Emmerdale actress Lisa Riley opens up to the Mirror about going into the jungle – and how the death of her mum, and Strictly best pal Robin Windsor inspired her to sign up
Sat in her hotel room enjoying her last slice of luxury before entering the I’m A Celebrity jungle, Lisa Riley can’t stop thinking about her late mum. Or talking about her for that matter.
Assigned a 24 hour chaperone to look after her since she landed earlier this week in Queensland, Australia, the subject of Cath is all they’ve nattered about.
For Lisa, it has been oddly comforting to be so far from home yet so close to those memories. “It’s been lovely just talking about my mum and how proud she would be,” she admits. “I can’t help feel that maybe it is my mum in heaven giving me a message to do the show. She would be saying: ‘go on, knock them dead and just have a laugh.’”
The pair were incredibly close and spoke at least 10 times a day on the phone before Cath died from breast cancer that spread to her pelvis, ovaries and pancreas in 2012. She was just 57 and the loss remains raw for Lisa.
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“While my mum would be gleaming at the prospect of me doing the jungle, I can also imagine her sat there at nine o’clock, being frantically worried about me,” she says. “But she knows that I am a very headstrong person.”
Her confidence comes from three decades in the industry, building a career across Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, Three Girls and a memorable run on Strictly. She knows the jungle is a different kind of challenge but she is backing herself. “I have been in this industry since I was 13 years old and I am 49 and, you know, I have never been out of work. And I think as a woman, to say that if I can last this long in a very strong industry, I should be able to cope in the Australian jungle.”
Another person who immediately came to mind when she agreed to the show was her best friend and Strictly dance partner Robin Windsor, who died last year aged 44. His absence is another ache she carries.
“Robin always wanted to do the show, and he thought I was crazy to have said no after all these years,” she says. “He would be like ‘you’d be f****** hilarious.’ I know he is definitely on my shoulder, he will be gleaming with pride. He will just want me to be myself, and the best friend that I was for him.”
Lisa grew up in Bury, Gtr Manchester, and now lives in Yorkshire with musician fiancé Al. They became engaged seven years ago although she has previously said they are unlikely to marry. What is clear is the depth of their bond, even if Al has been gently teasing her ahead of her jungle stay.
“The very last thing he said was: ’Just be you.’ But then the other thing he did say, when I was on my own, was, ’good God, you are going to be having a lot of beans.’ Think Celia Imrie (in Traitors) and you will put two and two together. People are going to be very privy to my gas. But it is the girl he loves and I love him.”
Lisa doesn’t care that viewers will see her barefaced without make-up, and with humidity-frazzled hair. “I love looking raw on TV….look at me in Three Girls or Waterloo Road. I am not a vain actress. And if anything, I am the other way.
“So when people are like, ’Oh my God, you are not going to have any fake lashes on,’ and my hair is going to look like a frizz bomb, I don’t care. People will see that I am going to look like an absolute minger, and I will embrace that, because that is the truth of it.”
Stripping off in camp will also not be a problem. “I am very body positive. The way I look in a bathing suit is not like how other people might look in a bathing suit, but I am so comfortable in my own skin. And I think people will hopefully see that as even more how authentic I am. You know, I have got things that wobble and I like those bits.”
Asked what could rile her in the jungle, she says: “I cannot stand people that are disloyal. Loyalty runs through my bones. You would see Mandy Dingle come out then, my full Dingle would come to the forefront.”
And what would that look like? “Never mess with her. She is as loyal as they come as well, you know. But you would never, ever, ever mess with Mandy Dingle.”
Lisa says the timing of the show finally felt right this year in the build up to her 50th birthday, as well as being 10 years sober.
“I just want to enjoy myself and have a right good giggle and probably get covered head to toe in sheep guts while I am doing it,” she says.
Keeping it secret from almost everyone proved to be a saga of its own, and she was forced to come up with a codename for the show. “It must have been like a sort of reoccurring song in my head, or I have seen an advert about Costco, and it just became Costco. No one ever, ever caught us out,” she explains.
“If you saw my work diary, every single day after I arrived in Australia until I am home to England and back on set on Emmerdale on the 12th of December, it says Costco.”
She was mortified about having to keep it secret from some of the cast, including her fellow Dingles. “I said I was going home to Al upset and he was saying, ’it is not really a lie, babe’.They are going to be your biggest cheerleaders when they find out,” she says.