The Weakest Link is arguably the BBC’s most iconic quiz show.
Host Anne Robinson’s savage tongue made for telly that kept loyal viewers glued to their screens for decades, while the sneaky knock-out round made for nail-biting TV.
However, the show has a dark side that is less known to the series’ loyal followers. To celebrate the show’s 24th anniversary, Daily Star is looking back at some of the scandals that have ridden The Weakest Link’s past.
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Scroll on to find out the side of the show viewers didn’t see.
Gay Joke
(Image: BBC)
Teenage Benjamin Butterworth appeared on the show back in 2010 at just 18-years-old. In 2021, the former contestant spoke about his time on the BBC competition show and claimed that Robinson poked fun at his sexuality.
Writing for inews.co.uk, Butterworth said: “I was 18 when I rocked up to BBC Scotland studios in Glasgow to film an episode of The Weakest Link in 2010. I was young, socially awkward and in a hairdo that resembled a small dog. An obvious target for the sort of mockery that passed for TV in the noughties.”
(Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
“I wanted to spar with Anne because, well, who wouldn’t? But I never anticipated how personal the show could be. There is no audience, but plenty of producers and runners and unspecified others buzz around the studio as you prepare for your public flogging.”
While filming his episode, Benjamin claims that Anne quizzed him about his love life: “Do you like girls, Benjamin?” Butterworth explained that he’d previously told his family about his sexuality and it was possible he’d been asked about it while talking to the crew, but the former contestant “never thought” comments about his sexuality would be made while competing.
Anne and Benjamin’s comments were cut from the episode but prior to this, he anxiously awaited the air date as he was afraid their exchange would be seen by his loved ones. Butterworth explained: “The point of the scripted joke is clear: I’m gay, geeky and a virgin. And for the record, only two of those things were true.”
Horror Accident
(Image: SallyAdams/BNPS)
The oldest winner of The Weakest Link Patricia Mallon sadly died six years after claiming her prize. 84-year-old Mallon, who was a grandmother of six, was asleep in her armchair at home in Bournemouth, Dorset, when a spark in the mechanism caused the furniture to burst into flames.
It has been reported that she set off her personal alarm and she was later found by firemen and taken to Southmead Hospital, Bristol, where she unfortunately died three weeks later. Mallon died from multiple organ failure, pneumonia and burns with smoke inhalation.
When she was on The Weakest Link, Patricia was 78-years-old and took home a cash prize of £1150 – and a personal congratulations from Anne herself.
Sneaky Stripper
(Image: Mike Stratton)
Mike Stratton, a male stripper and serial gameshow star, has revealed how he managed to get to the final two on BBC’s The Weakest Link. He persuaded his co-stars not to vote him off and confessed that before filming began, he spoke to them in the toilets to make “secret” agreements not to boot each other off the show.
It has been reported that Stratton spoke to seven out of nine of his fellow contestants without them even realising they were part of his web of deceit. He said: “I cheated on The Weakest Link. Every time somebody left the room, I went with them […] ‘I won’t vote for you and you won’t vote for me, yeah?’ And I did that all day. By the time it came to film the show, there were only two people who I hadn’t done it to.”
When the contestants found out, they all complained to the show’s host – who had a rather unexpected response: “They all went and complained to Anne Robinson about me, but she loved it. She came and gave me a hug and everything.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
