Television: Diary of a Soapstar Superbrain!
By Avril Keogh
Having received my application to become the UK and Ireland's Ultimate Soap Brain, ITV's This Morning programme rang me to see if I would still like to do the show. Of course I said yes! - I'm a big fan of This Morning, particularly presenter Phillip Schofield, so the chance to meet him was one reason and the other is that plain and simply, I love soaps and I am in fact, an addict. I admit it. So the producer of the show quizzed me over the phone on Coronation Street, which will be round one, and when I passed they confirmed that I'd be on the show on Thursday!!
Wednesday 21st July
On my way to the airport, Tom Dunne from Newstalk radio rang me and quizzed me 'live on air' on my soap viewing habits and proceeded to ask me some really difficult Corrie questions, most of which I got right. When I got to Stansted Airport, ITV sent a car to pick me up to bring me to the hotel. I did a little more soap study before having an early night ahead of the long day that would follow..
Thursday 22nd July
6.30am - The alarm goes off. Not that I needed it too as I was already awake. I was visualising the Street and going around all the houses trying to name characters, actors and their relationships to each other!
7.00am - ITV sent a car to the hotel to take me to the studios. My nerves are at a premium.
7.30am - Arrive at the studios and meet my opponent Michael from Angelsey in Wales. Lovely guy, but hey let's not get too close - this is war!
8.00am
- We're briefed by the producer Tom. He tells us what format the quiz
will take and asks us if we have any questions. Oh yes and that's the
bit where he tells us we'll be helped in the quiz by a Coronation Street
legend. I get Kevin Kennedy who played Curly Watts, and Michael gets
Tupele Dorgu who played Kelly Crabtree.8.30am - We're taken to make-up where I get to meet Ruth Langsford, the presenter of the programme. She, and her husband Eamonn Holmes are presenting the programme while Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby are off on holidays (d'oh!). Ruth is lovely though and tells me that herself and Eamonn are coming over to Dublin soon to appear on The Miriam O'Callaghan Show. Nerves are subsiding a bit.
9.00am - Michael and I are taken to the studio to do a quick rehearsal and to record a promo that will be played through out the show. Oh yes did I mention, were going to be the last item on the show. Nerves are growing again. I'm knocking back the water (I swear that's all it is!) like there's no tomorrow.
10.00am - We get to meet the lovely Kev (as I call him now) and Tupele Dorgu who come into the Green Room, sit down and have a chat and a cuppa with us.
10.30am - This Morning goes live.
Michael and I look at each other in total amazement as we're sitting in
the famous This Morning green room and the even more famous This Morning
theme tune is playing. Is this for real, we both ask each other at
exactly the same time????11.20am - Up and coming singer-songwriter Eliza Doolittle appears on the show singing her big hit 'Pack Up Your Troubles'. The whole green room is singing. Nerves are subsiding again.
12.00pm - The time is quickly approaching and we're taken into the studio. My make-up is topped up, Michael's isn't! The set is a mock up of the Rovers Return and Sharon Marshall the resident soap reviewer on This Morning is dressed up as old Corrie legend Bet Lynch. She's the score keeper for the quiz. We sit down at the tables waiting for the item to start.
12.15pm - There's a commercial break just before the quiz starts where Eamonn Holmes comes over and gives me a great big welcoming hug and has a quick chat with Michael and I before we start.
12.18pm - The quiz is on.. I was extremely lucky and got much easier questions than Michael and I ended up being crowned (not literally) Coronation Street queen.
12.30pm - Photos taken in studio and in our cars back to airport.
So next week they will have two more people doing an Emmerdale quiz, then an EastEnders quiz and then a Hollyoaks quiz and then on August 19th all four champions come together and fight it out. That's when Dynasty, Dallas, Home and Away and Neighbours come into it. One of us will go home, the same the following week and then on September 2nd the two lucky finalists will fight it out to become the Ultimate Soapstar Superbrain.
I am swot-ting lots now on things like Hollyoaks that I don't know a lot about. So if anyone has any questions that they don't think I'll know post them here and I'll try my best.
The first pic attached is Eamonn Holmes, me and Kevin Kennedy (Curly Watts) and the second pic attached is me with Tupele Dorgu (I'm on the right just in case you couldn't tell us apart).