Olympics stars to team up on Million Pound Drop

Olympics stars to team up on Million Pound Drop
Olympics stars to team up on Million Pound Drop (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Medal-winning gymnast Louis Smith is to take on another TV challenge by teaming up with fellow Olympian Greg Rutherford on Channel 4's The Million Pound Drop. Louis - who is to be seen taking to the floor on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday - and gold-winning long-jumper Greg will be guest contestants in the new series. The high-stakes programme returns on Friday night with Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe, known to viewers for appearing on C4's comedy show The Last Leg, lined up as contestants raising money for Paralympic charities. The channel said that its recent charity version of Million Pound Drop, featuring names such as Vic Reeves, Professor Green, Countdown's Rachel Riley and Jedward, had raised a total of 700,000 pounds. It will be split between 14 different Paralympic and disability charities - including British Blind Sport, the British Paralympic Association and the Riding for the Disabled Association - with each receiving 50,000 pounds. Syeda Irtizaali, C4's entertainment commissioning editor, said: "We included a number of charities that don't get quite as much attention so the money raised would really make a difference."

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.