Meet the family sacked from Gogglebox for its link to Ukip

Famous from the telly?

Correction: famous for watching the telly… on the telly.

How’s that?

The Michael family are stars of Gogglebox, the hit Channel 4 programme which treats the viewing public to hand-picked front-rooms across the country.

Here, we watch the hilarious/spot-on/completely baffling (delete as appropriate) reactions of Britons to choice cuts of the previous week’s TV.

The format has proved massively successful: given a Friday night primetime slot, the programme has pulled in 2.7 million viewers and won a TV Bafta award earlier this year.

And the Michaels are part of the winning formula?

They were. Until Mr Michael announced plans to stand as a Ukip candidate in next year’s general election for the Hastings and Rye seat in East Sussex. Yesterday, Channel 4 announced that it was against the rules for a contestant to represent a political party – and gave the family the sack.

“Sadly any Gogglebox cast member who becomes a candidate for a political party will have to step down from their involvement in Gogglebox,” said a spokeswoman for the broadcaster.

Were they any good?

The combination of 57-year-old dad Andrew’s stoic indifference, mum Carolyne’s slow-witted confusion, and daughter Katy and son Alex’s pithy put-downs won many viewers’ hearts.

Carolyne tweeted on Wednesday: “We’ve loved every minute of our involvement. It’s the best show on TV and I want to thank everyone for their wonderful support. We’ll miss you.”

More: The complete history of Ukip's worst excuses