Looking back on her acting career, there’s one role Amanda Holden is raring to reprise more than any other.
“I always think, ‘Oh, let’s bring back Cutting It!'” – the BBC drama set in a Manchester hair salon that ran for four seasons from 2002 to 2004 – “I still regularly see Angela [Griffin], we’re all still good friends. I think it would be really fun to bring that back.”
To play hairdresser Mia Bevan, the Hampshire-born actor spent time under the tutelage of legendary stylist Lino Carbosiero at Daniel Galvin: “I actually learned how to be a hairdresser. I swept the hair, did the blow dries. I learnt all kinds of tricks and tips.”
Now, nearly two decades later, Holden has landed a hew hair-related role as celebrity ambassador for Charles Worthington. After an afternoon tea event to launch the partnership – Holden resplendent in a white suit, her honey-blonde locks perfectly coiffed – we’ve retired to a quiet corner of the swanky hotel to chat.
The Britain’s Got Talent judge admits her tresses have been through some tough times, including the phase in the 80s when a certain royal was all the rage: “Me and my sister, both of us wanted Princess Diana hair. I had a sailor dress because [Diana] wore a sailor dress, I had flat pumps. I made a scrapbook. I was a huge fan.”
Jennifer Aniston was – and remains – another source of ‘hairspiration’ (“Yes, I did The Rachel! Of course!”) but the 50-year-old says she won’t be following the recent trend set by celebs such as Sarah Jessica Parker and letting her greys peak through.
“I will always be blonde. Each to their own – I have some friends that are embracing age, some people that aren’t. My mum stopped dyeing her own hair around 60 and she’s got really gorgeous, soft-coloured grey hair. I’ll always go ‘Oh god, Mummy, can you just put a bit of colour back in?’ But for me, it’s not something I’m going to do.”
Nor is she going to be retiring from the spotlight anytime soon. Holden, who co-hosts the Heart Breakfast radio show with Jamie Theakston on weekday mornings, cites Jennifer Lopez as an example of a woman in the entertainment world going “through the roof” in terms of “what you can achieve at what age”.
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Blonde ambition aside, the mum-of-two (she shares daughters Lexie, 15, and Hollie, nine, with record producer husband Chris Hughes) “relished” the chance to spend more time with her family at home in London during the first UK lockdown last year.
“I really loved having everyone under one roof. I loved it. I loved being silly on TikTok, I loved that I socialised with my best friends on Zoom. I loved that I didn’t need to call an Uber, I just staggered up the stairs. There was so many positives for me.”
The third lockdown was a different story, however: “The third one did my head in, just in the way that I just lost faith in the government and the rules generally and human nature. I think we started lockdown by being told to look out for each other, and we ended lockdown by being told to spy on each other.”
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Now, as the pandemic rumbles on, Holden worries that Brits might not be as resilient as they were in the past.
“We’ve got to learn as a nation. You know, we’ve won wars, we’ve got through everything with our sense of humor and our stoicism and our ability to stand up for ourselves, and I just hope that we haven’t lost any of that. I don’t want Great Britain to go soft, otherwise I’m leaving – like Kylie!”
Recently, the pop star told the BBC she would be moving back to her native Australia, a claim which Holden cheerfully refutes.
“I don’t think she’s going. No! Rubbish!” she says, laughing. “She’s not going anywhere. She has a house here and Australia, she’s always done that.”
The pair share make-up artist Christian Vermaak, and now they’re both Neighbours alumna, with Holden shooting scenes for the Aussie soap in London earlier this month that will air next year.
“Oh my god, she rang on set as well!” Holden recalls. “Kylie rang Christian. She was like, ‘Let me speak to Amanda’. And I was like, ‘Excuse me, I’m just talking to Charlene, everyone!’ It was such a thrill. So fun and so camp.”
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After making her Ramsay Street dream come true and releasing her debut studio album, Songs from My Heart, last year, the multi-talented star has now set her sights on the literary world and hopes to publish a novel. Is there anything else left on her showbiz bucket list?
“I would love to play like a baddie in a Bollywood movie. That’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do, right from my 20s. Surely I could be some wicked mother or some kind of baddie who turns up an upsets the apple cart?”
For now, the jetsetter is off to Dubai for a well-earned break, where she’ll indulge in her favourite treats again after being “vegan for most of this year. I thought, ‘I’m gonna just try being vegan for a bit’, because I just wanted to and I’ve really enjoyed it, and how it’s made me feel.
“But I’m off on holiday tomorrow, so I will be back on the rosé and the cheese. I just think don’t make rules for yourself. Just do everything in moderation.”
Holden’s heroes: 5 beauty buys she can’t live without
Hourglass Arch Brow Micro Sculpting Pencil, £33, John Lewis
“I get up at 5:20am I get ready and out the door by 5:45am and I go on air at 6.30am. I literally give my face a little bit of a spritz, I clean any sleepy dust out of my eyes, then I use an Hourglass eyebrow pencil. That’s an amazing eyebrow pencil.”
Too Faced Natural Face Palette, £36, Boots
“I use Too Faced on my face, so I sort of bronze everywhere and then put a little bit of pink on the apples of my cheeks.”
Espa Nourishing Lip Treatment, £21
“There’s a lip moisturiser I use by Espa, they’ve got an amazing lip juice thing!”
Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Pillow Talk Original, £25
“And then I just grab a Charlotte Tilbury lipstick out of my bag. I love Pillow Talk.”
Charles Worthington Colourplex Ultra Violet Shampoo, £7.99, Boots
“We’ve always had the Charles Worthington purple shampoo in our house. We use the heat protectors, and the hair masks as well, mainly when we’re on holiday or we’ve got a bit of downtime or a Sunday.”
