls**t.<\/p>\n Alison: You\u2019ve got to be free to say what you want, and give your opinions. If you start editing yourself, you\u2019ll lose the live element that people love.<\/p>\n This Morning presenter Alison Hammond.\u00a0@rayburmiston @rob_parfitt_photography<\/p>\n What\u2019s the best thing about working on This Morning?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Alison: The food. They used to give us our own plate, but now we have to share. That\u2019s today\u2019s TV industry for you.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday \u2013 subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This Morning airs Mondays to Fridays at 10am on ITV1.<\/p>\n Check out more of our Entertainment<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Alison Hammond, 51, made her TV debut as a contestant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-660900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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