A 26-year-old from Newport, who is Britain's youngest undertaker, is hoping to find love on a new TV dating show. Rachael Ryan made headlines in 2011 when we announced that she was Britain's youngest embalmer at the age of just 16. Eleven years on, Rachael still works in her family business and has her eyes set on love as she appears on Oti Mabuse's new ITV dating series Romeo & Duet.
And it's not Rachael's first foray into television, as a BBC Three documentary covered her family's funeral business in 2011. She became involved in the profession when she was 13 and although she mainly helped with clerical duties then, she is now a fully-fledged funeral director and says that she is well-known in the role in both Cardiff and Newport.
On Saturday, May 21, she will appear on Romeo & Duet where contestants have to perform one song to entice a singleton down from a balcony and meet face-to-face. The newly-formed couple will then head off on a "duet-date" to learn a song together, before returning later in the show to perform that number in a singing competition against the other couples. The studio audience then votes the winning couple for each episode.
Chatting to WalesOnline, ahead of the show Rachael said that she has always had a passion for singing. She said: “I’ve sung since I can remember. The first artist that I ever listened to was Britney Spears and my mum used to get annoyed because I’d play the exact same tracks over and over on the CD.” Despite her love of Britney, Rachael said that the song you can expect to hear from her on the show is a Country one.
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Rachael found out about Romeo & Duet on Instagram. “I started the application process and I didn’t really tell many people about it because I was scared that I wouldn’t get on there,” she said. Luckily for Rachael, she did. “When I found out, I screamed down the phone and said, 'thank you so much'.”
And then came the fateful day. Upon meeting host Oti, Rachael said: “I remember looking at her and thinking, 'how can somebody be that beautiful?'” Romeo & Duet, which has generally been poorly received by critics, is former Strictly Come Dancing professional Oti's first show as a lead presenter. When talking to WalesOnline earlier in the month, Oti said that she was "unphased" by criticism of the series and her fans generally like the show. You can read more on what Oti had to say about the show here.
On the show, after rejecting two other singletons, Rachael picked 26-year-old sales advisor Tim from Chester to perform a duet with. Having been wowed by his performance of OneRepublic's Counting Stars, she said her co-performer was a "good looking bloke" with a "lovely, powerful voice".
When Tim was told about Rachael's job, he took it in his stride, simply remarking: "That's different". However, despite working hard on their duet performance of Ed Sheeran's number one hit Perfect, the pair failed to win over the audience with their chemistry, and lost out to another couple.
Prior to appearing on the show, Rachael said that she was looking for, "someone that makes [her] laugh, somebody that makes [her] happy and is an animal lover. As long as [they] get on, that’s the main thing". She said she was "proud of herself" for going on the show.
“All I’ll say is that I was really happy with what happened and everything that went on that day. And also, I’m really proud of myself,” Rachael said, as she described that the show was a chance to bring herself out of her comfort zone. Despite this, she said: “When I got on that stage, those nerves just left me and it was complete excitement then.”
Rachael said that she loves “singing with an audience” and the fact that there was a live band next to her was a great experience. “I was in awe of the people I was working with” on the show.
Looking back on the experience, Rachael said that she would do it again in a heartbeat. “I think it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had, being in the presence of such talented people and getting to perform on stage in front of an audience.”
Regarding her performance, she said: “I did the best that I could physically do at the time. It is a nervous thing, thinking that people are going to be watching this but I’m just really excited.”
Romeo & Duet is on at 7pm on ITV on Saturday, May 21
