To celebrate Virgin Media’s 25th anniversary, a special one-off episode of Celebrity Gogglebox Ireland aired last night, September 20. The lineup included a host of queer favourites, as they took to the couches to reminisce about some of the station’s biggest and best moments from over the years, as well as this week’s TV.
Among the cast was Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss, who was joined by none other than entertainment extraordinaire Twink.
Speaking about her involvement, Panti said: “Gogglebox has long been one of my favourite easy, feel-good watches, so I was fully onboard the moment I was asked to do it. Especially because eating snacks, watching TV, and being ‘pass remarkable’ is one of my finely honed talents!”
The drag performer also confirmed that her TV guilty pleasure is Below Deck and that if she could reboot any show, it would be The Golden Girls. “Twink and I would be perfect for the cast,” she added.
Other famous queer faces to appear in the special included gay showbiz couple Brian Dowling and Arthur Gourounlian, reality TV star Hughie Maughan, as well as comedians Shane Daniel Byrne and Alison Spittle. They were joined by a range of other musicians, comedians, presenters and more, including Una Healy, Tommy Tiernan, Erica Cody, Richard Chambers, Gavin Reilly, Zara King, Tommy Bowe, Kerry Kantona, and The Fleming family, to name a few.
This is NOT A DRILL people!!! This is your 30 min call. Celebrity Gogglebox Ireland kicks off at 9pm on @VirginMedia_TV Myself & Arthur are so excited to be involved in this special show celebrating 25 years of TV3 / Virgin Media Television. Can’t wait to see everyone in action? pic.twitter.com/9UTEPiIy2l
— Brian Dowling (@brianofficial) September 20, 2023
Among the programmes watched by the cast was Perfect Match hosted by Twink (although she seemed to have erased it from her memory), which left viewers, including Karen Koster in shock, as she shouted, “Was nothing off the table? Was there no censorship?”
The show gleefully ended with the celebrities watching Bosco in The George toasting the result of the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015, with singer Erica Cody saying, “Aw Bosco’s an ally,” and Love Island star Matthew MacNabb commenting, “Bosco is of course gender fluid”.
If you missed the special Celebrity Gogglebox Ireland episode, you can watch it now on Virgin Media Player.
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