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TV Quickfire: Iain Stirling discusses Love Island, CelebAbility and Laura Whitmore

He's the voice behind Love Island, and as the second series of his other hit show, CelebAbility, returns, Iain Stirling talks about the Baftas, his relationship with Irishwoman Laura Whitmore and being rude on TV

Iain Stirling, host of CelebAbility and the voice of Love Island
Iain Stirling, host of CelebAbility and the voice of Love Island Iain Stirling, host of CelebAbility and the voice of Love Island

LOVE ISLAND RECENTLY WON A TV BAFTA AND YOU ALSO DID THE VOICEOVER FOR THE TV BAFTAS. HOW NERVOUS WERE YOU?

It's such a dream, an honour to do. When I first started doing Love Island, I never in a million years thought it would lead to me working on the Baftas – so, big honour, and just lovely and people being nice, which is appreciated. It was a high pressure gig, so I'm glad it went all right.

THE SECOND SERIES OF CELEBABILITY IS UPON US. WHAT IS NEW?

Some of the stuff we've got celebrities doing is absolutely insane. It's bigger, better, funnier, crazier, weirder – all the adjectives you want, they're all in there.

WHAT REALLY SURPRISED YOU?

When we first came up with the idea of the show, I didn't know if the celebrities would get into it because the contestants are wanting money, celebrities are [already] on the telly. But celebrities honestly go for it more than the punters do. The stuff they've done is insane. I'm never sure how much I can give away, but we had people sticking their heads down toilets, picking stuff out of their teeth, and that's not the punters, that's the celebs. It's mad.

WHAT'S THE MOST FUN THING ABOUT PRESENTING IT?

I've never really hosted on a grown-up channel, I've always done kids' TV, so it's just nice being able to be a bit rude – and being a bit more suggestive is always a bit fun because that suits my comic sensibilities.

HOW DO YOU FIND FILMING LOVE ISLAND AWAY FROM HOME – WILL YOUR GIRLFRIEND, IRISHWOMAN LAURA WHITMORE BE VISITING YOU?

She will, definitely. It's eight weeks so I'm sure she will come out for a bit. And the great thing is, because she's obviously such a big part of the ITV2 family, she knows everybody so it's really nice. Even if I'm working, she can still hang out with people and she knows all the producers and the runners and the camera guys.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH HAVING A RELATIONSHIP IN THE PUBLIC EYE?

It's just another thing in the relationship, isn't it? Relationships are work, you've got to work at them and that's another factor. But then also, that's maybe one of the more negative aspects of it – having the sort of public element, pressure of that. But then there are also lots of positives as well – we're both self-employed so we can work our own diaries. The pros definitely outweigh the cons. We try and keep it as private as possible, but then obviously people are going to be interested.

ARE YOU CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

I don't know if it's being careful, I think it's like, how much does anyone post about their relationship online? I think the other thing you've got to realise is, although we might be slightly higher profile, if you talk about your relationship online, the nature of social media [is] you are posting that to an audience. It doesn't matter if you've got four followers or 400,000, that's the nature of social media. There's going to be stuff up there that is there for life, it's on the internet. So I think it's something that everyone can think about and not just someone in mine and Laura's position.

:: CelebAbility is on ITV2, Wednesdays. Love Island airs nightly on ITV2.