2Awesome, ITV2
2017 kicked off with a brand new show which I hosted alongside my bud, Roman Kemp. I cannot thank ITV2 enough for giving us the opportunity to look after Sunday afternoons, which mainly involved forcing celebrities to lick things while blindfolded, on a programme which feels reminiscent of the funny, irreverent hangover TV I loved so much growing up. 2Awesome brings YouTube and TV together with the newest shows straight from the US, and tons of brilliant guests, games and live performances, every Sunday from 1-3pm. The series has been a blast, with huge thanks in particular to Debbie, Trent, Abbie, Gemma and all the team responsible for creating something we are all very proud of. The final episode of the series is, excitingly, a bit of a Best Of (which yes, has made the 14-year-old montage-lover in me piss herself in glee), going out this coming Sunday, with a bunch more still available on the ITV Hub:
Weekend Breakfast, Capital Xtra
After a few weeks of demos, desk training and 3-6am shifts during which it was marginally less catastrophic that I accidentally played the news twice in a row (the second time with Rihanna’s Rude Boy as a bed) or left the mic up while eating my breakfast through Skepta’s Shut Down, it was such an honour to be welcomed into the Global radio family with my very own show on Capital Xtra, starting on my birthday in September (yeah, 5am call time partaaaay)! Saturdays and Sundays quickly went from a 6-10am shindig, to a lovely little 9am-1pm thang, with an even lovelier little crew of listeners. You’ve been amazing and I absolutely love waking you up with your sore, sore heads. Also excellent has been covering Toni’s afternoon shows Yinka’s evenings, Coco’s Clubber’s Guide and looking after Capital Xtra In The Morning every so often for Jez. I am still fairly staggered at the faith Global have had in me in such a short time, and huge thanks go to Al and Mike for their constant support, as well as Richard and Ashley for the opportunity. The Global journey continues…
The Slenderman Killings, Channel 5/5STAR
My very first TV documentary was an investigation into the rise of online horror and digital folklore, the human mind’s capacity for and obsession with fear, explored from the starting point of the case of the two young girls in Wisconsin who lured their friend into the forest where they stabbed her multiple times, leaving her for dead, telling police the ‘Slenderman’ – a totally fictional character – made them do it. Obviously, this broadcast on Halloween. Obviously, my investigation ultimately took me to Poland to meet a masked man in a derelict former Nazi sanatorium in the forest to find out why he’s been terrorising the internet. Obviously, I screamed quite a lot, for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to the team at ITN Productions, Bernie, Emma, awesome PD James, and AP Chris for being an absolute legend during our 3 solid weeks on the road together. Guardian Guide’s Pick Of The Day, say whaaaaat?! Still available on My5 (Channel 5 on demand): Watch Slenderman Killings on 5OD
The RedBull Flugtag 2016 Series, RedBullTV
Soon after landing back on home turf following RedBullTV’s Can You Make It series this time last year (see my previous blog post, yes, that’s dedication to blogging), it was fantastic to be asked to present another show for the channel, especially since this one was set to take me around the world, following the most nuts event in the history of aeronautic endeavours. I covered Flugtag in Zurich, Boston, Hong Kong and Louisville, Kentucky, alongside brilliant sports presenters Ed Leigh and Caroline De Moraes, and absolutely couldn’t have had more fun with the talented team from UMTV, with very special thanks to producers Liz and Jon, Thea for getting that shit done, and Chris for just absolutely everything: it really isn’t every day you get to meet such incredible (albeit completely batshit) engineers-come-pilots-come-daredevils/mentalists resolutely just trying to make a damn thing fly. Some crafts did, some crafts didn’t, watch here: Watch RedBull Flugtag 2016
Box Fresh 2017, 4Music/Box Upfront/Box Hits
This is a fantastic campaign across the Box Plus Network, alongside Go2b, championing brand new music and artists for 2017, and I have been the jammiest little dodger to be allowed to front it. Hosting duties basically entail spending a couple of days every month in warehouses around East London watching stellar live (acoustic and full band) performances from the likes so far of Tom Grennan, Fatherson, Declan McKenna, Ray BLK, Bebe Rexha, Will Joseph Cook and Jerry Williams, before interviewing them about their artistic influences, experiences and ambitions. All serious and muso-y and that. As well as a mega launch, showcasing our 2017 Spotlight acts, we are producing Fresh Focus spots on individual artists which sit across the channels each month, as well as a monthly magazine show called Fresh Forward, looking not only at music, but also fashion, film, food, feminism and tons of other pop culture trends that don’t begin with f too. Show 1 I managed to make a clusterfuck of rustling up vegan mocktails at All Bar 1, so with aerial yoga on the cards further down the line, really, anything could happen. A sweet-ass team of Flic, Joe, Mich, Marky and Jules on most shoots is just a dream, thanks fellas. Watch Box Fresh clips
The Hot Desk, ITV2
It’s been hella nice to hang about ITV more and more over the past year, I hope they don’t mind, cos I really like them. I presented The Hot Desk, giving Miss Vicky Pattison (of Geordie Shore and I’m A Celeb fame) a grilling, and unsurprisingly talking a lot about Newcastle (we both used to work in the same cocktail bar – in spite of what I’ve just said about my cocktailability – and frankly that was incredibly exciting for everyone involved/in the room). Thanks again UMTV, you’re constant gems. Watch the Hot Desk with Vicky Pattison on the ITV Hub
Trending Live, 4Music
Wellwellwell, it’s good to be back! Following something of a hiatus last year, it was ace to return to 4Music’s flagship daily live offering after the summer holidays, rejoining the Trending Live presenting line-up for straight-up frolics, Monday-Thursday, 4-6pm. Highlights of the last series have been: embarrassing myself singing a homemade hit to JoJo off-of-the-naughties; embarrassing myself getting proposed to live on TV and freaking right out about it; embarrassing myself asking Martin Garrix if he’s lonely; embarrassing myself having the shit scared out of me for a Halloween special trip to Shocktober; and the BRIT Awards 2017 special, which wasn’t particularly embarrassing, just a glorious, 3 hour live broadcast from the red carpet, interviewing the likes of Wiley, Rag n Bone Man, Dua Lipa, Anne Marie, Zara Larsson, Charli XCX and many, many more, while wearing an actual gown.
