Nicki Chapman says being supple is the most important thing to her
Nicki Chapman is a chameleon, she moved from the music industry to lifestyle programmes with ease. It's as if she was always supposed to be there.
We caught up with her to see what she has going on and to find out how she stays in shape in her early forties.
You were working for twenty years in the music industry, what was it like to move into presenting lifestyle programmes?
Very different, I only had to look after me. It's amazing to get an opportunity like this because like you say I done twenty years in the music industry and I still dabble occasionally. But I get to do amazing things that I wouldn't necessarily get to do. Don't get me wrong working in the music industry kept me on my toes, but for me you know, I've presented the Holiday Programme, I'm filming Escape to the Country and a show called Wanted Down Under at the moment. So next week I travel to Australia for a month. So it's varied every single week of my life.
You said that you still dabble in the music industry, what is it that you still do?
I still work as a consultant, so inbetween filming if a project comes along, last year I went around the world with a project for three months, something which Simon Fuller was doing and he asked me to go back from a management point of view. So if an opportunity comes up and it's right for me, I still do dabble.
Like you said you're going back to Australia, do you get to spend a lot of time there?
I've just been filming the families in the UK, a lot of the families have come back so I've been going around the country and filming them and their stories. It's intriguing, the complexities of families. And when I go out there next month, I do a couple of re-visits, people that are already out there and I film all the links as well, so I get a little bit of time off but not a lot.
I literally arrive, we film and what we pray for is good weather, because there are so many links to film. But I get a day off a week, so that's my opportunity to go and do a little bit of sightseeing. And it's such a fascinating country, it really is, I've been fortunate enough to have been travelling around there a lot on my own, when I was younger and obviously with the filming. I'm probably a bit biased, because I do think it's an amazing place to bring up a family.
I read that you said you would one day like to move there. Any imminent plans to do this?
I applied to emigrate when I was 19, and I went travelling. I'm 19, I absolutely loved it. And this was just as Home and Away and Neighbours were breaking, so there weren't that many Brits out there, you didn't get people travelling around. I came back to the UK and I was off, I enrolled in evening classes in shorthand, to get my points up because they wanted secretaries in those days, and then I got a job in the music industry. I was waiting for my Visa to come through, so I thought, well this is fantastic, I've found something that I love [the music industry], I'm passionate about, let's see how I get on with this and then I'll make a decision and ofcourse I never looked back.
But ideally I would love to live over there, not career wise, because my career is definitely in the UK and I really adore what I do, but I can imagine myself semi-retiring out there. I would live in Sydney, that would be the place for me. I have plans but the plans are still in the back of my mind. 
You're also on the steering committee for Sport Relief - what have you been up to recently with this?
I went down to David Walliams' big finish, I went down and cheered him on when he finished his remarkable Thames swim. Which was a real highlight, what that man did. I think he has the strength and stamina of no other. And the publicity generated for Sport Relief is obviously what it's all about.
The main reason that I am on the steering committee is to help them. I've been working closely with Comic and Sport Relief for about 15 years. Sport Relief is obviously a much younger part of it and I'm on a comittee with a load of other people, some are sports people, some are people in the industry and we help focus and look at opportunities of maximising the PR campaign and we look at ways we can work with companies, with individuals, with the media, to try and get the message across so that more people take part in Sport Relief every year, especially walking the mile, or running the mile. And also, generating income and where that money goes.
You're also hosting the Imperial Dream by the Spanish Riding School - can you tell us anything about it?
The Spanish Riding School of Vienna is one of the oldest riding establishments in the world, it's been going since around 1517 and the horses that they have there, the Lipizzans, they're beautiful Spanish Grey horses that do remarkable things. It is dressage and beyond at its finest. They bring in these amazing horses and riders, I think they make the riders train for ten years.
This year it's on at Wembley Arena and it's on at the end of November, so I won't actually be taking part. The show is opening with Carl Hester and Lee Pearson and they are, our Olympics and Paralympic hopefuls. They haven't found out yet, but hopefully they're going to be riding for Team GB in the Olympics and the Paralympic next year. They open the show, so it's going to be lights, action and a massive display of dressage. So we're really fortunate to have those two superb expert riders and then the Spanish Riding School come in and they show us those amazing choreographed routines that they do. I love riding on horses, so I'm quite excited about that.
Do you get to do much riding?
I try to, I did actually have a riding lesson with Carl he took me out on one of the Olympic horses and I ended up falling off, which was really embarrassing. And he gave me this really amazing dressage and at the end, my horse bolted out of the arena and I jumped off holding the reigns because I couldn't stop it.
I do love riding, I done a show for Sport Relief actually, called Only Fools on Horses, where they taught us to show jump and it went out on BBC 1 and I ended up coming second. So that was nine days of being taught to show jump by one of the leading experts, Tim Stockdale and I came off then as well, so I think you've got the pattern of my riding ability. But I love riding because I can't run, and there's certain things that I can't do because of an ankle injury, so riding's one of those things that I love doing to help keep you fit. You've got to be really game to go out on a horse and go around an arena, that's for sure.
