Celebrity Gogglebox Star Sheila Hancock Claims She Was 'Sacked' After Complaining About 'Shows With Penises In'
Celebrity Gogglebox star Dame Sheila Hancock has claimed she was sacked from the Channel 4 show after she complained about the amount of nudity she had to watch.
The 90-year-old acting legend appeared on the first series of the celeb version of the show with her friend Gyles Brandreth.
However, Sheila didn’t return after she clashed with producers over some of the racier shows, like Naked Attraction, that she was required to comment on.
In fact, Dame Sheila claims that when she spoke to one female producer, the TV exec got “quite angry”.
Sheila told The Mirror: “I used to love doing it with Gyles, but they sacked me from that. Well, they did not ask me back.
“I think it was because there were a lot of shows with penises in, and because it went down [well] with the audience, they kept showing them to us.
“Eventually I phoned up the lady on the edit and said, ‘I am enjoying the show, but do you think we can have anything other than penises?’ and she was quite angry.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Gogglebox’s production company for comment.
After Sheila’s exit, she was replaced with Maureen Lipman on the sofa next to Giles, but the actor also left the show for similar reasons.
She told Radio Times: “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, fuck them.”
In another interview, Maureen added: “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!’”
Gogglebox, which is back on Channel 4 for its 21st series, celebrates its 10th anniversary on 7 March.