My my, that Olly Murs is a busy chap – what with opening his first ever arena tour next week while filming his own reality TV show, performing at the Brit Awards next month and dancing his heart out on Sport Relief, is there anything that our favourite Essex boy can’t do? We had a chat with Olly to talk about his future career plans and what he thinks about Frankie Cocozza on Celebrity Big Brother.

Let’s talk about your tour, starting on Wednesday in Cardiff, how excited are you?

Olly: Yeah, can’t wait, we’ve been rehearsing now for the last week or so. Can’t wait! It’s going to be my first arena tour, it’s going to be really exciting, and I can’t wait to get started.

How are all the preparations going?

Olly: Really good, really, really good. We’ve had no real troubles. I’ve been literally in military boot camp, I’ve been getting myself in good shape, I’ve been eating well, I’ve been working hard. I’ve been singing hard. And the show feels really good.

What can fans expect from the tour?

Olly: It’s just a great musical show. I think that sometimes I go to a lot of gigs and it’s a small band and a lot of it’s the play back and the track and stuff like that. I think with this tour I’ve got an eleven piece band and I’ve really looked at what Michael Buble’s done in the past and obviously what Robbie Williams has done as well and really kept it musical. I’ve really looked at what the fans want and what the fans like – and what songs they like off the albums and I’ve really put together a show that I think they’re really going to love.

You announced yesterday that you'll be starring in your own ITV2 tour documentary, what's that all about?

Olly: Yeah, well it’s going to be a three-part series where basically I travel up and down the country, obviously on the tour I’m going to various different places, and I want the fans to get involved! What we want to do is different tasks in different towns as well as obviously showing you the behind the scenes of the tour and what’s going on behind it all. And it’s just a chance for me to have some fun in each town and do some crazy stuff.

So you’re asking fans to go on your website and suggest what they think you should do in their town? Sounds fun!

Olly: Yeah, that’s pretty much how it works, we’re going to Wales for example, what would be the thing to do in Wales? What would be cool to do – what’s the most traditional meal to eat? Stuff like that.

You’ve also announced that you’ll be dancing at Let’s Dance for Sport Relief with Scott Mills, can you give us a sneak preview about what you’ve got up your sleeve?

Olly: I haven’t got a clue. I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing on it. All I know is I’ve been asked to do it which is great, I’m looking forward to it, me and Scott are really good mates. Obviously we did the desert trek together last year on Comic Relief so I’m really chuffed that he’s asked me to be a part of it with him and we’re doing the dance show which is going to be fun. But yeah I haven’t got an absolute clue yet what I’m doing! But I’m meeting up with Scott tomorrow so we’ll go through the ideas and what he’s thinking of doing, so, yeah it’ll be good.

You’ve been nominated for a Brit Award for Best British Single for Heart Skips a Beat, how excited are you about that? And what do you make of your chances of picking up the gong?

Olly: Yeah amazing, I just got confirmed last night that I’m going to be performing on the Brits, so I’m really chuffed about that. Fingers crossed, you never know when you get nominated, it’s just a pleasure and an honour to be nominated in the Best Single category. I was hoping that I was going to get nominated for Best Male, that would’ve been nice. I thought I had a really good year last year, and I thought a nomination for Best Male would’ve topped my year off, but to still be nominated for Best Single as well is great and also the performance is going to be amazing as well, so, who knows? It’s a tough category, there are some amazing artists in there, you’ve got Adele, you’ve got Ed Sheeran, you’ve got Example, you’ve got One Direction, JLS, Pixie Lott, there are some great singles in there.

Have you got any plans so far about your performance on the show?

Olly: Yeah we’ve been discussing it for about a week or so, it’s going to be exciting, really, really cool. I’m really excited about it.

The Xtra Factor has been a huge success – have you got any plans to return for the next series?

Olly: Yeah well, I’ve left it open, we haven’t spoken to anyone yet, I don’t think anyone’s had a phone call yet from anyone, so obviously Simon will be sitting down and thinking of the show and re-jigging it around I’m sure. I’m sure there’s going to be more changes this year, who knows? But I think that me and Caroline had a really great year on the show, I’ve always said I loved doing it and obviously one thing I wanted to make sure of was that it didn’t interfere with music, which it didn’t. So we’ll see what happens this year, but no one’s spoken yet. We’re open to talk about it and see what their ideas are for this year so, yeah, we’ll see what happens.

