More Sally Bercow shows planned by Channel 5
Speaker's wife Sally Bercow will be back on the small screen sooner rather than later, according to Channel 5 boss Jeff Ford. She appeared in the first Celebrity Big Brother after the show moved to its new home on 5 and then in a spin-off, When Paddy Met Sally, with former housemate - and the show's eventual winner - Paddy Doherty. Ford said When Paddy Met Sally, which saw Sally live alongside Paddy on a travellers' site, was 'a great show'. He told a Broadcasting Press Guild meeting: "I'm sure we'll be doing other things and possibly this year with Sally. Her and Paddy, that show, just did so well, it connected so well, it would be an absolute mistake for us not to." Ford said he did not think her husband, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, would be involved in any future show, adding: "I think the question is 'Would viewers be as interested?' and I don't think I would be as a viewer". Sally, who has also appeared on The Wright Stuff on Channel 5, has a column in the Daily Star Sunday which is owned by Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell company, owners of Channel 5. She previously admitted her decision to appear on CBB caused ructions with her husband, but she insisted she was 'very proud' about her appearance on the show despite his misgivings. She told a fringe event at last year's Labour conference that her time in the Big Brother house had been 'a blast. But she said her main reason for doing it had been to raise £100,000 for Ambitious about Autism (AaA), a charity for children with autism of which she and John are parent patrons. One of their three children, seven-year-old son Oliver, is autistic.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.