Bez says Celebrity Gogglebox only works for him when he is drinking. The Happy Mondays member, 62, said he is almost always drunk when he films with Shaun Ryder, and added that he has stayed on the Channel 4 format since July 2019.
"You can only do that show when you're drunk," he said, describing a routine built around a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey and Guinness, with lagers now part of the mix too. He also said, "You get paid for having a good laugh and getting p***** with your mate watching the TV shows."
July 2019 on Channel 4
July 2019 is the point that fixes this as more than a one-off anecdote. Bez and Shaun Ryder became regulars then, and the pair have remained one of the show’s long-running double acts on Celebrity Gogglebox, where they react to TV rather than perform a scripted set.
Mollie King and Stuart Broad debut on Celebrity Gogglebox this week sits in the same evolving line-up, which is why Bez’s comments land as a reminder that the format still relies on personalities who can sustain repeat appearances without turning it into straight performance television.
Bez and Shaun Ryder on screen
62 and 63 is the age gap between Bez and Shaun Ryder, and it helps explain why their partnership has endured on the show. Bez said the pair are supplied with drink for filming, and his line about the process being "a piece of p***" makes clear that he sees the job less as polished presenting and more as paid downtime with a mate.
"It's a piece of p***. We love it," he said. "You get paid for having a good laugh and getting p***** with your mate watching the TV shows." That is the whole operating model in a sentence: low-friction filming, a fixed pairing, and a repeatable format that depends on the chemistry between the two men rather than on a studio setup or a formal script.
Cooking With The Stars move
2021 adds the other piece of the puzzle, because Bez reached the semi-final of the 's Celebrity MasterChef before he was reported to have signed up for ITV's Cooking With The Stars. The shift points to a performer who can move between reaction TV and competition TV without changing his public persona very much at all.
"I never watch myself on the telly because I'm always flabbergasted about how stupid I sound," he said. He added, "I sound thick as f***, you know what I mean?" and "It does my f****** nut in and I would rather not hear it." If he does turn up on Cooking With The Stars, the question is no longer whether he can be entertaining on TV; it is whether he will actually watch the result afterwards.
