Eamonn Holmes hits out at Celebrity Gogglebox over “idiotic and cruel” editing

Eamonn Holmes has criticised Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox after featuring in the opening episode.

Eamonn and wife Ruth Langsford are one of the couples on the Celebrity Gogglebox 2020 line up with the new series airing Friday nights.

Last night’s episode (Friday 5 June) saw the celebs watch a number of shows including an emotional episode of BBC One’s Ambulance which saw a young boy phone 999 after his dad became unconscious.

The show then saw Eamonn joke about rushing Ruth to hospital when she was pregnant.

That prompted a few complaints on Twitter with one viewer remarking: “Only Eamonn Holmes can turn a child saving his own father into a story about how great he is for driving his wife to hospital.”

Another added: “A 10 year old has just resuscitated his dad back to life after having a heart attack and Eamonn Holmes is likening the heroism to him getting Ruth to hospital when she was in labour?!”

Taking to Twitter himself, Eamonn defended himself as he hit out at the show’s edit.

He wrote: “In reply to a number of complaints ….I am hurt beyond belief that @C4Gogglebox chose not to use me talking about my Father dying from a Heart Attack at the side of a road and replace it with a funny story following a young lad giving his Father CPR . Idiotic and cruel edit.

Eamonn continued: “So following a tragedy that has forever haunted my family, I am in no mood for criticising holier than thou mouthpieces on here who haven’t gone through what we did. I had nothing but praise and emotion for the Ambulance control room TV programme. An atrocious edit @StudioLambert [the show’s production company]”

He added: “How my Father died was a particularly horrible experience for my Mother , my younger brother and his friend who were all in the car . The resuscitation in The BBC Ambulance programme was as close as could be to my Dad’s passing.Yet I am the one edited to make it look like a laugh.

“Thank you everyone for seeing what happened tonight. Just awful that it did and that I have had to explain. Anyone who works in The Ambulance Service or who has experienced the impact of Sudden Death will understand. I now need to put my phone down. Goodnight ”

A Gogglebox spokesperson said in response: “We have apologised to Eamonn over what happened in this week’s episode. We understand and respect Eamonn’s feelings on such a deeply personal story.

“We have taken the decision to edit the episode for future repeats and All 4. We look forward to working with Eamonn and Ruth for the rest of the series.”

The episode has since been removed from Channel 4’s catch up service.