What did you miss?
Celebrity Catchphrase star Rick Edwards made a terrible blunder in his first-ever TV presenter audition.
Taking on the iconic gameshow format on Sunday, 6 April alongside Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle and EastEnders actor Jake Wood, the 45-year-old was chatting to host Stephen Mulhern when the embarrassing anecdote popped up.
In the running for a gig at T4 – Channel 4’s scheduling slot that came to an end in 2012 – Edwards was apparently still wearing his microphone while he and a friend enjoyed a lively conversation.
What, how and why?
Stephen Mulhern instigated the red-faced anecdote. (ITV screenshot)
“I hear you had a very memorable time at your first-ever presenter audition?” Mulhern asked Edwards before the charity-supporting game got underway.
“Yeah, I really didn’t have a clue what was going on!” laughed the contestant.
“The audition was going reasonably well and then at the lunch break I went out and one of my friends gave me a call, and I was being quite funny but slightly disrespectful about the executive producer on this show.”
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When he returned to the studio though, Edwards encountered a “horrible, icy atmosphere”. “The exec came over and said: ‘Just so you know, if you’re mic-ed up everyone can hear you…'” he further recalled.
Even though that particular T4 audition went disastrously, he did join its presenting lineup five years later.
On which other TV shows have you seen Edwards?
Pictured at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2023. (Joe Maher/Getty Images)
Over two decades since that initial slip-up, Edwards has carved himself out a decent TV resume.
Following a four-year presenting gig on T4 (2007-2011), he stayed at the same broadcaster for T4 on the Beach, Freshly Squeezed, Tool Academy (airing on E4), special episodes of Made in Chelsea, and Countdown (in Dictionary Corner).
Edwards also fronted comedy panel gameshow Safeword for a year in 2016; BBC quizzer Impossible for 10 series overall (eight regular and two celeb versions), and NBC dating format The Courtship which ran for 13 episodes in 2022.
Celebrity Catchphrase airs Sundays on ITV1 and ITVX.