Coleen Nolan laughed out loud when co-presenter Ashley Banjo told her his idea for their new series of The Real Full Monty.
The pioneering TV show will see a group of brave celebrities yet again bare all in a daring dance routine – but this year, it will all take place on ice.
The line-up for the show – which aims to raise awareness of cancers in intimate areas of the body – includes Welsh rugby icon Gareth Thomas, actress Linda Lusardi, Love Island star Chris Hughes and journalist Dame Jenni Murray.
Half of the celebrities had never skated before rehearsals started in September.
Meanwhile, singer Coleen, 55, who starred in ITV reality show Dancing On Ice in 2009, quipped it was “traumatic” having to don skates again.
“I think if we pull it off, it will be spectacular,” she said. “My initial worry was, ‘It is going to lose the emotion that it has every year’.
“As long as we still make sure we still get the message across and that it still brings out the emotions that we want people to feel, then I’ll give it a go.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has made rehearsals, and filming the show, tougher too; there’s only one ice rink that’s open, and it’s five hours away from Coleen’s house. And then there’s all the testing before the celebs meet up, too. “The easiest thing to do would have been to go, ‘Do you know what, we will postpone it until next year’, but we all feel that this year, it’s more important than ever to get our message across because I think people have forgotten.
“Everyone’s so focused on Covid – we all are – that we all forget about all the other things, and to check ourselves.”
The bubbly, outgoing Loose Women host has a very personal reason to be raising awareness about this topic; her sister Bernie died from breast cancer in 2013, and two of her sisters are currently battling the disease.
Linda, 61, has been undergoing treatment for liver cancer while Anne, 69, has stage three breast cancer. How has Coleen been coping since their diagnoses?
“It has been a difficult year for every single person,” said Coleen, who has a daughter, Ciara, 19, from her second marriage to Ray Fensome, whom she divorced in 2018, and two sons, Shane Jr, 31, and Jake, 28, with first husband Shane Richie. “In some respects, that’s what gets you through it, because you think, everybody is suffering this year. Whether it be physically, financially, emotionally, we’ve all gone through it. So, you don’t feel so alone.”
The Real Full Monty on Ice, ITV, Monday and Tuesday, 9pm
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