While it’s probably not advisable to tell porkies on your CV, it paid dividends for Denise Van Outen.
The presenter has revealed she told an absolute whopper to land a job on The Big Breakfast back in the 90s, which turned her into a household name.
In her new autobiography, A Bit Of Me, Denise told of how she claimed to be able to forecast the weather after taking a meteorological course.
She said (via MailOnline): “When it came to going for jobs, I hadn’t lost my creative streak when it came to asserting my suitability for a particular role.
“I wasn’t shy about that, sometimes I’d even add things to my CV that I hadn’t done.
“I remember going up for a part in a film once, and adding a Roman Polanski film to my CV, one that I was never in.
“Of course, with Google and the internet, you can’t get away with that sort of thing anymore, but back then I was pretty comfortable bolstering my credentials where necessary.”
Admitting she went “all out” to land the gig on The Big Breakfast, Denise said: “What did I know about reading a weather report? Didn’t you have to have the right sort of meteorological knowledge for that?
“What I did know was that this was a fantastic opportunity, Channel 4 was doing a big relaunch of the show, and that’s where I came in.”
“As per, I went all out, fibbing about having taken a meteorological course and assuring them that I’d be able to write my own weather report, no one could ever accuse me of not being a trier!”
However, show bosses saw through Denise’s fibs, but they were still impressed enough to hire her.
Denise added: “They told me they knew full well I was making it all up, but if I could sit there brazenly delivering that level of bullshit, I was definitely the girl for the job.”
After joining the show in September 1996, Denise would deliver the weather and traffic news in a chopper flying around the UK.
She then landed a main presenting role, co-hosting with Johnny Vaughan between 1997 and 2001.
Last year, The Big Breakfast was revived for a one-off special hosted by AJ Odudu and Mo Gilligan, as part of Channel 4′s Black To Front project, with their turn fronting the show going down so well with viewers that they called for it to make a full-time return.
Denise previously teased that there had been “conversations” about doing something to mark The Big Breakfast’s 30th anniversary later this year.
She told MailOnline last year: “We’d want to see all the old faces return and play some of the old games too. I’m sure the fans would love it and see it as a real nostalgia trip.”
She also opened up about how lockdown helped heal her rift with Johny, after they fell out when Denise discovered he was renegotiating his contract without telling her.
They were briefly reunited on Capital FM’s breakfast show in 2008, but Denise left after only six months.
“Lockdown did a lot of things for a lot of friendships and people reconnecting and some people, their relationship went to dust,” she told Good Morning Britain. “We were that lucky partnership that got back in touch.
“I would love to work with him again, we both said we’d like to do something.”
A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway, And Back by Denise Van Outen is out now.