I meet Dimoldenberg not in a chicken shop, but in a studio in BBC Broadcasting House in central London. She’s OK with that though (“I love the pot plants,” she says. “It’s fantastic. I’m very happy to be here.”)<\/p>\n
It’s been more than a decade since she set up Chicken Shop Date. Since then, she’s interviewed everyone from Cher to Ed Sheeran, and has become a celebrity in her own right.<\/p>\n
The show is based around her trademark dry, awkward flirting style. In person, I find her inscrutable. You get the sense she’s judging your questions (I was secretly relieved when she told me later they were great).<\/p>\n
But she visibly lights up when talking about her free summer course, the Dimz Inc. Academy, which she launched to train up people aged 18-24 and help them get into the creative industries.<\/p>\n
The course offers guaranteed paid work placements, mentoring and an opportunity to gain experience across digital media. She is now bringing it back for a second year, and has extended it from one week to four.<\/p>\n
“I started Chicken Shop Date as part of a youth club, and we made a magazine, and everything I learned there, the connections I made, the mentoring I got, set me up for the career that I have today,” she explains.<\/p>\n
“So it was always such a big ambition of mine to be able to give that back to young people when I was able to.”<\/p>\n
Behind it is a serious issue. Dimoldenberg points to the high number of young people not in employment, education or training<\/a> – a group known as Neets. <\/p>\n “That’s really a big crisis. So there is no better time to be trying to do what I can to support the next generation of young people,” she says.<\/p>\n