{"id":18185,"date":"2014-01-09T11:39:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T11:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toyah.net\/?p=18185"},"modified":"2014-01-09T11:39:16","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T11:39:16","slug":"itv-press-centre-splash-heat-2-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/itv-press-centre-splash-heat-2-interviews\/","title":{"rendered":"ITV Press Centre: Splash! Heat 2 Interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"splash14e\"Interviews With Heat 2 Celebrities: Toyah Willcox<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: What inspired you to participate in this year\u2019s Splash!?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Since I was a teenager, I have fantasised about high diving. It\u2019s always been a dream of mine. I was very lucky that at school I learned how to dive, but I haven\u2019t done it since. The only problem is that I have probably left it about 40 years too late! Diving at the age of 55 is a radically different experience. But I will be hurling myself off a three metre board on live television because I want to prove that just because you hit 50, it doesn\u2019t mean you should slow down. All in all, working on this show has been exhilarating.<\/p>\n

Q: How have you found it working with Tom Daley?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: He is a consummate gentleman. He is a wonderful teacher. He\u2019s amazingly patient \u2013 he sees nobody\u2019s age or gender or ability. He\u2019s very easy on the eye, and he has none of that usual teenage angst. He\u2019s very calm, and I think that may come from the inherent danger of what he does. You can\u2019t do it if you\u2019ve just had a night on the tiles. If you are feeling distracted when you dive, you\u2019ll simply hurt yourself. Tom is a fantastic role model and a superb asset for the show.<\/p>\n

Q: Which board have you dived off already?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I\u2019ve gone off the three metre board twice. It was an incredible experience. Beforehand, you don\u2019t realise just how fast you travel into the water. Afterwards I was elated. It felt like a massive step forward and a huge achievement.<\/p>\n

Q: Did Tom help you prepare for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Yes, he was brilliant. He told us to take it slowly. You have to prepare yourself mentally and physically \u2013 you don\u2019t just climb the ladder and dive in. You need to take a moment beforehand to get your mind and body exactly right. Diving is the art of falling forward and entering the water correctly. So preparation is vital. It\u2019s very easy to be off the mark. That\u2019s why we\u2019re doing so much training, so we won\u2019t be distracted by the cameras and the huge audience when it comes to the live shows.<\/p>\n

Q: What do you think about doing the live shows?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I\u2019m feeling, \u201cOh my God!\u201d I\u2019ve got a large hurdle because I\u2019ve never been seen in public in a bikini before, and I feel rather disturbed about the prospect. I don\u2019t do beach holidays , and I\u2019m not confident in a bikini. It\u2019s cruel that Linda Barker set the bar so high last year in the way she looked! Even as a teenager, I never looked as good as Linda! But I just have to get on with it. After all, this isn\u2019t a bikini competition.<\/p>\n

Q: Does your background as a performer help?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Yes. With my band I\u2019m on stage three times a week \u2013 I do more than 100 shows a year. When you\u2019re on stage, you learn to get on with it; you just work through any distractions or worries. If you have a costume malfunction, you don\u2019t stop the show. So in a strange way, I\u2019m looking forward to the live shows in Splash!<\/p>\n

View the full ITV Press Pack for Splash!<\/em> Heat 2\u00a0here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interviews With Heat 2 Celebrities: Toyah Willcox Q: What inspired you to participate in this year\u2019s Splash!? A: Since I was a teenager, I have fantasised about high diving. It\u2019s always been a dream of mine. I was very lucky that at school I learned how to dive, but I haven\u2019t done it since. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[180,1001],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18185"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18199,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18185\/revisions\/18199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toyah.net\/ds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}