Meet the Experts

Dr Barbara Murray is looking after the Chawner's medical welfare, as well as assessing how well they do throughout the series.

Dr Murray, also known as “Dr Barbara”, is a full time GP partner in a very busy practice in Stockport. You may recognise her from BBC’s popular show, Street Doctors.

Dr Murray studied medicine as a mature student, after obtaining a Master of Science degree in Biochemistry. She graduated in the top 10 of her year from Liverpool Medical School, and then trained in General Practice in Macclesfield, before moving to her current practice in Stockport.

Sadly Dr Murray’s husband, who had supported her through her medical training, died in 2003. She says that it was the care she received from her colleagues, family and patients, as well as keeping very busy, that has helped her to carry on without him.

Dr Murray joined Street Doctors in 2005, which attracted up to 4 million viewers and was nominated for a Royal Society of Television Award. She says that it has led to her involvement in various charity work, invitations to be a keynote speaker and lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons and she’s often requested to speak on various topics on Radio 5 alive and Radio Manchester. Dr Murray is also very active in Health promotion for Stockport Primary Care Trust.

When she’s not working Dr Murray sings in The St Anne’s Hospice festival choir, which raises a lot of money on behalf of the Hospice. She has also appeared in a professional stage production at the Library Theatre with the Lip Service theatre company in a production “Desperate to be Doris”.
 

It’s Elise’s job to get the Chawners moving, devising a tailored fitness regime for each member of the family.

Elise Lindsay is an exuberant and enthusiastic presenter, choreographer, personal trainer, fitness expert and qualified life coach. As personal trainer to Colleen Rooney, she was the main contributor to Colleen’s successful 2006 fitness video. 

Elise has a professional dance background with over twenty years experience. She won the prestigious title of Pure Energy Presenter 2002 and was runner up in the FITS awards in 2004 as Best British Newcomer. She has appeared on This Morning and GMTV, has written a book and regularly writes for national newspapers and magazines.

Elise runs fitness masterclasses on tour and at exclusive fitness events and conventions and she has released home video training packages for Action UK, Kangoo Jumps and Urban Funk.

Based in Sheffield, Elise shares her fitness knowledge as a personal trainer and runs two successful rehabilitation clinics in her local area. She also works to educate and develop other instructors as a United Kingdom Flexi-Bar Master Trainer.
 

It’s up to Aldo to introduce the Chawners to a healthier way of eating, with recipes and advice on nutrition.

Aldo Zilli is chef patron of the Zilli Fish group and is one of Soho's most flamboyant restaurateurs. Owner of Zilli Fish (the flagship restaurant), Zilli Café, Signor Zilli and Zilli Bar, Aldo is a larger than life personality whose profile has rocketed in recent years.

Aldo’s TV credits include Ready Steady Cook, Sunday Life, Step up to the Plate, Eating in the Sun and The One Show for the BBC, ITV 1’s Daily Cooks Challenge and a Tonight with Trevor MacDonald special on diets, Channel 5’s Family Recipe, and UKTV’s Market Kitchen. You may also recognise Aldo from the Kelloggs Optivita advertising campaign.

Thomsonfly feature Aldo Zilli’s in-flight food menu, which they launched in 2006 and Thomson also invited Aldo to re-launch all the food on their ships and granted Aldo his own restaurant, Zilli’s, which is filled to capacity every night. Aldo’s latest restaurant venture is with Centreparcs, with whom he opened a healthy eating cafe in Longleat in Spring 2009.

Aldo was a big hit on ITV1’s Celebrity Fit Club where he led the successful team to victory, gaining a new slender figure in the process. He also made it to the last stages of Celebrity X Factor (ITV1) where he and the other 3 singing chefs wowed the audiences with their songs in Italian, French and English.

Aldo has been resident chef for The Sun newspaper, and has written several books, including Zilli Light, Aldo's Italian Food For Friends and Zilli Fish.
 

Dr Dominic O’Hooley is the dentist who is tasked with improving Audrey’s smile.

