Phillip Schofield has been papped quaffing champagne, just hours before his bombshell Channel 5 debut(Image: no credit)

Phillip Schofield sips champagne and poses with fans hours before TV comeback

Phillip Schofield's Cast Away debuts on Channel 5 tonight in which the former This Morning host faces his most 'personal challenge' yet: ten days of isolation on a remote island

30 Sep 2024, 09:22 by Victoria Johns · The Mirror

Phillip Schofield has been papped quaffing champagne, just hours before his bombshell Channel 5 debut.

The former This Morning host, 64, is return to TV tonight in Cast Away in which the dad-of-two faces his most 'personal challenge' yet: ten days of isolation on a remote island in Madagascar.

Ahead of its release, the former Broom Cupboard star was joined by his pals, wife, Steph, and pet pooch in a West London pub on Sunday, surrounded by red love heart balloons. Sporting a black blazer and white shirt, Phil clutched a glass of bubbles while happily posing for photos with fans. He later appeared to be dancing in the busy boozer, before taking Uber cab back to his home in the capital when the hi-jinx were over.

Phillip Schofield's Cast Away debuts on Channel 5 tonight( Image: no credit)

In a preview for tonight's show, which is in three parts, Phil blasts a trio of people at ITV as "three sh*ts" - in an angry attack where he claims there was no loyalty for him at the channel.

The presenter quit the channel in May 2023 after it emerged he had been having an affair with a younger male staff member on This Morning, something he had previously denied. But there is furious anger reserved for execs and possibly for his co-host Holly Willoughb y who he is understood to no longer be friends with.

He posed with a fan in the West London pub( Image: no credit)

The dad-of-two appeared to be dancing in the boozer( Image: no credit)

Unshaven, wearing a dirty t.shirt and shorts, Phil, who is alone on the island, apart from a 'camera and lip gloss', says: "When what happened to me happened to me, it screwed up my favourite building in the world, and it pretty well blew away all those happy memories, and suddenly the place became hostile to me, and that was heartbreaking.

"And the people who did it to me, know, they know how important that building was to me. They know that when you throw someone under a bus, you've got to have a really bloody good reason to do it. Brand, ambition is not good enough. It's not a good enough reason to throw someone under a bus."

Phil got an Uber home, just hours before his new show begins( Image: no credit)

Pausing to chuck more wood on the fire on the beach, he continues: "I was just thinking there as I was collecting wood. There are only three sh*ts. One of them is a coward who never stepped up in queue gate. One of them is a coward because they never stepped up when I was being battered by one journalist....and the other one is just brand orientated. Not what you expect, not what you think you're going to get. When it all came to a sudden and very abrupt end, questions were asked about our toxic environment in parliament!"

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