GQ magazine interview (October 2001)

The unflappable star of live TV, and top boy in the 'cool' school of television presenters. 'It's about talent and hard work,' he says.

"I'm still paranoid that I won't be working in six months and I won't be able to pay my mortgage," says 28-year-old Dermot O'Leary, who for two years fronted T4, Channel 4's Sunday morning equivalent of an Alka-Seltzer and big greasy fry-up. GQ met him just prior to his final appearance on "his baby", a programme of which he is "extremely proud".

For a guy who has re-vamped - perhaps even re-launched - Channel 4 on a Sunday, he's impressively unassuming. "You see," he insists, "I took the job because I wanted to do live TV. And it becomes a real buzz. So for that to go - and my normal pay cheque to go..." He trails off, looking almost as lost as Kelly Brook when she did her stint on The Big Breakfast (a show he later guest-hosted to great acclaim).

But his silence doesn't last - it seems impossible for Dermot O'Leary to stay quiet for that long. "Of course I've been lucky, but success is about three things: luck, talent and hard work. You can be as lucky as you like, but if you haven't got the talent and you're not willing to work hard, you're not going to succeed."

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are all clamouring to tie him to an exclusive contract, but O'Leary's emphatically not going to lock himself in what he calls "golden handcuffs". Instead, he's hosting a BBC programme this winter called SAS: Are You Tough Enough? - where he will put contestants through rigorous, bruising SAS-style training. And there are also a few other proposals in the pipeline.

In the meantime, he's looking forward to letting off some steam. "It's going to be really weird going out on a weekend. I'm usually in bed by ten-thirty," he says.

But the strange thing is, he actually prefers it that way. "I enjoy what I do, and I know I'm good. It riles me when people say I'm only where I am from being in the right place at the right time."

So what about the success - the money, the glamour, the girls? O'Leary contents himself with a little light Schadenfreude.

"The nicest thing about climbing the ladder is that you almost want to flip the bird to the people who didn't support you when you started out," he says, "You don't, obviously, but it's nice to know you can if you want to." - Niki Bowes