Stylist: Thomas George Wulbern, Hair: Carl Campbell, Make-Up: Thembi Mkandla. Photograph: Sofi Adams/The Guardian
‘Mentally, I had to prepare myself,” says AJ Odudu of the premiere of the rebooted Big Brother. She’s not talking about her presenting duties, nor the pressure of appearing before a raucous in-studio audience, with a further 2.6 million watching later at home. Because whether you know her name or not, Odudu is an old hand at the small screen, and fearless in front of the camera – be it learning to dance (and tearing a ligament) on season 19 of Strictly, attempting a sandwich cake in the Bake Off tent or fainting having heaved a 45kg load up a hill on Celebrity SAS.
No, what Odudu had to ready herself for, in gearing up for the highest-profile moment of the second act of her career – and what still has her grimacing slightly now, a month into Big Brother’s run – is her launch-night outfit. “It was a custom-made, latex catsuit: skin-tight… It took an entire bottle of talcum powder, four people and a lot of ambition to get me into that.”
