TV star Alison Hammond has opened up about the moment she almost walked away from a popular TV programme due to the discomfort caused by her “unforgiving” costume.
Chatting with Lorraine Kelly on her What If?
Podcast in 2022, Alison delved into her career highs and lows, her positive outlook on life, and shared anecdotes from her time in the limelight.
Lorraine brought up Alison’s stint on the BBC show Hole in the Wall, where celebrities contort themselves to fit through cut-outs in approaching walls. Alison took part in the second series of the show in 2010, prior to her remarkable weight loss journey, and confessed that the outfit nearly led her to quit.
Alison recounted: “That was a brilliant show… but then I remembered, do you remember those silver jumpsuits? I can remember going and trying on my jumpsuit and it was really tight and I was like, to the seamstress, ‘Is there any way you can do something with this? ‘”
“She was like ‘We really haven’t got any time’ and it was the first time I was like ‘You know what? I feel really self-conscious’. Normally I embrace my curves and I love my curves but normally I can cover things that I don’t want to show but with this outfit I couldn’t cover anything up.”
Alison shared: “It was the first time I felt exposed, naked, and I really didn’t want to do it. I was literally just about to phone my agent and say ‘Listen, is there any way you can get me out of this because I’m in Scotland. I just don’t want to do it, I look a mess, I look terrible’.”
Despite her initial reluctance, Alison admitted that it was Joe Swash, one of the show’s team captains, who unknowingly encouraged her to participate when he greeted her with an unexpected embrace. She recounted: “I can remember Joe Swash jumping in the room and he looked at me and he went ‘Alison! ‘”.
“And he jumped on me, gave me the biggest hug and he was there in his little silver suit and he’s like dead skinny. He said ‘Alison, you look great! ‘ That moment of affirmation from Joe made me regain my confidence and I thought ‘It actually doesn’t matter, no-one cares’.”
She continued: “Everyone’s going to laugh and then not be bothered by it, lower your ego, Alison, get out of your ego state and just go and enjoy yourself – and that’s what I did. I put myself into my head and I went out and had such a good time. Maybe some people were laughing when they saw me first but after a while, they just got used to that that was my body and I just didn’t really care.”
Despite her initial hesitation, Alison chose to carry on with the show, confessing that she had “such a good time” but admitted that “in that moment I nearly didn’t do it just because of the way I felt in that moment. I just didn’t like seeing my body in that way”.
Alison Hammond is currently sharing presenting duties on the Great British Bake Off with comedian Noel Fielding.
