Huge ITV show shelved after bosses ‘struggle’ to find celebs willing to take part

ITV has shelved the 2024 series of The Real Full Monty after struggling to find celebrities willing to take part on the show. 

The annual event saw two groups of celebs – one male, one female – perform a strip tease to a theatre audience in order to encourage people to get cancer checks. 

Each of the two performances ended with the cast baring all after whipping off their clothes. 

Previous stars of the series included Coleen Nolan, Pete Wicks, Linda Lusardi, James Jordan and Christine McGuinness. 

Ashley Banjo has been the long-running lead of the cast, using his choreography skills to create the routine. 

However, it seems stars have been reluctant to bare all this year, and now ITV have decided to sit out this year. 

A source told The Mirror: “Getting celebrities to agree to take off all their clothes in front of not only a live audience, but millions more thanks to the cameras, is no small task.

“Even Coleen Nolan, who has been involved for many years, has told how absolutely terrifying she finds it. So the decision has been made to give it a break. It does not mean it will never come back, but there are no plans in the pipeline at this point.”

An ITV spokesperson confirmed the news and said: “The Real Full Monty has taken a number of guises over the past few years from the original men-only line-up, to a version on ice, in order to raise awareness around cancer. We are resting the format this year.”

However, it seems the team are keen to keep the show alive in future years. 

Inspired by the smash-hit 1997 movie starring Robert Carlyle, The Real Full Monty has been used to raise awareness for signs and symptoms of cancer. 

It has since been picked up for versions in the US, France, The Netherlands and Germany. 

Over the course of the one-hour specials, stars opened up on how cancer personally affected their lives, whether it be by a close family member or themselves being diagnosed. 

There would also be scenes showing best ways to check for signs of breast and testicular cancer. 

Last year’s series was a Christmas special, cheekily titled Jingle Balls, and featured appearances from Paul Burrell, who had just recovered from prostate cancer, and Ashley Cain, whose daughter Azaylia died in 2021 aged just eight months from a rare form of leukaemia.