Dermot O'Leary's My London

'I've been discussing polonecks with Gary Barlow. I think they're underrated and not worn enough'

10 April 2012

The

Home is
Highbury. I've been living here for six years, but when my family first came over from Ireland we were based in northwest London, which was very much the Irish area.

What was the last play you saw?
The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre. It was spine-tingling.

What advice would you give a tourist?
Get an A-Z and go off the beaten track. Walk along the canal, go up to Primrose Hill, get lost in Hampstead and find the good vintage markets.

What's the best meal you've had in London?
My favourite breakfasts were battered and bruised scrambled eggs at The Engineer in Primrose Hill. I was devastated when it closed.

What's the first thing you do when you arrive back in London?
Aside from reading my mail and doing the laundry, I get a good takeout from Yildiz, a Turkish restaurant on Blackstock Road.

What's the most romantic thing someone's done for you?
I'm a geek when it comes to old aeroplanes and for my 31st birthday my girlfriend Dee bought me a trip in a 1943 Boeing Stearman from Manston airfield, just outside London.

What's your earliest London memory?
Throwing a snowball at my dad outside my auntie's house on Kempe Road in Queen's Park when I was six.

Do you have a recurring dream?
I used to dream that I was on a roller coaster and all my teeth kept falling out when it did the loop-the-loop.

If you could live in any London building, which would it be?
St Patrick's Church on Soho Square is one of my favourite buildings - I don't know if I'd live there, though.

What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?
I'd open up the river bus. I've used it several times travelling down the river to gigs at The O2 but it shouldn't be an indulgence, we should be using it every day.

What's your biggest extravagance?
My old VW Karmann Ghia.

Which shops do you rely on?
There's nothing I hate more than cheap shoes,
so for a good pair I go to JM Weston or George Cleverley, off Savile Row. For suits I go to Spencer Hart or Hardy Amies. For casualwear I'm a Liberty boy and I like Albam, too. I go to Foyles as much as I can for books, and for coffee and good deli food, I go to Lina Stores on Brewer Street.

What animal would you most like to be?
A peregrine falcon - I want to be one of those guys hanging out in Regent's Park.

What was the last album you bought?
Terri Nunn & Berlin: All The Way In by the band Berlin. It was playing in HMV so I asked what it was and bought it.

What are you up to at the moment?
Right now I'm on my way to do the voiceover for this weekend's The X Factor. I've also got my show on Radio 2 every Saturday playing new music, so when I work from home I listen to
new bands all day. Plus I've got my two Fishy Fishy restaurants in Brighton and Poole.

Who's your hero?
The Edwardian explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. His motto was: 'Through endurance we conquer.' That's how I like to approach The X Factor.

Which is your favourite pub?
The Woodbine in Finsbury Park is a lovely little boozer; the Guinness is great.

What do you most like wearing?
Suits from Thom Sweeney or Spencer Hart.

The fashion police at ES are divided about your decision to wear polonecks on The X Factor - what's your defence?
I've been discussing this with Gary [Barlow] and I think they're underrated and not worn enough. They can look a bit boxy but I love them.

What is your favourite London discovery?
Going to the top of The Monument to the Great Fire of London, you have a real picture of what London looked like in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Have you ever had a run-in with the London police?
No, I've always kept my beak clean.

Tell me something I don't know about London...
'Rule Britannia' was written upstairs at The Dove pub in Hammersmith.

Where did you last go on holiday?
I went to Gallipoli in Puglia with Dee, which was beautiful. I've just got back from filming the Judges' Houses for The X Factor: we went to Mykonos for Tulisa's 'house', which was right by a deserted beach so I went for a swim every morning.

The Fishy Fishy Cookbook is available now (New Holland, £16.99)

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