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Dermot O'Leary has kinda crept up on us. Best
known for his Sunday job where he presents T4,
he is also graces the XFM airwaves every Friday
and Saturday.
Not only is he waking a nation up every weekend,
but he is tipped to take over from Mr Morning
Television himself Jonny Vaughan. From runner
to top presenter... here's how to do it without
disappearing up your arse at a stage school.
How long have you been presenting / DJ'ing?
I have been presenting for 2 years in June,
full time. I have been in TV for four. Before
I was presenting I was researching and running
and doing all those great fun things. It is
the best grounding that you can have for being
a presenter because you just understand what
is going on behind the camera.
Was you career planned in any way?
I always wanted to give it a go but I just thought
I would never shout about it, but if anyone
asks me I will give it a go. So someone asked
me and said that I know someone that wants to
give someone like you a go. So I sent them my
showreel, a picture of myself and a letter to
a guy called Phil Parsons who was doing a pilot
at the time. I got the part but it never came
off. We did two pilots, one with Melanie Sykes
and after the minute the first camera light
went on I thought "I would actually like
to do this". It was much more fun than
researching. It felt natural.
Do you have any qualifications?
I did a BA in Media and Television with a minor
in Politics at Middlesex. It's funny, almost
every producer that I know will look at a showreel,
and will look at one that someone has done themselves
more than one that someone has gone on one of
these presenter courses or something.
Do you think that they are important?
I think that they show someone can work for
three years and get something whatever that
may be. I don't think that it is a bad idea
for anyone. However, I would say I met more
morons at university than anywhere else in my
entire life. I have got ten friends from university
who I am still in touch with and those are the
ten people that I want to be in touch with.
Do you think it was a valuable experience?
Could you have done what you have done now without
it?
Yeah I think so.
Do XFM and T4 look to Vocational courses
as a source of employment?
No, not at all, I think that they look to experience
more than anything else.
Do they take work experience?
Yeah, XFM have an intern that is with them for
six months which is bizarre because XFM seem
to be completely worked all the time, but all
the jobs that seem to be high pressure jobs
are done by the people who have to do the jobs
because they know how everything works.
T4 have just started doing a two week internship.
I think they get a good bit of experience. During
the week they are watching and listening and
observing. But they are always in meetings.
During the debrief after the show, the first
person we look to is the intern and ask them
what they thought of it, which will work one
of two ways. They are either so scared of sitting
in the same room as Andi Peters that they just
say "I really like it, I liked everything",
OR you get people who want to make a name for
themselves and they just start slagging everthing
off!
How long have you been working on T4?
A year, full time. It started off with Ben on
his own and then he went away for a couple of
weeks, so they asked me and Margherita to stand
in, which we did. Obviously we did it quite
well because then they asked us to do it full
time.
Why do you think T4 has been so successful?
I don't think it tries too hard. Even though
we sit down and we analyse it. All we are doing
is making television for ourselves, doing things
that we think will be quite funny or quite relaxed.
I don't think there is one other person that
works on it that doesn't have a good sense of
humour, that knows exactly what the show is
about. It is intelligent hangover television.
Who is it aimed at?
That is the nice thing it isn't aimed at anyone.
Someone summed it up nicely the other day, they
said "you are leaders of the duvet generation."
People just sit in bed and watch it. It is not
exactly try hard T.V. It is not 'laddy' and
it is not cheap. We get anyone from John Hannah
to the Cartoons!
It has the appeal because it isn't based at
anyone. For example Live and Kicking is aimed
at a 10 - 12 series, they have no choice to
do the show that they have done because they
have to appeal to that market. As far as I can
make out, we appeal to people from around 15
- 35.
Do you prefer T.V or radio?
T.V. I don't know why. A lot of people always
say radio because there is more scope to be
impetuous and intuitive. But I think the opposite.
You can use time, it is more visual, you don't
have to talk as fast as you do on radio, in
fact you probably don't have to talk so fast,
I think that's just me! I think the people who
say that they prefer radio probably work in
pre-recorded television.
Although there are more people working on T4
I have much more of a say about what goes into
it, I write a lot of the stuff and I come up
with a lot of the ideas. Whereas on radio, because
I am doing XFM, which is such a music based
station, and quite rightly so, you let the music
lead and just follow.
What are the best and worst bits about presenting?
The best bit is having that buzz, when you have
timed a link to perfection, or when you make
a studio full of people laugh, and you think
"well if I made them laugh, then chances
are I made everyone else laugh" Alright
an outside chance, but still a chance!!
The worst bits are if you do a bad show, then
it haunts you because you go in for the morning
meeting on Monday, watch it back, and shudder
at yourself! But a bad show doesn't make a bad
presenter.
What is the worst thing that has happened?
Nothing too bad, Joshua Jackson's mic falling
out was a grade A pain in the arse. I just jumped
on his knee because I thought a) you have to
do this because your interview is falling on
its arse because nobody can hear him, and b)
it will be fun!
How do you think the Internet will work
with radio and television?
We get a lot of comeback from our website. I
don't think the XFM website is properly launched
yet. But we get a lot of e-mail. I think it
will take a while for the internet and radio/television
to catch on. Not in a bad way, but I think it
will catch on in the next five to ten years,
when people start to get e mail through their
television and so fourth.
Do you think everything will go online with
radio, TV, internet all coming through one 'big
box'?
I have no idea, I certainly don't fear it. But
is definitely something I would like to get
in to.
What advice would you give someone who wanted
to present or DJ?
Get behind the scenes right now.
Would you advise someone to go to university
and do a media degree?
I would probably go and get the degree because
it is a good fun three years. But I think the
issue is more whether you go to stage school
or you work your way up from behind the scenes
which is the way I would swear by, obviously
because that is the way that I did it. I believe
passionately the most important thing to people
who leave stage school is that they get famous,
and it doesn't matter in what they are doing.
Which therefore means that they won't passionately
believe in what they are doing. Whereas if you
work your way up from behind the scenes, you
get a chance to find out what it means to you
and it gives you a much broader base.
Taken from the Clickmusic website (original
article)
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