Tonight is the night! After the pandemic and resulting lockdown cut the last series of Made In Chelsea short, the twentieth series is debuting and making the approaching winter bearable. This year, Channel 4 have had to get creative. Filming has had to take place within social bubbles. One particularly large Chelsea cluster have shacked up in a vast country house. In short, things have changed. But one thing remains: drama is still very much on the menu, and Grazia favourite Olivia ‘Liv’ Bentley is very much in the middle of it.
‘For me, it's been very eventful’, Olivia tells Grazia over the phone. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had so many arguments in one series, which is shocking for me. It’s been a really good series.’ Indeed, an early trailer shows Liv embark on a reality TV staple by throwing a glass of water over a fellow MIC cast mate.
The programme’s need to evolve in a changing world, she says, proved wholly positive, keeping the cast separate for months on end, saving up the much-needed friction for when the cameras were rolling. ‘None of us saw each other throughout lockdown’, she explains. ‘And then suddenly, to be living with certain people – some of whom I would rather not live with – it just causes mayhem. But it was fun, and it made a lot of sense to do it that way.
‘I was so excited to be filming again’, she says. ‘I know a lot of people used their time wisely, getting into exercise and things or making banana bread. I just made gin and tonics.’
Liv is, perhaps, the show’s most frank cast member. Some of Made In Chelsea’s stalwarts will smile their way through a lunch with an arch nemesis, then complain about them bitterly in the next scene. Anyone who watches the programme will know that Olivia does not do this. If you have annoyed or upset her, you will know it. If you have wronged her, there will be consequences.
‘It’s so hard not to argue’, she says of living in these close quarters. ‘I have a habit of saying exactly what I think, which really offends certain people. But it’s like fighting with siblings: you live with them, so if you fight you still have to go down to dinner with them. It’s weird. Or it’s a bit like boarding school.’
When watching reality television, one often gets the impression that certain individuals are getting what is commonly known as ‘the villain edit.’ Shows like America’s Next Top Model or Selling Sunset thrive on them, and there have been times in Made In Chelsea’s history where one feels that certain stars are being pushed as the season bitch. I will not name names. But Liv doesn’t agree. ‘The edit is very true to what actually takes place’, she insists. ‘But the trouble is Instagram. I think viewers have the idea of what a person is like, and they just go from there. But personally I don’t give a crap about what people think of me: I block them instantly. But break ups are hard. I received a lot of shit when I broke up with Digby.’
On the flip side, though, she appreciates the resulting fandom, with many people seeing her as a role model after she spoke candily about her own experiences with alopecia and wearing wigs. ‘It’s nice, but I look at them and go “I have done nothing remarkable"', she says. 'I get a lot of people asking about hair-related stuff, which feels good because it makes me feel like I’ve done something. A lot of young people who are going through the same can message me and ask me for help.’ People also come to her for advice on love, with less success: 'With my track record?' Liv laughs.
Speaking of Selling Sunset, Liv has discovered a new love for the reality sensation. ‘Selling Sunset, honestly, I love it, I am addicted’, she says. ‘I don’t know what it is about it: the houses, or maybe the bitchiness of the workplace. It’s so funny. And the Real Housewives are savage too. I would love to bring Christine Quinn onto Made In Chelsea. She’s so dark. And her wedding was absolutely outrageous. It’s ridiculous. I love people like her.’
Christine Quinn on Made In Chelsea? Now that’s something that would really save 2020.
Made in Chelsea series 20 starts at 9pm on September 28th on E4.
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