Olly Murs desperate to win The Voice for a third time as he loves stripping, says Emma Willis
HIS singers have won The Voice UK two years on the bounce – and Olly Murs has a very particular motivation to complete the hat-trick: Stripping off.
That is according to the contest’s host Emma Willis.
Twice before, Olly has posed nude to celebrate his wins.
And in an exclusive interview, Emma told me getting his kit off is now Olly’s primary goal with the ITV show.
She laughed: “I don’t know what he will do next.
"He sat on the big red chair naked . . .
‘Very naughty’
“I think he quite likes getting naked. He doesn’t care. I think Olly wants to win again just for that reason.”
Filming for the tenth season is well under way, with the blind auditions and battle rounds already in the can.
The coming year marks a new era for the singing competition, which switched over to ITV in 2015 after five seasons on the Beeb. Brit pop star Anne-Marie steps in as a coach for US singer Meghan Trainor, who pulled out after discovering she was pregnant.
And show bosses have taken the opportunity to implement a new twist: The “block button”. When the show begins next Saturday, at 8pm, fans will see Olly, Anne-Marie and fellow coaches Sir Tom Jones and Will.i.am given the chance to deploy the gizmo and prevent rival coaches from speaking with wannabe stars during the blind auditions.
Emma said of the innovation: “Each coach has a block button now. So if Olly turns (his chair) around, one of the other coaches can press the block button — and Olly won’t know until they’re in position to pitch.
“They find it hilarious. It’s as if they’re on a wind-up with their mates at school. The block button has made them very naughty. They are like naughty school kids with it.
But the dynamic hasn’t really changed. It is always different when someone new comes in but they are all just bloody lovely. I love how down-to-earth and normal Anne-Marie is. You just want to go to the pub with her. Her and Olly are very similar personalities.”
I bet she doesn’t share Olly’s obsession with getting his kit off in public.
JENNA IS A SPEX-SIREN
JENNA Coleman is almost unrecognisable as a Seventies sex siren in new BBC1 drama The Serpent.
She goes from geek to glamourpuss in big shades and even bigger hair as Marie-Andrée Leclerc, girlfriend of real-life killer Charles Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim).
The Serpent, which starts at 9pm on New Year’s Day, tells how Sobhraj robbed, bludgeoned and choked trippers in India, Nepal and Thailand.
The psychopath was aided by his French-Canadian partner, whom he transformed from an innocent tourist to his seductive accomplice.
Brave move
FANS of telly presenter and Strictly runner-up HRVY were concerned yesterday when he said he was “taking time away from” his phone.
His announcement came just days after being beaten in the Strictly final by Bill Bailey. It is a serious move for any 21-year-old – particular a social media pin-up.
Natalie has a smile on her Race
EASTENDERS’ Sonia Fowler doesn’t seem the most obvious company for a troupe of outrageous drag queens. But brace yourself . . . because it’s going to happen.
Soap stalwart Natalie Cassidy is part of the line-up delivering celebrity cameos in the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
She will be joined on the BBC Three show by choreographer Jay Revell, who recently appeared on Little Mix's talent hunt The Search, as well as Raven, who starred on the original Drag Race in the US.
Natalie said her own drag name would be Cassidy the Trumpet Strumpet. She added: “I love the show. I love its boldness, its brassiness and it’s sassiness.
“I was really thrilled to be part of it. It’s good fun. As ever, the talent is amazing and fabulous. There is so much creativity and humour and good fun, from what I’ve seen.
“It’s exactly the sort of thing we need to cheer us all up. Long live Drag Race.” The new season will be available to watch on iPlayer from January 14.
Red-hot Russell’s To-do list
EXPECT to see a lot more of Gavin & Stacey star Russell Tovey next year. He has written three shows and could star in two of them.
The actor appeared on ITV thrillers Flesh And Blood and The Sister this year and is set to make a film with Canadian singer Celine Dion.
But Russell will go back to his roots with his latest projects, which are all dramas with a comedy element.
Speaking on the podcast The Filling With Anna Barnett, he said: “I’ve got three shows in development I’ve written.
“There was one about to happen, something we were getting traction on, but then lockdown happened. So we’re gonna wait for that one.
“One of them I have to play – that’s fine. But the other two, I could play one of the other parts. But if someone else walked in the room and auditioned and they were brilliant, then they should definitely do it.”
Alien Soph didn’t even fool baby
IF you thought it was easy to spot Sophie Ellis-Bextor performing on The Masked Singer, you are not alone.
Sophie was disguised as Alien to deliver Dua Lipa's Don’t Start Now on the season opener on Boxing Day.
Most read in Bizarre
But her voice proved just too distinctive and after she was unmasked on the show, the mother of five took to social media, writing: “Even my one-year-old pointed at the telly and shouted, ‘Mummy!’ when I started singing in the Alien suit!
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“Anyhoo, a fun and trippy way to spend a few days and enjoy the rest of the show. No idea who anyone is.”
Neither do I . . . not now you’ve left, Sophie.
'Pinching the plot'
NETFLIX is being sued by an author in the US for supposedly pinching the plot of its teen drama Outer Banks, which the streaming giant released earlier this year.
Writer KW Wooten reckons the show borrows heavily from his 2016 novel Pennywise: The Hunt For Blackbeard’s Treasure.
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