KD: Yeah because of my skating and
because of the type of person that I
was, I was very active, I was very fit.
You know, I was like the official activity
guy. So, I did all of the skiing and the
rock climbing and all of that, which
was great. You know, to come home
to my wife and say, “I’ve been asked
to go to Austria skiing in a couple of
weeks’ time. Do you fancy it?” That was
great because we used to go with the
family, learn how to ski and that kind of
thing. Obviously, it was hard work and
long hours. I remember once we were
in Spain and the sun was setting and
we had about 60 seconds to get this
closing shot and that’s when it gets a
bit pressurised. You have a great time,
food and wine and all of that. Time on
the beach but, you know, when you’ve
got the camera crew there and they’re
saying, “we’ve got one take because the
sun’s going to go down. If we don’t get
this shot the whole episode is finished”
and you’ve got five paragraphs to learn,
and you’ve got to get it spot on, and it’s
the sign off to the programme…..that’s
when, as a presenter, you’ve got to
earn your money. It’s a skill to not let the
viewer know that the sun’s going down,
this is the last take and you’re going
to practically get fired if you don’t get
this shot. So, there was an element of
pressure. But, all in all, it was good.
JE: So, what brought you to Sussex?
KD: I met my wife in London. Her parents
moved down here. So, every weekend
we’d come into Brighton. I only had one
day off doing Starlight and that’s where
we’d go. We had a flat in Wandsworth
and we wanted to start a family. Brighton
is a lot cheaper for property than London
and we thought we could sell our flat
in London and buy a bigger property in
Brighton, be close to family and by the
sea. So it just made sense. We upped
sticks and moved down and started
our family. We have lived in Brighton for
about seven years.
KD: I’d like to take to a bit of time to
pretend to think about that, but without
question, the Holiday Show at the BBC.
JE: Is that because you got to go away
a lot?
KD: It was and I went away with my
family as well. It was my introduction into
‘real‘ telly as it were, a lot of people from
my generation see terrestrial channels
still as the stalwarts of TV - BBC1,
BBC2, ITV and Channel 4. Getting a job
as substantial as a BBC1, prime time,
holiday programme, watched by millions
was great and I thought: “My god.” I
have an opportunity to do that.
18
I remember I was doing an episode of
Blue’s Clues and I got a call from my
agent. He said, “are you sitting down? I’ve
just had a call from the BBC. They want
you to go to Amsterdam on Friday to film
a holiday piece.” And I was like, “yeah,
yeah, yeah.” So, I went off to Amsterdam
and unbeknown to me, it was what’s
called an aired pilot. So, it was a pilot for
me but they were going to show it anyway.
So I did that and it was like my test. And
afterwards they said, “yeah, we want you
to to do a lot more presenting.” So that
show for me sticks out.
JE: Didn’t you take on adventurer role on
that show?
JE: A few years ago I was involved in
a charity dance competition in aid of
Rockinghorse and I understand that you
are competing this year.
KD: I was at the Brighton & Hove Hotelier
Awards at the Metropole as a guest of
Rockinghorse, and at the end of the
awards I must have showed a couple of
moves on the dancefloor and Analiese
from Rockinghorse said to me, “Kevin,
I’ve got this idea……..” And she was
really clever because she asked me there
on the night and not the following day.
It’s for a great cause and it will be a bit
of fun. So, I’ve dusted off my dancing
shoes and I’m in training now as we