Shane Ritchie appeared on This Morning on Friday where he spoke to hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary about his new West End venture.
Shane is reprising his role as drag queen Hugo/Loco Chanelle in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and he will need to fit into a size 12 dress for his character.
He explained he lost a stone during his stint on I’m a Celebrity, which was won by Giovanna Fletcher, but the weight crept back up in lockdown.
“When I was in the castle I managed to lose just over a stone in weight, and in January we were supposed to open at the Apollo, but sadly, like everything, we went into lockdown,” said Shane.
(Image: ITV)
“But now it’s slowly creeping up, so now we’ve got the green light to open up on May 20th at the Apollo, I am now starting to get back into a bit of boxing training, watching what I eat, because I really need to get back into a size 12.”
He added: “Funnily enough, you’ve just reminded me, I need to call the producers today to get them to send me the six inch heels, because it’s been over a year since I’ve walked around in stilettos!”
Shane is also starring in a one-man show online where he plays a 99-year-old clown named Scaramouche Jones.
“I was approached sometime last year and we were looking for the right time to do it.
“We didn’t have access to a theatre but we wanted to try to bring in some changes, so myself and the producers, we said let’s try to make this for television, instead of filming it for a theatre stage.
“We came up with his genius idea of making it look like a video diary, so we used multi cameras and gave it a look of CCTV.
(Image: Kieron McCarron/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
“It was strange, bringing from something on stage, making it for television, so my performance had to change, I had to bring the performance of the larger than life character back down.”
He added: “Although I am playing a clown, it is a very dark story.”
* This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10am
Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/shane-ritchie-admits-needs-lose-23801351