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CAMERA SLY
THEY were billed as an exciting new addition to the Gogglebox family - but within weeks they'd vanished from our screens.
Chantelle Walker, 26, alongside mum Elizabeth and sister Monique were only given a few episodes' worth of air time in 2020.
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The North Londoner says there was "silence for months" after Gogglebox put them on hiatus, claiming there "weren't enough cameras" to continue filming them - only to find out later that their contract wasn't being renewed.
Chantelle told The Sun: “It was a really good experience doing Gogglebox... but it was a bit disappointing, I feel like we should have had more airtime but they chose to use less of us.
“It was fun but I wish it could have been for longer. If I was asked to go on Gogglebox again I would do it.”
Known as Channie B, Chantelle believes Gogglebox cast her after she went viral on TikTok dancing to pigeon noises.
The clip amassed 1.1million views and led to a flurry of interest from production companies.
“I was going viral - I believe that’s how they found me and asked if I was interested in going through the process,” she says.
“I had quite a few shows interested including The Circle, Gogglebox and another that wanted people and their nans.”
Chantelle chose to take her family onto the show as she thought they would be entertaining.
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“My mum and sister are a lot more confident so I thought they would make good TV," she tells us.
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"My sister works in theatre and is animated, and my mum’s Caribbean so she’s animated."
Chantelle and Monique were no strangers to TV, having already been hired as “the people who react in the audience" on Britain’s Got Talent just weeks before Gogglebox got in touch.
The Walkers were unable to film at home so the Gogglebox team suggested an alternative.
“We ended up filming at an Airbnb," Chantelle explains.
“They said we could bring stuff to make it a comfy place and like a home but we never did.
“My sister was sitting on a separate sofa to my mum and, so we had to make sure she was still in the shot and could be seen by the cameras."
Dress code
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Ahead of filming, Chantelle was told what they could and couldn’t wear.
She added: “One of the big things was making sure that me, my mum and sister were all coordinated, so we wouldn't wear the same colour.
"We couldn't wear clothes with brands or logos.”
Chantelle says filming sessions lasted for up to eight hours and due to fitting into three schedules they would sometimes finish at 10pm.
During breaks, the family were offered lots of snacks and even a free takeaway.
"We could have whatever dinner we wanted on the day, they would tell us to look at whatever app, like Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber Eats, and pick what we wanted," Chantelle recalls.
“There wasn’t any limit on what we could order and there were loads of snacks too - from healthy stuff like fruit to chocolates and crisps.
“You could even ask for them to buy specific things for you. I never did but my mum asked for something. They tried to cater to you as much as they could.”
Producer prompts
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Due to filming taking place during the pandemic, the crew didn't mix with the Walkers and instead worked from a van on the Airbnb's driveway.
The team would communicate with them through speakers, set up in the living room, and Chantelle says they'd interrupt TV shows to push the family for better responses.
She adds: “If I said something interesting they would ask me a question about it through the microphone.
“If I said, ‘The sky is blue’ they would say, ‘Did you say, the sky is blue?’ and they would get you to talk more about it."
Previous Gogglebox families have claimed the team tries to encourage families to give exaggerated responses - including one star who likened it to “a pantomime”.
Chantelle insists that wasn’t the case with her family because they are naturally emotive people.
“I definitely acted normally, my family is very animated," she says.
"If people saw us as ‘acting’ or ‘being extra’ on the show it wasn't, that’s just how we are day to day.”
TV briefs
Chantelle says Gogglebox gave them detailed backgrounds on TV shows they were "clueless" about.
"I think there were five shows and one news clip to watch, so six in total, and we would be seeing them more than once in case we had missed something," she recalls.
“I’m a big TV watcher so I knew most of the shows that were shown to us.
"But sometimes I’d have no clue what a show was and had never heard of it.
"I’d be a bit lost on the story sometimes, too. So before watching it they would give us context to the show.
"It was useful because it meant we could catch a bit of what the storyline was and it was easier to discuss.”
Shock departure
Not long into their stint on Gogglebox, Chantelle claims they were informed the team was 'pausing filming' for a while.
Months later they were told their contracts weren’t being renewed and Chantelle still doesn't fully understand why.
“They told us they 'didn’t have enough cameras to film us' and something to do with lockdown,” she explains.
"We thought they were going to come back and restart filming in the next season.
“But that didn't happen. There was silence for a while and we didn’t know what was going on for months. Then they dropped us, which was a shock.
“There was no discussion, we couldn’t understand why - but what can you do when they tell you they don’t want to film anymore?
“People were shocked when we were dropped, even now they ask us when we are going back on."
But Chantelle doesn’t hold any grudges and says she enjoyed the experience.
And she has plenty to keep her busy, as she now works in marketing and runs a hair business and digital illustration firm.
She recently gave birth to her first child - a daughter who is approaching three weeks old.
Reflecting on her time on the show, Chantelle said: "It was really cool, I definitely couldn’t complain about how it went.
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"It was fun, during lockdown things were quite boring and it was good to have a different outlet."
Studio Lambert, who create Gogglebox, did not respond to The Sun's request for comment.