Ann Widdecombe to host Sky Atlantic quiz show

Ann Widdecombe to host Sky Atlantic quiz show
Ann Widdecombe to host Sky Atlantic quiz show (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Ann Widdecombe has signed up to front a new television quiz called Cleverdicks. The former MP, who had a lengthy run in last year's Strictly Come Dancing against the odds with her lumpen performances, had previously said she had no interest in a 'showbiz career'. The show, which will be broadcast next year on Sky Atlantic, will feature four contestants playing for a cash prize and the right to call themselves a cleverdick. Ann said: "Some may say that I am a cleverdick to have secured this contract, but they should meet some of the formidable cleverdicks who will be playing during the show." She is due to make her pantomime debut later this year when she stars in a production of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs with sharp-tongued Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford, Kent, from December 9. Sky Atlantic's director Elaine Pyke said: "Cleverdicks and Ann Widdecombe - who could resist? "Sitting in an early evening slot, the show is intelligent, irreverent and hugely entertaining and will be a great start to an evening's viewing on Sky Atlantic."

Patrick McLennan

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.