Dame Sheila Hancock has admitted it came as a shock to her when she was not invited back to appear on Celebrity Gogglebox.
The Olivier-winning star joined Celebrity Gogglebox in 2019, where she commented on the past week of TV with Gyles Brandreth.
However, when the celebrity version of the hit Channel 4 show returned a year later, Gyles had a new right-hand woman in Dame Maureen Lipman.
Speaking on Radio 2, Dame Sheila explained: “They didn’t ask me back for some reason, I suppose because I was too rude about some of the things I saw.”
Referring to the infamous moment she and Gyles were treated to an episode of Naked Attraction, she added: “I, honest to God, had not seen most of the programmes they showed us – like all those where everyone was showing off their private parts.
“And I was deeply shocked, quite genuinely overwhelmed by the whole thing.”
Dame Sheila’s successor has previously made no secret of the fact she didn’t always enjoy her two seasons on Gogglebox.
“I’d seen Gogglebox and I thought: ’Oh, [ours] is the grown-up version, is it? I’m going to go on, and make a lot of comments now about the oeuvre and ‘I did like his first trilogy’,” Dame Maureen said. “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. So I’m going.’”
Since then, Gyles has shared the Gogglebox sofa with Dame Joanna Lumley and Carol Vorderman.
He and Dame Sheila also presented Great Canal Journeys together, after producers were impressed with their chemistry on Celebrity Gogglebox.
Explaining his pal’s Gogglebox absence last year, Gyles offered: “They asked Sheila and me to go on the canals... so I think Sheila felt that one series with Gyles in a year is enough, thank you very much.”