Dermot O'Leary: 'X Factor poker face is so hard'

Dermot O'Leary: 'X Factor poker face is so hard'
Dermot O'Leary: 'X Factor poker face is so hard'

Dermot O'Leary has admitted he finds it difficult keeping straight-faced when he's backstage watching X Factor auditions. The presenter looks on at the auditions with the contestant's family and friends, who are often oblivious to the lack of talent on stage. Speaking on Thursday night's episode of A League Of Their Own on Sky1, Dermot said: "(It's) really really awkward. The strangest thing is when you turn to the mum or dad as if to go 'What do you think?' because you can't really go 'They're rubbish'. "So you turn to the mum and dad and say 'So what do you think?' and then they say 'They are brilliant.' You've just got to keep the poker face." He went on: "The show only works if you abide by anyone can win it. The lovely thing is every now and then you get a shock as someone who looks a bit strange comes on but has the voice of an angel ... a SuBo moment." Dermot also recalled the audition when Abbey Johnston hit her friend Lisa Parker in the face when Lisa said she didn't know who guest judge Natalie Imbruglia was. He joked: "What I love is the fact that she hit her friend because she didn't know who Natalie Imbruglia was. She was like 'who are you' (about Natalie) and then her friend goes that's it, I'm not having it! "(It wasn't because) she was a s*** singer, she didn't know who Natalie Imbruglia was!" A League Of Their Own screens on Thursday at 10pm on Sky1.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.