Richard Madeley to join The Circle as secret celebrity contestant in exciting new twist
24 September 2019, 10:21 | Updated: 24 September 2019, 10:25
The Good Morning Britain presenter signs up to the social media game – and wants you to pick his profile.
Richard Madeley has confirmed he's taking part in social media experiment The Circle as a secret celebrity contestant.
The legendary presenter, 63, isn't allowed to enter the Channel 4 game as himself, so viewers will choose a false "character" for him to play throughout the series via the programme's app.
In the second series, the married broadcaster will appear as an unknown person who will catfish other profiles – and Richard is planning on stirring the pot.
Taking residence in the show's flats, he joked that fans will see him "cooking and yawning and scratching my a***" as he transforms into an "agent of mischief” in the upcoming season, which starts on 24th September.
Read more: The Circle 2019: Channel 4 show's start date and what is the new premise of season two?
Revealing why he wanted to sign up to the dystopian reality show, he said: "I get asked to do all kinds of things all the time, and usually the answer is, 'No, thank you,' because it either sounds a bit boring, or I've kind of done it before. This is genuinely different.
"I was aware of the programme. I'd seen a little bit of the last series, and I read quite a lot about it. I was quite intrigued by it at the time and it got some very interesting write-ups. It's not your normal reality show. It's got quite a lot going for it intellectually as well as being a lot of fun.
"So, when they knocked on the door, straight away, I was quite intrigued. I wanted to know what they wanted me to do because it's not a celebrity show. My mission is to be an agent of mischief. I think I'm going to have certain tasks to do, but I don’t know what they are yet."
Richard won't be eligible for the hefty £100,000 prize fund and will only take part in the social experiment for one week, but is relishing the thought of participating in the "game of bluff".
Revealing how his family reacted, he said: "Judy is completely baffled because she hasn't seen any of The Circle, and she wasn't aware of the concept of it. So, at first, she was really baffled.
"Like I said, normally I say no to most reality shows, things like Strictly and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and stuff. So she was a bit surprised as to why I said yes. Then when I explained it to her she kind of got it.
"But Jack, my son and Chloe my daughter, were thrilled. They thought it was a really, really cool thing to do."
Read more: Who won The Circle 2018 and what is the prize for the show?
When quizzed about the fact he's going to knowingly mislead people, Richard added: "It's a game, isn't it? It's not real. An expression I've used so many times in my career, it's only television. It's not actually real life, it's just a game.
"It's just a game being played on television. So in that sense it's very much like a game of cards. It's like a game of happy families or poker or anything like that, where you're actually bluffing. It's a game of bluff. So I don't have any issues about that at all, because like I say, it's not real."
The Circle kicks off tonight at 9.15pm on Channel 4.
