A star on this year’s series of refused to put on their costume hours before they were due to perform until important changes were made.
On the latest season of the , characters including , , and have taken to the stage to sing their hearts out, all while hiding their celebrity identities.
The first contestant to be , who turned out to be none other than the legendary, the one and only, music icon .
In a recent interview with Metro.co.uk, opened up about what it was like to meet the 83-year-old behind the scenes, saying that she was ‘great fun’.
He explained that hours before she was scheduled to be going on stage for her rendition of Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now, there was an issue with her ornate mask that had to be dealt with at a rapid pace.
‘We had a rather dramatic moment where Weather, Dionne Warwick, came on and she tried her mask on and she just took it off and said, “I’m not wearing that”, because we have a particular type of head cradle inside the mask,’ he recalled.
‘We had about four and a half hours before she was due on stage, and she had point blank refused to wear it as it stood.’
So, Tim had to leap into action, making alterations to the mask right in front of Dionne in the dressing room.
‘I had to rip out the head cradle, at which point she looked at me and went, “Okay, now we’re in business,” as the producers looked on just with horror, like sheer horror, as I’m tearing apart this mask that we’ve spent so many weeks working on,’ he stated.
Tim, who’s the managing director of Plunge Creations, outlined how after taking the mask back into the workshop, ‘eventually, I was able to hand it to her’.
‘I said, “Look, I’ve done this temporary fix to it and I’ve held it together with pins, I’ve pointed them away from your head. I hope that’s okay.” And she looked at me as if to say, “Really?” I said, “I don’t think it’s gonna fit, but this is the best I’ve got right now.” She goes, “It’ll be fine.”’
As soon as Dionne tried on the newly-altered mask, everything was as right as rain.
‘We popped it on her head and she went, “That’s great. Let’s crack on.” And it was excellent. It was one of those moments where there was a huge sigh of relief, because the performers have got to be comfortable in their masks and to have somebody who just doesn’t feel comfortable in the mask, it’s fair enough,’ Tim acknowledged.
‘They’ve got to go out and sing and they’ve got to perform and so they’ve got to be feeling all right about it and she just didn’t feel comfy in it. It didn’t fit her head and it needed a rethink very, very fast.’
Tim added that while Dionne was ‘great fun’ to meet on the set of The Masked Singer UK, the fix required for her costume was ‘a fairly scary moment for all of us’.
He stressed how the celebrities who take part in the series are such ‘pros’, who are ready and raring to put on a show for their audience.
‘They’re professionals and they know that ultimately, when push comes to shove, they’ll step out onto the stage and they’ll be amazing again, and that’s what she’s used to doing. So she steps out on stage and whammo, there you are,’ he shared.
A representative for Dionne said in response to Tim’s anecdote that through their ‘observations’ from working with her, ‘she always puts perfection into all the work she does’.
When the singer was unmasked as Weather, she said that it had been an ‘absolute joy’ to be a part of the series.
Dionne continued: ‘When I was asked to do the show, I said, “Aw yeah, I’m going to have some fun. But I can never try to disguise my voice.’
The Masked Singer UK returns on Saturday at 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
