Jack Whitehall is to front a one-off special for Father’s Day on BBC One.
Jack Whitehall’s Father’s Day is on BBC One on Friday 19 June at 8.30pm
BBC One teased: “Father’s Day is traditionally the time we celebrate our fathers, grandfathers and father figures by coming together to spend time with one another, but that’s going to be tricky for a lot of people during lockdown.
“Enter Jack Whitehall who knows the importance of maintaining a good father-son relationship, no matter how challenging the father is. He’s a man who’s been through a lot with his father, Michael, they’ve travelled the world together and he like the rest of us is going to miss being with his dad on Father’s Day.”
In Jack Whitehall’s Father’s Day, Jack will visit Michael the lockdown way by setting up on the pavement outside Michael’s front door to spend some quality time together. They’ll reminisce over old family photos, awkward home video footage and tell some classic Whitehall tales.
Jack and Michael will also be catching up with a number of famous faces, taking part in a special Father’s Day edition of MasterChef and surprising key workers who can’t be with their loved ones this year.
Jack said: “The show is our attempt at trying to have some Father’s Day fun but from the comfort of our own homes, we’re going to have some Father’s Day surprises for Michael which I have arranged and which he will not know about until the day itself.
“And then a few things which we’re going to film in advance like our stint on the lockdown version of MasterChef, which we’re doing because I’ve been doing a lot of cooking in lockdown and I thought that would be a fun thing to do as it’s a show that we both love. And we’ll be having some guests and some of our usual ummm… chat.”
He added: “This came about from us sort of twiddling our thumbs, sitting at home and thinking about what we may be able to do to give people a bit of light-hearted distraction from their lockdown. We worked with the BBC when we did Backchat, though obviously that’s not something we had done for a couple of years, so we contacted them to say: “Would you be up for doing something?”
“We’ve talked about a lot in the past about doing something for Father’s Day but it felt like now was a great time to do it with everyone in lockdown.
“And there will be a lot of people that won’t be able to spend Father’s Day with their dads and hopefully this will be a fun way to show that it’s possible to have a close relationship with your dad even when you can’t be in the same room as him.”
Kate Phillips, Controller of BBC Entertainment, said: “Many of us won’t be able to observe Father’s Day in the usual way this year, so we’re delighted that Jack and Michael will be letting us into their very entertaining celebrations.”
Richard Ackerman at programme makers Jackpot Productions added: “I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Father’s Day, than with Jack and Michael (please don’t tell my Dad).”
Jack Whitehall’s Father’s Day is a 30-minute special to air this summer on Friday 19 June at 8.30pm
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