Dr O'Hooley qualified as a dentist from Liverpool dental school in 1993. After time spent as a hospital house officer, Dominic entered general practice in Leeds. In 2001 he joined Boots Dentalcare as a dentist and quickly rose through the ranks to become a successful Dental Business Manager.

In 2002 Dr O'Hooley successfully passed the MFDS RCS examination at The Royal College of Surgeons in London and has continued with his post graduate education, including recently commencing The Faculty of General Dental Practice Diploma in Implant Dentistry of The Royal College of Surgeons. He hopes to complete this in July 2010.

Dr O'Hooley joined The Dental Clinic in January 2005 and in February that year was formally engaged as Dental Director. He feels that it is vital that the Director of a dental business should be an active, practicing dentist and so as well as concentrating on furthering his education; he also practices as a dentist at The Dental Clinic in Leeds.

Dr O'Hooley immensely enjoys the role of Dental Director working with his experienced team to drive The Dental Clinic to even greater heights
 

Elizabeth Gibaud has many celebrity clients and is famous for helping Kate Winslet lose four stone. Elizabeth is a naturopath who uses the unique approach of facial analysis.

'I look for markings, facial colour and skin texture. This tells me which minerals the body is lacking,' explains Elizabeth, ’A person can gain or lose at least one stone in a week if they need to,' she says. The technique is used to detect certain food intolerances and digestive problems through mineral deficiencies. This helps pinpoint the foods to cut out - and allows the body to reach its ideal weight.

Elizabeth's system draws on the principles of biochemistry - the scientific study of the chemical processes that occur in living organisms - including plants and humans.
'If a plant is unwell it turns several different colours before it finally goes black,' says Elizabeth. 'This is because it is lacking certain vital minerals essential for survival. Our bodies react to mineral deficiencies in similar ways.

Elizabeth prescribes certain tissue salts - which include calcium fluoride and iron phosphate - in addition to a specially designed diet. Elizabeth also takes a close look at her clients' hands, hair, toenails and tongue for degree of puffiness and colour of the skin. 'One man came in and looked slim and relaxed but I could see from a point just above the eyebrows that his liver was sluggish,' she says. 'So I asked him if he slept really deeply but still woke up feeling tired. He was amazed and immediately said yes. So I knew the liver was the problem.'

Elizabeth can be found at the Nutri Centre, 7 Park Crescent, London W1BN 1PF and her book Facial Analysis Diet is available from Amazon
 

David's role as Emma's voice coach was to help make her dreams of becoming a singer come true.

David has taught at some of the country's top Stage Schools and Performing Arts Colleges including the Sylvia Young Theatre School, the Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts, Redroofs Theatre School, Kingsway College (BTEC Performing Arts Course) and Stagecoach.

He has also devised and led a series of X Factor workshops for some of the more notorious rejects from the TV audition and boot camp rounds, and was former Vocal Coach to X Factor 2008 Finalist - Austin Drage.

David’s TV work includes Channel 4's award-winning series Operatunity (semi-finalist), BBC's Songs of Praise and The Weakest Link (he delivered an Opera-Gram to Anne Robinson), and Sky TV's Star Search.

On stage he has performed a number of principal roles in Opera, Operetta, both West End, touring musicals, and pantomime including Don Curzio in Figaro's Wedding (Jeremy Sams's English National Opera translation of Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro'), Nanki Poo in The Mikado, Freddie Eynsford Hill in My Fair Lady, Amshel Rothschild in The Rothschilds (European Premiere of the Hit Broadway Show), The Prince in Sleeping Beauty and Eugene in Grease.
 

GMTV style guru Mark Heyes is in charge of the Chawners’ fabulous make-over.

Mark admits that fashion is his guilty passion, and he has a wardrobe that most fashionistas would kill to rummage through.

So it's no surprise he's dedicated a whole room in his Victorian flat in Camberwell, south London, to house his seven-door closet packed full of Dior and Louis Vuitton.

"I love my clothes and take good care of them," says the GMTV star, who is fashion advisor to Lorraine Kelly and has styled stars including Geri Halliwell and Penny Lancaster-Stewart.