Vicar lied to escape ‘exploitative' Gogglebox

Telegraph

26-06-2025

A vicar has admitted lying to escape the 'exploitative' television show Gogglebox.
The Rev Kate Bottley, who is now a BBC Radio 2 DJ, said she and her husband Graham told Channel 4 bosses in 2016 they wanted a temporary break while their daughter took her GCSEs.
But the couple failed to mention they had no plans to return and did not appear on the show again.
The 50-year-old vicar said she chose to leave the programme because it 'took over our life' and she was contractually barred from appearing on other TV shows.
'There was stuff coming in that I wanted to have a go at that I just wasn't able contractually to do,' she said.
'It so happened that it came around the time Ruby was doing her GCSEs so the excuse we gave was, 'We're going to take some time away while she does her exams'.'
She has since become a familiar face on radio and television, which funds her Church of England ministry.
'I wish I'd known how much it took over our life for two and a half years,' she told the Walking The Dog podcast. 'It's reality TV, it's by its nature consensual exploitation.
'So they come into your home. They're filming in your home – it was quite intrusive really. But we consented to that intrusion, but I didn't fully know just how.'
She revealed her children spent two and a half years sitting in their bedrooms every Tuesday and Thursday nights during filming.
'My kids didn't have friends round for a lot (of the time), didn't have help with their homework. Things like that.
'And we got paid very little. They paid, but I cooked two nights a week for the crew. I'm married to a man who won't eat takeaways, and I don't want to be filmed eating on camera so I was like, 'No, I'll cook'.
'There were casseroles and chillis. So all the money we got from it went on the electricity, the internet connection that they were using, and the food and being hospitable to six people in my home two nights a week.
'It's a vicarage as well, I should be hospitable. We should be sharing our home to people, and eating food together. It was a good two and a half years but we couldn't have done any more. It got to the point where we were just a bit overwhelmed.'
She was vicar of Blyth, Scrooby and Ranskill in Nottinghamshire when she first appeared on Gogglebox in 2014.
Producers had seen her star in a viral wedding video where she and the congregation started dancing halfway through, which amassed 9.3 million views on YouTube.
She appeared on five series of Gogglebox until 2016 when she departed the programme.