Dermot O’Leary of This Morning opened up about his co-star’s past and described him as a key influence in his career, in a surprising admission
Dermot O’Leary has said one of his This Morning co-stars has another side to him that not many people know about. The presenter credited Andi Peters with giving him his big career break, after being offered a screen test for T4 before eventually landing a job on the show.
While Andi Peters is often seen presenting competitions and occasionally standing in as a host across ITV programmes, the 52-year-old insisted there’s far more to him than that. Opening up about his true character, Dermot described Andi Peters as “whippet smart” and credited him with helping bring Dawson’s Creek to UK audiences through Channel 4’s T4 strand.
Reflecting on how his career began, Dermot recalled how Andi spotted him warming up the audience for a live show, which led to the screen test opportunity. Speaking to Holly Rubenstein on The Travel Diaries, he said: “He saw me doing warm up and then I got chatting to him and he said, ‘Look, I’m starting this thing on Channel 4, I can’t give you a job but I can give you a screen test. I’ll keep you in mind’.
“And I’m so indebted to Andi because he…,” Dermot continued, before being asked if he meant “competitions Andi”.
“Yeah,” he confirmed, before adding: “What you have to understand about Andi is if he wanted to Andi could be in the running to be the next Director General of the BBC.
“Andi is whippet smart and if he had chosen to go down that route he’d be running channels now, but I think he just likes the gym too much and likes smoothies and wants an easy life.”
Dermot went on to highlight Andi’s behind-the-scenes talent, adding: “Because he started T4 and he was able to buy the shows we watched so he was responsible for like Dawson’s Creek and he executively produced the show, he studio directed the show from time to time, which is an unbelievably difficult to do.
“And he was just a great talent spotter and just a genuine lovely guy and just a brilliant man.”
Following his time on T4, Dermot moved on to present Big Brother’s Little Brother from 2001. Six years later, it was announced he would replace Kate Thornton as host of The X Factor.
After eight years, he stepped down in 2015 and was replaced by Olly Murs and Caroline Flack, before returning to the role a year later.
These days, Dermot remains a familiar face across television and radio, including BBC Radio 2. He also presents This Morning every Friday alongside Alison Hammond, and also steps in during school half terms on occasion.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV and ITVX.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