Watch clips from last series of Trending Live
We’ve taken a brief Easter break, and it is very exciting to be able to announce Trending Live is back, brand new and improved, with a flashy new studio set, fresh content and access, chat-oriented first hour and interactive music video polling in the second, as myself, Jimmy and AJ look after things moving forward. Catch me presenting Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, and have a little gander at our shiny new promo.
Also at 4Music, my weekly new music video run-down, Breakers, continues, I’ve popped in to cover the UK Music Video Chart and voice weekly artist takeovers, Hijack. 4 years on, and it’s really special to still work with the team here, thank you Matt for keeping me on board and plying me with stellar opportunities, Paddy, Rich, Edd, Al, Claire and the Trending team have been fantastically hard-working and just the most fun to work/hang with. Flic, Will, Joe, James, Marky, Rose, Mich and Rob I am mainly sorry for all the places you have had to put your hands to negotiate my admittedly inappropriate clothing. And Athena, so excited for what is to come working together.
Tastemade
A little selection of cooking videos I filmed at the end of last year are starting to drop across the Tastemade UK socials, which is a turn-up for the books (I keep saying cook and book mainly to convince people I am actually a Geordie). These were super fun to produce, after spending time drawing up and honing recipes before working for a day in an adorable kitchen in East London, rustling up and adapting some of my family’s favourite Nigerian-English recipes in a bid, let’s face it, for acceptance as an actual Nwosu-Hope. Brandishing a knife here for my Nigerian take on a fry-up brekkie. Watch out for my signature chilli sauce, stew and yam, tropical fruit salad and rice three ways coming soon… Alex, Mo, Lilly, it was lovely to meet and work with you, hyped to be a Tastemaker.
Vick’s Viral Videos, Beboxmusic.com
Taking things back to how I started out at 4Music and Box, it felt good to get writing, producing and editing my own content for them again with this series that ran throughout last summer and through to the end of the year after the launch of their brand new Bebox online platform. I’m really proud of these videos, primarily because I genuinely love nothing more than scouring the world wide web for its most ludicrous viral content and presenting it in as equally ludicrous a manner as possible. As well as every week rounding up the best viral fodder, I curated the best content from across the Bebox site and socials, and all those videos can be handily watched (IF YOU WANT) in the playlist below. Thanking-ya Andy for being a beast on the beauty shot, and Jamie and Ben y’all are dudes. Watch Vick’s Viral Videos playlist
Street Velodrome (series 2, 2016), BT Sport
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: cycling, eh, who knew?! Well, it turns out I bloody love it, ok. Totally honoured to be asked back to present a second series of this fast-paced, super-accessible cycle sport. We travelled around the country with our pop-up velodrome all summer 2016, following the amateur and pro racing, come rain or shine, with only a few broken collarbones, arms and noses this time. The Cyclevox crew were such solid bros throughout, with thanks to Alex who took the helm this time round, Ant for getting me back on board, and Carl and the SV team for their hard work on the competition. The series – which broadcast in the autumn – can be caught up on (along with last year’s series) right hurrr: Watch the 2016 Street Velodrome series here
FYI Daily, ITV2, ITN
This Easter marks three years since my first shift on ITV’s daily entertainment news bulletin, FYI Daily, which plays out across ITV2, 3 and 4 every evening, interrupting your films (I know you were happily watching Fast and Furious 7 again there, I’m sorry). I’m still writing, producing, editing and presenting this show every other weekend, over at ITN Productions, and am happy to say that the viewing figures which came in for last year are sweet, at an average reach of 764k people a day, and 4.3million watching FYI across the channels each week. Obviously, above all, thank you JP for continuing to have me look after this show, I appreciate your constant support, enthusiasm and faith, and for giving me some of the most important and formative opportunities of my career.
As well as in studio, as always I’ve been out and about reporting for ITN, hitting red carpets, junkets, award shows, fashion shows and backstage at gigs and ceremonies hustling interviews for FYI, as well as Channel 5’s Access and ITN’s digital clients, including ODE, Telegraph, Daily Mail, aol, msn, yahoo and laaaats more. Here are some of my favourites over the last year:
Sex tips from Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie
Talking Brexit, colonial karma and fox genitalia with Hozier
Lego Batman vocal coaching with Will Arnett…and Trump chat obvs
David Oyelowo on Queen Of Katwe and diversity in Hollywood
Getting a ribbing from Eric Stonestreet, who mainly just wants to talk about my boyfriend…
What do you think?