You have a great chemistry with Caroline on the show which made it really fun, do you still keep in touch with her?

Olly: Yeah me and Caroline are still in contact and I think she’s got a few jobs on at the minute so she’s busy doing that, and she’s just come back from holiday and I’ve just got back from holiday and obviously I’m doing tour rehearsals so we’ll throw in a few text messages here and there, you know, trying to catch up with each other. But it’s difficult because we’re both working as well, but yeah me and Caroline get on really well, we’re great mates and obviously everyone wanted to draw into the whole ‘are they or aren’t they?’ conversation last year but me and Caroline were always adamant that we just get on really, really well. We have a really good laugh together and if we’re back on the show together next year we’ll continue to have a laugh.

Frankie Cocozza is on Celebrity Big Brother – are you supporting him in the house?

Olly: Yeah I’ve got to say I think Frankie’s been brilliant on the show, I think he’s really come across well… I’ve got to say for me Frankie has been absolutely fantastic and I always said in interviews what a nice lad he was, I think that unfortunately he got a rough end of the stick on the show (X Factor) and was sort of portrayed to be this party animal wild child, when actually he is a nice lad and I think people have seen that on Big Brother this year. I really hope he lifts the trophy tomorrow night, it’d be great to see him do it and great to prove everyone wrong.

He seems to have come across a lot better on Big Brother…

Olly: Yeah, I mean if you go into the Big Brother house you can’t shy away and you can’t be anyone you’re not and I think Frankie is just being himself. Like I say on the X Factor you only really get to see a VT (the videotaped segment before the acts come out on stage) and a performance, and the VT’s sort of portrayed him as a party animal, which to be fair to him, he is a party animal, he likes going out and yeah, I think on Big Brother he’s talked about stuff like that. He likes to go out and have a party and a drink and he likes pulling girls – everyone knows that, but I think they’ve seen a different side to him on the show and he’s really stood behind Denise, and really helped her out, and been really positive. He’s been a great housemate.

Do you have any future plans in TV other than your documentary and potentially doing the next Xtra Factor?

Olly: Not really no, I’m not really sure. I mean the Xtra Factor was really the only job I wanted to do in TV. For me, just musically, I want to keep doing the music – I’ve just had a successful second album which has done better than my first album, two double platinum albums is amazing. I want to continue that success and I’ve got a lot of music getting played across Europe and stuff like that at the moment as well overseas, so I want to pursue that really. I can never say never because you never know what’s around the corner, I might have a TV career as well as a music career, we’ll see, that’s currently what I’m doing at the moment so… We’ll see what happens. Like I say I enjoyed Xtra Factor and it was a great opportunity for me and I really enjoyed it. And I’m sure if they do ask me again then we’ll talk about it, and I’ll definitely do it.

Are there any acts from the X Factor, like Little Mix, that you’d like to do a duet with? And what do you think about Little Mix’s success?

Olly: Well I mean it’s hard to tell at the moment, they’ve only just had one single out, obviously I think Little Mix have got a great future and I backed them ever since Judges Houses pretty much, they were my fave, they were pretty much the group that I said for this year could potentially win the show and I think they’ve got a really good future. In terms on doing a duet with anyone on the show I think to be honest I’m a completely different artist to any of the artists which is why the X Factor is so good. It’s that you’re picking different people all the time that are different and unique. I’m excited about seeing what Misha B does in the future, and I’m excited about all the contestants, whatever they do in the future, it’s going to be good to see what they do.

What are your future music plans?

Olly: Yeah, we’re in discussions, I’ve said that we’ve got another single coming off of the second album. I don’t like the whole ‘rushing albums out’ all the time, but obviously I understand the industry has changed now, it’s not like it used to be years ago. I still think that although I’ve been around for two years and I’ve had two albums out, I still feel I’m fresh and I’m new and I still think I’ve got a lot of people to prove to at the moment. I also think I have a lot more to give and we have spoken about doing a third album this year and I’d love to do that but there’s no panic. I’d rather do it and do it right and have the singles and have a really good album than just rush an album out. We’ll play it by ear anyway, we’ll see what happens and fingers crossed I’d love again to have another big hit this year, or another two hits again this year, that’d be nice.

See ollymurs.com for details on how to vote for him for Best British Single at the Brit Awards, or to find out how to make a suggestion for what he should get up to in your town during his UK tour.