Celebrity Gogglebox special tonight to mark 50 years of Pride

A special episode of Celebrity Gogglebox will air on Channel 4 this year to mark 50 years of Pride.

Channel 4 has announced a special season of programming for this summer and later in the year.

The channel says the specials will “reflect on the incredible achievements and challenges of advancing LGBTQ+ rights and visibility over the last half century, while also platforming the diversity of identity and sexuality in the 2020s.”

As part of the line up, Celebrity Gogglebox will see a mix of series favourites and some of Britain’s best loved LGBTQ+ personalities – including Rylan and his mum Linda, Nick Grimshaw and his niece Liv, and Paul Sinha and his husband Oliver – take to their sofas, ready to share their views with the nation for a very special Pride anniversary episode.

They’ll be joined by the cast of Heartstopper – Kit Connor, Joe Locke, Yasmin Finney & William Gao – Clare Balding, Alice Arnold and Steps stars H, Claire Richards & Faye Tozer.

Celebrity Gogglebox’s Pride special will air at 9PM on Friday, 1 July 2022.

Channel 4’s Pride season also includes special LGBTQ+ themed compilations of Naked Attraction and First Dates, plus a number of new documentaries.

50 Years of Pride will be a landmark documentary on the history of the movement in the UK, made in collaboration with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stephen Daldry and playwright Joe Robertson.

And focusing on trans history, April Ashley (provisional title) will be the first in-depth feature documentary on this trailblazer for trans woman in the UK.

Airing later in the year will be Outed: George Michael and the Fight for Freedom (provisional title), a two-part re-examining the pop icon’s 1998 outing as a gay man and how he refused to be ashamed.

Louisa Compton, Head of News, Current Affairs, Specialist Factual and Sport who is overseeing the Pride season said: “Channel 4 has been responsible for more outstanding LGBTQ+ content over its 40 years than any other public service broadcaster -often commissioning content others wouldn’t touch, from award-winning dramas It’s A Sin, Queer As Folk, and Brookside to innovative factual stories including Football’s Coming Out, Genderquake, and Hollyoaks: Gay Dads Forever.

“It only seems fitting that at this important moment for LGBTQ+ history in the UK we do what we’ve always done, double down on our commitment to agenda-setting programming with exciting new commissioning and All 4 firsts. The announcement today is only the start of the Channel’s year-round Pride celebration – plenty more to come in due course.”