Joel Dommett is the safest couple in entertainment. He’s funny but not edgy, headstrong but never polarizing.
He is handsome but not selfish, confident but never self-assured.
No wonder he’s the new king of Saturday night television, having gone from obscure stand-up comedian to the next Dermot O’Leary in just a few short years.
Ever since he finished second to Scarlett Moffatt on “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” In 2016 his TV profile rose steadily, culminating in him becoming the presenter of ‘The Masked Singer’ and ‘The Masked Dancer’, two big ITV hits, and the annual National Television Awards, Britain’s most prestigious tribute to our most beloved stars and Shows, goes live from London’s O2 Arena every Tuesday week.
But behind his polished exterior he hides an endearing complexity and a little manic. He is prone to nightmares and crises of confidence. “I bite my thumb when I’m nervous,” he laughs.
“My wife, Hannah, knows when I’ve had a stressful day because I bit her to pieces.” I don’t show my fear on the outside, but it shows in my thumbs. I used to get really cold legs when I was nervous before going on stage. I was shaking, so I always wore thermals under my jeans.
Gloucestershire presenter Joel Dommett admits he will be trying to make midwives laugh next month when his first child is born
“I remember meeting a girl once after a show, but nothing says sexier than having to deal with an extra layer of thermal after taking off your jeans.”
A nightmare hails from the NTAs at Wembley Arena last year when he almost missed the show despite being the host.
“For some reason, which I still don’t know, I was told that instead of just walking up the corridor to the red carpet, I should get in a car and have them drive me to the other side of Wembley Stadium to start from the front to go in.”
“That was ridiculous. Why am I getting out of a car when I’ve obviously been in the building all day?
“We ended up sitting in traffic for almost an hour knowing that in just a few minutes I would be on live television in front of millions of people.”
“We were so late that we had to get out and walk through traffic with my wife in heels while people took pictures and said, ‘Isn’t that Joel who was supposed to be hosting the show?’ I was sweating, then I was said I couldn’t get in because I didn’t have a ticket. I said, “That’s because I’m the host!” “I had to fight my way into the building.”
This is the third time Joel’s has hosted the NTAs. The nerves aren’t getting any easier, but he’s found a way to get them under control. “I’m trying to simplify the situation. It’s easy to think, ‘Oh God, there are 15,000 people here. There’s Ant and Dec and Ricky Gervais and Michael McIntyre in the front row looking at me.”
“The head is so full that it’s impossible to do the work, which is literally just reading.” You have a script and you’ve read it hundreds of times.
“I find it helpful to reflect on how ridiculous this job is: wearing a white tuxedo and handing out awards.” It’s a privilege. It’s fun. It brings joy. But it’s also ridiculous. So don’t take yourself too seriously.’
One thing Joel needs to take seriously is the impending birth of his first child. He once explained, “I can’t take care of myself, so I can’t bother cleaning up after the babies.”
But that has all changed. He and model Hannah Cooper married in 2019 after three years together in Mykonos and announced their pregnancy in May. Hannah, 32, said she interviews birth partners to avoid having one of Joel’s comedic performances dominate the momentous occasion.
He and model Hannah Cooper married in 2019 after three years together in Mykonos and announced their pregnancy in May
Now the nursery is ready for September’s arrival and it’s starting to feel very real. “I really have no idea what I’m doing,” admits Joel, 38.
“I’ll try to make the midwives laugh.” I have the mental age of a 12-year-old. My job is to crack jokes in awkward situations, and there aren’t many more awkward situations than six people staring at my wife’s privates. But I’ll try to be reasonable.
“We’re really excited, but it’s terrifying.” We know the baby’s gender and we have a name that we really like. We just hope the Kardashians don’t steal it before we’ve finally settled on it.
“It’s our worst fear.” I’ll probably welcome the baby the way I welcome people to the NTAs, with a speech. I just hope it lasts until after the show.”
The last few years have been all about perfect timing for Joel. His professional and romantic life fitted at the same time as he met Hannah in 2016 when his career was taking off.
“Plus, the baby came at a really good time,” he says. “With The Masked Singer and the NTAs, it’s the first time I’ve had secure employment, so I don’t feel like I have to be out at the comedy clubs every night.” I’m an overworker, so I hope so that shows me a bit from the other side.”
When he met Hannah, he had just finished filming I’m A Celebrity and had just been through a sex scandal. A video of him circulating online after meeting a woman named “Staci Taylor” over Skype, who turned out to be Catfish.
“I thought I was having Skype sex with someone, but I wasn’t — it was just a video of someone,” he confessed to his jungle mates.
The perpetrators tried to blackmail him, but far from playing the victim, Joel incorporated the traumatizing experience into his stage performance. “When it happened, I thought, ‘What have I done? That wasn’t real, was it?” he says now.
Joel once joked that he couldn’t take care of himself let alone a baby, but that has changed as he is expecting his first child next month
“The way I see it, the more you hide, the more there is to find out.” So instead of saying, ‘Oh no, that’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,’ I thought, ‘This could be a fun show. ‘ I was the victim and I still get messages saying, ‘This happened to me. What should I do?’
“My advice is to distance yourself from it.” Even though you’ve been a victim, you have to try to laugh about it because it doesn’t help to think about it.”
Joel went in search of the catfish and found the images used by “Staci” on a profile of a woman named Natalia Noir.
He contacted her to say her pictures were being used for blackmail. He never found “Staci” but he and the real Natalia went on a few dates and became friends.
The catfishing was one of the 40 sexual encounters he chronicled in his 2018 book It’s Not Me, It’s Them: Confessions Of A Hopeless Modern Romantic.
“Hannah and I have always had an honest and open relationship, so there wasn’t anything she didn’t know,” he says.
