Maureen Lipman's reason for quitting Celebrity Gogglebox after 'snub'

04 August 2023 , 19:30

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Dame Maureen Lipman has opened up about her reason for quitting Celebrity Gogglebox, which she used to appear on alongside This Morning star Gyles Brandreth (Image: Channel 4)

Dame Maureen Lipman quit Celebrity Gogglebox because bosses didn't like her jokes.

The Coronation Street star appeared alongside This Morning regular Gyles Brandreth in 2020, where she had replaced Dame Sheila Hancock. However, soon she decided to quit the series herself after claiming producers didn't like her humour.

Maureen quit Gogglebox last year because she felt there was too much of a focus on naked bodies in shows, and she said all of her 'scenes' shown on the Channel 4 show was just her yawning, rather than her funny jokes.

Speaking about her exit from the programme, she told the Radio Times last year: "I went in imagining that they wanted me for my wit and my brain. Of course, they just want to show you willies and for you to be shocked. Honestly, we were really funny together, but none of that was used. And if they don't want to use what we gave them, f*** them. It is from my point of view. I'm sure they'll put someone else with Gyles," she said of what was to come in the future.

Maureen used to appear on the show alongside Gyles Brandreth (Channel 4)

Maureen said she was particularly disappointed by being told to watch clips of Naked Attraction.

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She said: "They’re not really interested in our opinions on what they’re giving us. I’d seen Gogglebox and I thought: ‘Oh, [ours] is the grown-up version, is it? But it’s your reaction to 12 dangling willies they want. They’re searching for ways to make me go: 'Urgh!' So I thought: 'Well, actually, no, life is too short to watch a series of hopeless men dangle their bits and pieces in my direction.'" Gyles agreed, adding: "Some of the things that Maureen has said are Oscar-winning funny. But what do they use? Us yawning!"

Maureen is currently taking a break from her role as Evelyn Plummer on Coronation Street. "They've really put me through it the last few weeks," she said, "I've had seven scenes to learn a day. The last shot last night I literally lay on the floor and said, 'I can't go on.' This has just come at a time where I’ve got a little holiday from Corrie – I’m going back, because I like Corrie, I like the people. It’s amazing being up north again because you realise how much you’re kind of being posh when you’re in London, even though I’ve been here 54 years," she said of her stint on the ITV soap.

Jasmine Allday