TV
What's happens in Pop Goes In The Band?
"There's six episodes and the first one is me and Thereza getting Dollar back together. The show allows us to have anything from drastic plastic to a haircut. I thought it would be quite vain of me not to want the plastic surgery, so I decided, 'why not?' I'm quite pleased with the results and it's all on the film. It's also about what we've been up to and where we might now go as an act."
How would you describe Dollar to kids who are too young to remember you first time around?
"That's interesting because most people do know me as the guy from the jungle now. I quite like it actually, it's refreshing. How would I describe Dollar? If you were around in the early '90s then it was a similar look to Kylie and Jason. The music was actually highly-produced by a chap called Trevor Horn and was a very sophisticated bubblegum pop. It's 30 years since our first hit and people my age just remember the glamour side of Dollar. But kids today just see the video and music and it's still fresh. There hasn't been another really successful boy-girl duo since in Britain."
Is there a potential future for Dollar when the show ends?
"The last shows that me and Thereza did were at Wembley. We also did a TV show called Reborn In The USA four or five years ago. We only take the nice jobs, generally. We have our own lives outside of the band and it's not a priority for me now because of everything that's happened in the jungle. It's not something that I'm chasing, but if something came up, I'd look at it and I'm all ears."
Will you be watching the other shows about Bucks Fizz, Cleopatra and 911?
"Erm... I would be mean if I said no, wouldn't I? But... no! I'm not looking forward to them and I'm only interested in my own show to be honest. I think it's the most interesting one and that's the reason it's the first one out. I'm just being honest."
Were you surprised at how strong people's reactions to you were in the jungle?
"I didn't go for the middle of the road. You either love me or hate me and I think there's more mileage in that. I didn't go in with a gameplan, but when I got there I formulated one. What would have happened if Nicola had been nice to me? There would have been nothing. But she didn't and we had a soap opera with alliances and characters. I only had to throw the lines in and the others would naively bite them. Once they did that, I had control over them and the whole show. And what great TV it made!"
Were you disappointed not to win the show in the end?
"At the end I said quite a lot of stuff about me and Nicola, which she then repeated back in a misleading manner. What came back was that I'd done all this business to her and it threw a spanner in the works. If she'd taken my advice I think she'd have lasted a lot longer. At the end of the day, the public know it's showbiz people playing a game. But they watch EastEnders knowing that's a drama and buy into that! These days, they'll even buy into reality shows and there's nothing real about reality TV. As soon as you put cameras in people's faces, people start overacting."
Is there still genuine tension between you and Nicola?
"I don't really talk to her, but we do get booked to do jobs as a pair because of the nature of our relationship. Yahoo booked us to throw snowballs at each other and the money was good so we went for it. She's still got the hump with me and I don't know why. She should be so pleased that I helped her get the currency that she has. I won't be invited to the wedding, but as a result she won't get as much money from OK magazine as she would!"
Maybe you and Timmy Mallet could turn-up as wedding crashers?
"Oh no, that would turn into a right punch-up. They still buy into [the row] quite strongly and take it a bit too seriously, but there you go."
Is Timmy actually as bonkers as he comes across on TV?
"Timmy is still pals with me and we may do some promotion together. There's rumours about us working on I'm A Celeb... spin-offs but as far as I know they're sticking with their current hosts. I think he is actually more bonkers than me, which is quite worrying. He's a children's entertainer and he was out of his comfort zone in the jungle, but he still made great TV."
Beyond reality TV is there anything else that you would like to work on?
"Eventually I'd like to do some drama, but while we're hot on the reality TV and winding people up side of things, that's what I'm going to pursue. I don't mind what drama it is. It could be a soap or it could be a classic. I'm a great lover of Shakespeare and if someone offered me Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream at an open air theatre, then I'd be there."
Pop Goes The Band airs Monday at 10pm on Living.
