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The Circle reveals Good Morning Britain's Richard Madeley as surprise contestant... with a twist

Photo credit: Rex/Shutterstock
Photo credit: Rex/Shutterstock

From Digital Spy

Channel 4 has confirmed that Good Morning Britain presenter Richard Madeley is set to take part in The Circle's eagerly-anticipated second series.

The reality series sees contestants hole up in the same building, but they're only allowed to communicate with each other via a social media platform called 'The Circle'. The Players get to decide whether to play as themselves or create an entirely fake profile, all with the aim of becoming the most popular member of The Circle.

Richard will be joining the already-announced contestants in the series as a Player and if that's not exciting enough, there's one hell of a twist too because he won't be playing as himself.

Instead, it's up to the show's viewers to decide his profile by voting on The Circle app.

Photo credit: ITV
Photo credit: ITV

Talking about why he wanted to get involved with the series, the former This Morning presenter explained: "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."

Related: The Circle's Emma Willis explains what sets the show apart from Big Brother

Richard also admitted that he sees his mission to be "an agent of mischief" on the show and teased that he'll have special tasks to do as the series goes on but he also shared that he isn't going in with a game plan – not least because he doesn't know who he'll be.

"I suspect I'll probably have to be quite young in order to fit in," he added. "I think what I'm going to have to try and avoid doing is not attempt to be cool or clever, or as we used to say, a very old-fashioned phrase, a wise guy.

"I think I've just got to take it as it comes, basically be quite kind while I'm talking to people and stay away from difficult topics that can easily be misinterpreted."

Photo credit: ITV
Photo credit: ITV

But he also revealed that he's not worried about having to mislead anyone, saying it's all "just a game" anyway.

"It's a game, isn't it? It's not real," he said. "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."

Photo credit: Channel 4
Photo credit: Channel 4

Last year's winner was Alex Hobern, a 26-year-old Internet comedian who used his real-life girlfriend's pictures to create a fake profile for a woman named Kate.

On top of the £50,000 he won for being named the highest-rated player, Hobern also received the "viewers' champion" prize and won an additional £25,000.

The Circle returns in a live launch show on Channel 4 on Tuesday, September 24 at 9.15pm.


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