A charity episode filmed at No 10

Andy Burnham will become the first prime minister to appear on Channel 4's Gogglebox, taking part in a celebrity charity edition that airs on Friday, 23 October, at 9.05pm. The episode was filmed inside No 10, where Burnham and the Liverpool City Region mayor, Steve Rotheram, sit on the sofa to review the week's television. Rotheram said he agreed to take part because he did not want Burnham to end up looking like "Billy No-Mates" alone on the Downing Street sofa. The special is in aid of Stand Up To Cancer, and the line-up also includes the pop band Sugababes and the comedian Joe Lycett. A trailer released on social media opens on a close-up of the black No 10 door before the pair start debating snacks. Burnham can be heard listing beer, Skips, pork scratchings, bacon fries and Twiglets, then giving his verdict on the snacks.

“Twiglets are probably the best, aren't they?”

Rotheram says he has a preference for Skips, so long as they are prawn cocktail flavour, and that he is more of a cheesy puffs type, while Burnham is more into the hard, crunchy stuff.

Music, Oasis and a Kyiv visit

The pair also struggled with one particularly cerebral quiz show, whose music round left them flummoxed. Rotheram summed up their difficulty with that programme.

“We're both big into our music but we couldn't get it”

Burnham, a confessed Oasis fan, has often leaned into his Mancunian musical roots. In August 2026, during a visit to Kyiv, he was handed an electric guitar on the tour bus of Cultural Forces, an organisation that brings music and performances to Ukrainian troops and communities. He played a Smiths song before joining an impromptu Oasis singalong with the troops. Earlier, serving soldier and musician Ivan Tkalenko had performed Some Might Say, a track by the Manchester band, on an electric bandura during a meet-and-greet.

Precedents and political reaction

Burnham is not the first Labour leader to appear on the show for Stand Up To Cancer. Jeremy Corbyn, then the Labour leader, featured in 2017, and his episode included a recipe for coddled eggs eaten while he watched a cookery programme by Nigella Lawson. Alastair Campbell and Stanley Johnson, father of Boris Johnson, have also made cameos over the years. Snack-related publicity is not new either: in August, Home Office minister Anna Turley was forced to defend a recent Burnham post ranking bar snacks, which was used to promote a business rates cut for hospitality venues, and she said his style was "reaching people". Reform UK leader Nigel Farage appeared in a Gogglebox spin-off in 2014 while leader of Ukip, and when asked whether it was unfair for Burnham to appear without other party leaders, a spokesman for Farage said Farage had done it before and would happily do it again.

Stand Up To Cancer and what comes next

Channel 4 set out what viewers can expect from the episode.

“Nothing is off limits as Gogglebox continues to celebrate the simple joy of watching television together.”

The broadcaster said the reactions would include poignant stories alongside hilarious and honest ones, all in aid of Stand Up To Cancer. The campaign is a joint national fundraiser from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, and it has raised more than £127m to date. That money backs 73 clinical trials and research projects that involve more than 13,000 cancer patients. Downing Street describes Burnham's charity work as long-standing, dating back to his time as Greater Manchester mayor and continuing since he became prime minister. A source close to Burnham said he liked the show and had enjoyed watching it, and more celebrity TV critics are still to be announced.