Vicky Pattison teases epic career shake-up – and the TV icon whose footsteps she’s following in

TV personality Vicky Pattison has revealed that she is hoping to follow in Stacey Dooley's footsteps and become a pioneer in the documentary field.

Vicky, 35, has admitted her admiration for the star and confirmed she would like to achieve a similar level of Stacey's success with her own documentaries.

The I'm A Celebrity champ created her first documentary last year surrounding alcoholism, including her dad's battle with alcohol and her own issues as part of a complex programme.

Now, it has spurred her on to do even more as she sets her sights on becoming a respected investigative journalist.

In an exclusive chat, Vicky told The Sun: "I see myself in the Stacey Dooley space in the future.

"This is a career change essentially from reality star to documentary maker, that's a big shift!

"The authored documentary about me and my dad and his relationship with alcohol was a nice stepping stone as it was still personal."

Vicky continued of her career aspirations: "But I'd love to go into more investigative journalism and do some quite hard-hitting stuff but then also just wild and wacky stuff as well!"

Adding on the difficulties of the switch, Vicky stated she understood that people would take time to get their heads around her genre shift from reality TV shows into programmes of a more serious nature.

Vicky added: "It hasn't been an easy move at all. It's been very different from what people assume I am capable of.

"The whole documentary space, nobody initially gave me a chance to explore that coming from the background I'd came from so it was lovely to be able to be given that opportunity and to help people through sharing my story.

"I loved making my documentary last year, I found that the personal journey I went on to be incredibly cathartic."

As well as speaking on her love of Stacey Dooley, Vicky admitted that there was many women in the industry that she looked up to including ITV breakfast favourites Susanna Reid, Kate Garraway and good friend Lorraine Kelly.

Asked if she would ever be prepared to step into Lorraine's shoes should she ever walk away from the show, Vicky said: "I imagine she's got tiny feet but those would be some big shoes to fill"

"I would never sort of dare to think I could replace Lorraine, I don't think she's going anywhere, she's fantastic and I do see myself in a different space to those ladies."

Vicky also admitted that if reality TV came knocking on the door once more that she hoped it would be the Bake Off tent, confirming she was desperate to give it a go and see if she could impress Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.