London Hughes interview
London Hughes talks to us about her role in BBC One's Ready Or Not, and updates us on her big plans for the rest of the year.
Hi London. What role do you play in Ready Or Not?
I am one of the hosts - I am the funniest one!
Basically, my job is to prank people into doing a high energy, high octane stunt for money.
How did you find it, surprising the public?
Easy! I love surprising the public.
To be honest, some of the people recognised me so I had to act a bit weird, I had to pretend I was selling them free sandwiches and a few of them were like 'Aren't you...' and I was like 'no no no' it's just me trying to give away free sandwiches, but once it was revealed that it was a prank I was in my element and I love doing stuff with the public.
It's so much fun. I didn't find it hard at all, I found it great.
How much preparation did you do? How much was improvised?
I did no prep. I just show up - and do.
I literally did zero prep, they honestly threw me in the deep end with this one. I'm used to it. I've done a few prank shows before, so they knew I could handle it.
Were there any dodgy reactions from the public that couldn't be used?
There were no dodgy reactions, everything got used.
We filmed about 8 pranks in a day. Sometimes the pranks did get ruined by people just being like 'Oh, is there really free sandwiches? I just want the lunch'... "no I'm trying to do a TV show here and, yep, you can win money"... but everybody was really up for it.
It was a long day of me standing outside in the cold with no coat, but apart from that, it was great.
As you've already touched upon, comedy fans will already recognise you, and thus rumble you?...
They did recognise me, but I didn't get rumbled they just went along with it because they recognised me.
The girl on the show in the first episode; she actually knew exactly who I was and afterwards she was like 'I only did it because it was you'. She was hilarious. Her name's Abby and she was really really fun.
It's only going to get worse because I'm getting more and more famous, year by year!!
Presumably, once the show has aired, it is going to make it harder for you to go out in public day-to-day... people will spot you and think you're about to pounce on them!?
Babes, it's already hard! Yes it probably will make people think that I'm going to prank them. Which I also love, so it's fine. I'm looking forward to the day that someone sees me and goes 'Ah, I want to win some money'... yeah, that will be great.
What's next for you in 2018?
I've just been signed in America to a comedy and entertainment management company called Haven Entertainment who look after some big stars - I am now one of them!
I'm going back out there in May because I'm in talks about writing my own sitcom over there and I've had crazy auditions and meetings with people like Comedy Central that want to work with me in America.
In the UK, I'm working on a travel show, a fun travel show. I feel like guys are allowed their own travel shows like An Idiot Abroad; even Joey Essex had a travel show where he went out and did stuff and it was just following him around the world. I feel like women only have travel shows if they're selling houses, so I would like one where it's 'London goes to...' and it's following the crazy stuff I get up to and it's reality/comedy/travel/food/fun - that's what I'm working on next.
I'm also working on more live work and my own sitcom, so watch this space. London Hughes isn't going away any time soon!