Nine things we learned from Claudia Winkleman鈥檚 driving history
The wryly funny Claudia Winkleman, as equally at home among the fake tan and fripperies of Strictly as she is behind the wheel, talks to her BFF Victoria Coren Mitchell in about in-car sandwich makers and polo necks. Here’s what we learnt.
Claudia Winkleman: "I licked the examiner's face!"
The Strictly presenter got over excited when she finally passed her driving test.
1. She doesn’t know what a "new car smell" is
Claudia is more excited about the smell of “coffee, my pillow and my children’s necks” than the sophisticated whiff of a brand new car, as she prefers old “crumbly” cars with bits of food on the floor. Nice.
2. Dancing? Only after tequila shots
She doesn’t car dance, but she plays music extraordinarily loudly amid the protests of her children. Music she enjoys driving to the most? “Oasis – They’re the best band to drive to, even if you don’t like them. Oasis in the car is rousing.”
3. She failed her driving test multiple times
Claudia confesses to not being a fan of the “1, 2, 3, 4 thing”, or “gears”, as Victoria refers to them, and hit a lamp post during one of her many failed driving tests (she licked the examiner’s face when she finally passed). She doesn’t think she’s a good driver, although she never speeds or goes on her phone at the wheel of course, but does advise cab drivers on the best route. Always.
4. Claudia’s not interested in “fashionable cars”
"I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 very fashionable to have a nice car"Claudia Winkleman
Her first car was a Rover 200, and Victoria questions why, as someone consumed with fashion, Claudia’s not interested in trendy motors. “Well I don’t think it’s very fashionable to have a nice car,” she says.
5. A toasted sandwich maker is her must-have in-car accessory
Upon hearing that Donald Trump had a Cadillac with a paper shredder in it, Claudia is inspired and decides that she’d have a Breville toasted sandwich maker in her car if she was allowed.
6. Claudia’s ideal man... wears a polo neck
Despite wanting to marry “a fisherman” in a polo neck who “painted on a Sunday”, she married a man who worked in PR, but he was, at least, wearing a polo neck. He had a “really glamorous car” which made Claudia “like him less” but she forgave him when she discovered that he’d borrowed it from a friend.
7. Her husband bought her a Golf for her birthday
Claudia thought buying a new car for herself seemed a bit extravagant, but on her 30th birthday her husband bought her a VW Golf wrapped up in a ribbon. Her whole family turned up to watch her reaction. “He’s much more romantic than me,” she says.
8. Taxi!
Claudia still feels that cabs are “like an enormous luxury”. Victoria and Claudia are not fans of minicabs, and don’t see them as “safe”, and think that if London black cabs decline, “women will be the losers”.
9. Claudia goes Underground
Despite regularly being on mainstream television, Claudia travels on the tube four times a day and is never, ever recognised. Even when she hums the Strictly theme tune.
The sight of Claudia is as welcome as a cab light on a “rainy November evening”, says Victoria, and we agree.
