HELLO! Fashion speaks to Vick Hope, presenter of spin-off shows for I’m A Celebrity, The Voice and The X Factor; co-host of BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks (following her time on Capital FM’s breakfast show), author and general good Samaritan. She also has a brand-new BBC podcast launching this year, which celebrates her love of music.
SHOP THE SHOOT: Get Vick Hope's dreamy spring looks from the HELLO! Fashion cover shoot
Vick Hope wearing a Kate Spade dress on her HELLO! Fashion cover shoot
"It sounds like I literally stand outside of the offices of ITV shouting, 'Give me another spin-off'," she laughs. "But I do love them, I love getting the gossip, I'm a chatty head. With all of those shows, it feels like I’m watching TV and then having a WhatsApp group discussion with my mates. Analysing why people have done X-Y-Z."
Vick on her HELLO! Fashion cover shoot
Starting off 2021 with a bang, Vick released children's book Shout Out: Use Your Voice, Save the Day!, a children’s book she co-wrote with former colleague Roman Kemp – a sequel to their 2019 debut Listen Up.
Shout Out: Use Your Voice, Save the Day!, £5.94, Amazon
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"The world has changed so much this year. Currently kids are indoors, unable to see their friends or go to school – they need that escape. I feel that a children’s book is really needed now."
She added: "I find children amazing and so interesting, intelligent and insightful – their curiosity is something I can relate to. And I feel they deserve stories that can cultivate them, and if that happens at a young age, then the sky’s the limit."
Vick explains how she and Roman (son of Martin Kemp) became good friends while presenting the radio show together. "When you see someone every single day, at 5.30am in the morning, you have to break down all barriers, you become very close. It’s a brother-sister friendship.
Vick and Roman Kemp on the red carpet together
"We came up with the ideas of characters from a world that we knew, our own childhoods, which were very different. And then, what do we know together now? It’s radio."
Vick claims her affinity with children is down to the fact she’s never really grown up. "Even at weddings, I’m quite often put on the children’s table, even though I’m very much a full adult," she laughs.
"I find children amazing and so interesting, intelligent and insightful – their curiosity is something I can relate to. And I feel they deserve stories that can cultivate them, and if that happens at a young age, then the sky’s the limit."
Vick rocking a Kate Spade jumper on the front cover of the new HELLO! Fashion - in stores now
Vick who is a proud ambassador for Amnesty International and has volunteered with the children’s group at a refugee project in Hackney she’s attached to, speaks four languages and received a BA in linguistics from Cambridge University.
It was during her year abroad in south America, where she interned at The Argentina Independent newspaper that she encountered contacts that would directly impact the job she does now. "I met some guys from MTV US, who needed an English-speaking host for a pilot that they were making. I thought it sounded fun, screen-tested and landed the job – that was my first taste of television."
Returning to Cambridge for her final year, the contacts she’d made at MTV put her in touch with the UK office, which led to her helping out during university holidays and at weekends, making cups of tea, printing out scripts and rolling out autocue for presenters such as Laura Whitmore and Rickie and Melvin. When she graduated she was given a paid internship at MTV - and the rest is history…
The full interview appears in the April/May issue of Hello! Fashion, out now.
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