That leads me onto the next question, how do you stay in shape?
I do try, it doesn't come naturally and I can't say that I'm a massive lover of exercise and I make myself do it. Some people get a real buzz out of doing exercise, but for me it's something that is part of my routine and I'm quite religious about it.
Unfortunately, I fell off a horse a month ago, so I'm just getting back into the gym. But I work out about three times a week, if I'm not working, or I'm not busy, I will work out four/five times and it's low impact gym stuff that I do, I can't run, I can't do a marathon or a mini-marathon because I had an ankle injury when I was younger and I've had two operations on it, so I try and keep fit and I try and keep healthy, I'm in my early forties, so that's important for me and try and eat well, as well as I can.
If I'm on the road, it's so difficult to eat well because every hotel does a fried breakfast; if you're on location, it's so much easier to grab a fatty sandwich and in the hotels in the evening, but I try and always pick the healthy option. I keep my weight down as much as I can because that has an affect on your joints. I also take supplements for my joints because I do suffer and I drink loads of water and try and get lots of sleep. I don't smoke, I don't drink to excess, so all of those things that we hear about, I do try and stick to and when I'm on them it makes such a difference. It does make a difference.
For me the biggest thing is keeping supple, because I spend hours in cars driving around the country, I sit at the desk sometimes, or when I'm flying to Australia so for me it is moderate exercise regularly, drinking loads of water, keeping an eye on my weight and not letting it creep up the scales and taking supplements, I take Seven Seas - that's one of my things and that's like joint care and it keeps me going. I try to be religious about that. I'm not a gym-bunny but I try to make myself a gym-bunny.
Nicki Chapman takes Seven Seas JointCare, scientifically developed to help maintain healthy, flexible joints. For more information visit www.jointcare.com
Taryn Davies
I would live in Sydney, that would be the place for me. I have plans [to move to Australia] but the plans are still in the back of my mind
Nicki Chapman is a chameleon, she moved from the music industry to lifestyle programmes with ease. It's as if she was always supposed to be there.
We caught up with her to see what she has going on and to find out how she stays in shape in her early forties.
You were working for twenty years in the music industry, what was it like to move into presenting lifestyle programmes?
Very different, I only had to look after me. It's amazing to get an opportunity like this because like you say I done twenty years in the music industry and I still dabble occasionally. But I get to do amazing things that I wouldn't necessarily get to do. Don't get me wrong working in the music industry kept me on my toes, but for me you know, I've presented the Holiday Programme, I'm filming Escape to the Country and a show called Wanted Down Under at the moment. So next week I travel to Australia for a month. So it's varied every single week of my life.
You said that you still dabble in the music industry, what is it that you still do?
I still work as a consultant, so inbetween filming if a project comes along, last year I went around the world with a project for three months, something which Simon Fuller was doing and he asked me to go back from a management point of view. So if an opportunity comes up and it's right for me, I still do dabble.
Like you said you're going back to Australia, do you get to spend a lot of time there?
I've just been filming the families in the UK, a lot of the families have come back so I've been going around the country and filming them and their stories. It's intriguing, the complexities of families. And when I go out there next month, I do a couple of re-visits, people that are already out there and I film all the links as well, so I get a little bit of time off but not a lot.
I literally arrive, we film and what we pray for is good weather, because there are so many links to film. But I get a day off a week, so that's my opportunity to go and do a little bit of sightseeing. And it's such a fascinating country, it really is, I've been fortunate enough to have been travelling around there a lot on my own, when I was younger and obviously with the filming. I'm probably a bit biased, because I do think it's an amazing place to bring up a family.
I read that you said you would one day like to move there. Any imminent plans to do this?
I applied to emigrate when I was 19, and I went travelling. I'm 19, I absolutely loved it. And this was just as Home and Away and Neighbours were breaking, so there weren't that many Brits out there, you didn't get people travelling around. I came back to the UK and I was off, I enrolled in evening classes in shorthand, to get my points up because they wanted secretaries in those days, and then I got a job in the music industry. I was waiting for my Visa to come through, so I thought, well this is fantastic, I've found something that I love [the music industry], I'm passionate about, let's see how I get on with this and then I'll make a decision and ofcourse I never looked back.
But ideally I would love to live over there, not career wise, because my career is definitely in the UK and I really adore what I do, but I can imagine myself semi-retiring out there. I would live in Sydney, that would be the place for me. I have plans but the plans are still in the back of my mind.
You're also on the steering committee for Sport Relief - what have you been up to recently with this?
I went down to David Walliams' big finish, I went down and cheered him on when he finished his remarkable Thames swim. Which was a real highlight, what that man did. I think he has the strength and stamina of no other. And the publicity generated for Sport Relief is obviously what it's all about.
Tagged in celebrity interview