Joel proposed to Hannah on the last page of the book and they have no regrets. While many showbiz relationships have struggled, hers is only going from strength to strength, even after they scrutinized it by airing the lockdown TV show Home Alone from their home in south-west London and co-hosting a podcast with entitled “Never Have I Ever” sees how they respond to unusual suggestions from listeners.
Hannah may be a kindred spirit, but she also gives Joel the safe haven he has always sought. He grew up on a farm in Gloucestershire, but while his brother Ben pursued a career as a farm and construction equipment builder, Joel was introverted, artistic and a “mommy”.
“I was the weirdo at school, hanging out with a group of weirdos,” he recalls. “I once ate steak every day for a year and even took it home in a Tupperware box to eat with dates. ‘How did I even find a woman?’ He laughs in disbelief.
“I love a routine, eat the same breakfast at the same time every day and go to bed early as bars and drinking aren’t my thing.”
When Joel met Hannah, he had just done I’m A Celebrity. Pictured: the couple in October 2022
“The weirdo group wasn’t afraid to make a fool of ourselves.” We became friends because we felt like we were being made fun of and didn’t belong. I met my best friend Steve at school and he had really weird bones.
“After school we didn’t see each other for a few years, then we met again when I was planning a show in Edinburgh. He then became my tour manager and helped write the scripts for the NTAs.
“This business is about surrounding yourself with the right people who keep their feet on the ground.”
Joel began his acting career, winning small roles including in the Dylan Thomas biopic The Edge Of Love, starring Sienna Miller, Keira Knightley and Cillian Murphy. Ironically, this was a sex scene with Sienna.
“I’d only done it once in real life, so I was petrified. But Sienna was absolutely nice to me. I haven’t met her since, so I’m sure she won’t remember me, and the sex scene was edited out anyway,” he laughs.
At the age of 21 he went to Los Angeles. “For me, acting, it was hooray because I never felt like I fit into that world.” “I was really bad at the audition, I suffered from a real lack of confidence.”
LA’s anonymity gave him the courage to open mic at a comedy club. “I loved standing up, but I didn’t know you could do it for a living.” After that night of open mic, walking home on Sunset Boulevard, I knew I could do it would. I realized I loved being laughed at.’
The next decade in stand-up was brutal, but audiences gradually came to love his material.
‘I once had a lady stand up and yell, ‘Why don’t you just read the raffle?’ and I put members of the audience to sleep.’
It’s about pushing the envelope for some comedians, but not for Joel. He knows that with his new parenting status there will be a lot of father-related material.
“There’s no point in me suddenly jumping into a really ridiculous joke that could get me in trouble because I host The Masked Singer and I’m fully aware that that’s my bread and butter.” “Edginess isn’t mine Style.”
So what is? “Lighthearted friendliness,” he smiles.
- The National Television Awards, Tuesday September 5, 8pm, ITV1.
WHO GETS THEIR VOTE AT THE NTAs?
Christopher Stevens, TV critic for the Chron
Best set up your party, pour a glass of bubbly and grab your phone. It’s time for Britain’s TV fans to judge TV’s biggest awards.
Voting is still open for the National Television Awards 2023, which will be broadcast live on ITV on Tuesday September 5, with some of the most exciting competitions in the event’s 28-year history.
A highlight is the drama performance battle between Sarah Lancashire and James Norton, stars of Happy Valley. She played the stalwart cop Catherine Cawood, he was the psychopath Tommy Lee Royce, who pursues a vendetta against her – a real battle between good and evil.
In both previous series Lancashire were nominated for an NTA with a win in 2017. But Norton delivered the performance of his life, so will he claim glory this time? Or will one of her rivals – Judy Parfitt as Call The Midwife’s Sister Monica Joan, India Amarteifio as young Charlotte in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story or Brenda Blethyn in Vera – trump them both?
Happy Valley, Vera and Call The Midwife are also all nominated, alongside Netflix’s Stranger Things, for Returning Drama – one of the few streaming service titles nominated, proving that terrestrial television continues to withstand the on-demand revolution.
This year saw some exceptional documentaries about illnesses, both mental and physical. Lewis Capaldi, Matt Willis and Rob Burrows have all revealed their souls, but the favorite is certainly the late Dame Deborah James, whose incredibly moving “Bowelbabe In Her Own Words” documented her battle with cancer.
There is also a clear favorite in the Reality category. While “Love Island” and “SAS: Who Dares Wins” lived up to their usual standards, and “Race Across The World” was widely acclaimed for being its best series yet, “The Traitors” made headlines. Like many critics, I wasn’t expecting anything special from this new format, which felt like a cross between Big Brother and a haunted house adventure. But by the end of the first episode I was completely hooked.
Host Claudia Winkleman is also nominated in the TV Host category, but faces tough opponents in the likes of Ant and Dec (shortlisted for the 22nd year in a row) and Bradley Walsh. Alison Hammond is also a front runner when it comes to holding onto This Morning. Will anyone breathe the name P**l**p Sch**f***d tonight? Unlikely…
A surprise nomination is Amazon Prime Video’s Clarkson’s Farm in the Factual category. Jeremy Clarkson caused outrage last year when he demanded that Meghan Markle be subjected to a Game of Thrones-style humiliation, and many people feel he has yet to earn the forgiveness.
Its competitors include The Martin Lewis Money Show Live and the Stacey Solomon decluttering festival Sort Your Life Out. But there can only be one winner: the late Paul O’Grady, whose final season of For The Love Of Dogs aired shortly after the beloved star’s death.
Certainly Paul has to win. Anything else would be barking!
HOW TO VOTE: To vote for free, visit nationaltvawards.com. Or call 0905 647 2023. Calls cost 25p a minute plus your network access charge and shouldn’t take more than seven minutes. Votes must be completed by noon on September 5, 2023.