Stacey Dooley was forced to issue an ultimatum to her daughter Minnie on Saturday morning, following the two-year-old’s “meltdowns” before the family’s trip into London to publicise 2:22 – A Ghost Story.
Stacey and her partner Kevin Clifton, who became romantically involved after claiming Strictly Come Dancing’s Glitterball Trophy together in 2018, were scheduled to feature on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 programme that afternoon to discuss their nationwide tour of the West End production.
But the day began badly, with Zoe telling her listeners that her celebrity guests had endured “a dramatic morning”, resulting in “lots of people running around” backstage attempting to resolve matters before broadcast.
Introducing the pair, who relocated to Merseyside in 2023, to her show, Zoe revealed: “I am thrilled to say that they’ve just about made it. But it’s been a dramatic morning for our guests today, an awful lot has happened, but they’re here now, it’s Dooley and Clifton!”.
After their introduction, Stacey frankly discussed the chaos the family had experienced to reach Radio 2 on time.
The documentary filmmaker acknowledged: “I’ve just been painfully predictable this morning.”
Troubles began when Minnie declined to take a shower, with Stacey admitting she was compelled to deliver an ultimatum to her daughter, whose face was smeared with food, warning: “They’ll take me off you!”
She recalled: “We’ve had a couple of meltdowns at about 8 o’clock this morning, which was really fun, and then we didn’t want to shower, ‘I don’t want a morning shower’, and I said, ‘you’ve got ravioli around your face baby, they’ll take me off you!'”.
The chaos didn’t end there, as when Stacey, Kevin, and Minnie reached Broadcasting House, the BBC presenter “got stuck” whilst attempting to make her way up to Zoe’s radio studio.
Stacey went on: “And then I got stuck in the stair lift, and your amazing producer came to save me,” to which Zoe responded by telling Kevin: “There was lots of people running around past the glass Kev, and I was like, ‘what’s going down’?”.
Offering his account of events, professional dancer Kevin said: “They were all looking for Stacey’s phone, because she lost her phone downstairs, and, as we know, Stace will not get in a lift and we’re, like, on the top floor of the building here.
“So they had to find some secret passage to get Stacey up the stairs, it’s been a real journey to get here.”
Stacey playfully interrupted by joking: “I’m no hassle! I’m no hassle,” with Zoe quipping: “You knew this when you got involved Kev, you knew what you were getting involved in..”
Kevin chuckled and replied: “Yeah, I’ve got these two manic redheads who are making my life really dramatic!”
2:22 – A Ghost Story will see Stacey and Kevin reunite professionally for the first time since their Strictly Come Dancing journey, as they portray Jenny and Sam in this supernatural thriller.
Kevin, a former professional dancer on Strictly, initially announced the news with an Instagram photo of the duo, captioning it: “Day 1 back working with this little fella again. Last time was 7 years ago @sjdooley @222aghoststory.”