Well...it all started with my tap dancing teacher being approached by ITV productions who make the show for Channel 4, to see if she knew any 45+ women that would be prepared to be on TV and had a bit of spark about them.......
I then made contact with ITV productions, having never heard of the show, let alone watch it, but thought it may be when a celebrity chef comes to your house to cook a meal! Oh dear...how wrong I was was! Within 48 hours I had completed a long questionnaire about myself and my hobbies and interests, completed two long telephone interviews and a 5 hours screen test at Seven Acres. After the second telephone interview I knew what it was all about as my response to the question “If you were to win what would you spend the money on” and my reply was “There’s a prize!!!!!?”. The director then explained it to me. I almost pulled out the following week as I watched a couple of episodes where the guests included an outrageous transvestite and a chap into dark arts who had the guests eating in a dungeon! Also, they squealed at each other in delight at the front doors each night - and I told ITV that I didn’t do that with my best friends - let alone a bunch of strangers! However, I was assured that the other people were “normal” and that we would be part of the new series, which was going back to the original roots - 5 “normal” but slightly quirky and different people thrown together for a week. So I agreed to participate.
It was fun week - but extremely tiring. It started on the Sunday with several hours filming at Seven Acres to get background information and to show the menu for the first night, and then from Monday to Thursday I was picked up at 4.30 to be taken to the venue for the night, and got home at around 2.00am each day. - and I worked Monday and Tuesday! For my day, the Friday, the crew were here at 9.00 to set up lighting and start filming.
It’s fair to say that this amount of publicity was not planned on The Bucket List, however as my second life is all about experiences - all I can say is WOW! What an experience. I didn’t get to see any edits in advance so the first time I saw it was the same time 2.5 million people watched it, and although I was dreading it, not only was I able to laugh along with it, but at the end of the day I was portrayed as a really nice person, albeit somewhat eccentric! I have had very positive feedback from both friends and strangers.
I then made contact with ITV productions, having never heard of the show, let alone watch it, but thought it may be when a celebrity chef comes to your house to cook a meal! Oh dear...how wrong I was was! Within 48 hours I had completed a long questionnaire about myself and my hobbies and interests, completed two long telephone interviews and a 5 hours screen test at Seven Acres. After the second telephone interview I knew what it was all about as my response to the question “If you were to win what would you spend the money on” and my reply was “There’s a prize!!!!!?”. The director then explained it to me. I almost pulled out the following week as I watched a couple of episodes where the guests included an outrageous transvestite and a chap into dark arts who had the guests eating in a dungeon! Also, they squealed at each other in delight at the front doors each night - and I told ITV that I didn’t do that with my best friends - let alone a bunch of strangers! However, I was assured that the other people were “normal” and that we would be part of the new series, which was going back to the original roots - 5 “normal” but slightly quirky and different people thrown together for a week. So I agreed to participate.
It was fun week - but extremely tiring. It started on the Sunday with several hours filming at Seven Acres to get background information and to show the menu for the first night, and then from Monday to Thursday I was picked up at 4.30 to be taken to the venue for the night, and got home at around 2.00am each day. - and I worked Monday and Tuesday! For my day, the Friday, the crew were here at 9.00 to set up lighting and start filming.
It’s fair to say that this amount of publicity was not planned on The Bucket List, however as my second life is all about experiences - all I can say is WOW! What an experience. I didn’t get to see any edits in advance so the first time I saw it was the same time 2.5 million people watched it, and although I was dreading it, not only was I able to laugh along with it, but at the end of the day I was portrayed as a really nice person, albeit somewhat eccentric! I have had very positive feedback from both friends and strangers.
Come Dine With Me
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