And now, in today’s edition of News We Never Thought We’d Write, Anton Du Beke and Ann Widdecombe apparently once hoped to have their own sitcom.
The pair became friends after being paired together on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, garnering attention for their less than stellar routines.
While viewers enjoyed watching the former Tory MP hopelessly being dragged around the dancefloor dressed as a giant canary, their popularity on the BBC ballroom show apparently led them to trying to get a sitcom commissioned.
Comedian Paul Kerensa, whose credits include writing for Miranda and Not Going Out, has astonishingly claimed he was approached to write the comedy.
In a Lunchlift Live Facebook stream (via British Comedy Guide), Paul claimed he met Ann in 2013 after appearing on BBC discussion show Are You Having A Laugh? – Comedy And Christianity, when she chatted to him afterwards about her idea.
“I thought: ‘Really?’ Ann Widdecombe? A sitcom?” he admitted.
“She said: ‘Yeah. With Anton ... could you put some ideas together, see if we could pitch it around?’”
A meeting was called where Paul started putting some ideas down “like Ann Widdecombe and Anton Du Beke share a flat – Here’s some of the adventures they can get up to”.
He created some writing samples and “a few pages of the pitch” and Ann and Anton’s agents at the time (both are now with new representatives) apparently asked him to “go and write a half-hour episode and then you can take it to a production company”.
However, Paul said he ultimately decided not to write the script.
He added that he would rather be “the guy who saves the world from the Widdecombe sitcom”.
“Even Ann would agree, she’s probably not Rowan Atkinson,” he said. “Yes, she can dance funny, her and Anton, they are a double act to be reckoned with... Maybe they’re in development elsewhere. Maybe they got some other writer to do it for them.”
Needless to say, the revelation has left people with a lot of thoughts online...
When contacted by HuffPost UK, Ann’s current representative said: “Her comment is the old phrase, ‘recollections vary’”.
A spokesperson for Anton Du Beke has also been contacted.
The pair became friends after being paired together on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, garnering attention for their less than stellar routines.
While viewers enjoyed watching the former Tory MP hopelessly being dragged around the dancefloor dressed as a giant canary, their popularity on the BBC ballroom show apparently led them to trying to get a sitcom commissioned.
Comedian Paul Kerensa, whose credits include writing for Miranda and Not Going Out, has astonishingly claimed he was approached to write the comedy.
In a Lunchlift Live Facebook stream (via British Comedy Guide), Paul claimed he met Ann in 2013 after appearing on BBC discussion show Are You Having A Laugh? – Comedy And Christianity, when she chatted to him afterwards about her idea.
“I thought: ‘Really?’ Ann Widdecombe? A sitcom?” he admitted.
“She said: ‘Yeah. With Anton ... could you put some ideas together, see if we could pitch it around?’”
A meeting was called where Paul started putting some ideas down “like Ann Widdecombe and Anton Du Beke share a flat – Here’s some of the adventures they can get up to”.
He created some writing samples and “a few pages of the pitch” and Ann and Anton’s agents at the time (both are now with new representatives) apparently asked him to “go and write a half-hour episode and then you can take it to a production company”.
However, Paul said he ultimately decided not to write the script.
He added that he would rather be “the guy who saves the world from the Widdecombe sitcom”.
“Even Ann would agree, she’s probably not Rowan Atkinson,” he said. “Yes, she can dance funny, her and Anton, they are a double act to be reckoned with... Maybe they’re in development elsewhere. Maybe they got some other writer to do it for them.”
Needless to say, the revelation has left people with a lot of thoughts online...
When contacted by HuffPost UK, Ann’s current representative said: “Her comment is the old phrase, ‘recollections vary’”.
A spokesperson for Anton Du Beke has also been contacted.
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