Masked Singer unveils Bubble Tea’s identity as Ab Fab star to shock of guest judge Jennifer Saunders

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The Masked Singer has revealed the movie star identity of Bubble Tea after the contestant was eradicated from Saturday evening’s episode (20 January).

The ITV singing present returned earlier this month with Joel Dommett on internet hosting duties, and tremendous sleuths Davina McCall, Rita Ora, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan again within the detective chairs to guess which celebrities are behind the costumes. This week’s episode had a “School Disco” theme, with French and Saunders star Jennifer Saunders becoming a member of the panel as a guest judge.

At the tip of the episode, the judges had to choose between Bubble Tea and Owl, who had been voted into the sing-off.

Bubble Tea’s remaining efficiency on the collection was a rendition of “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes, but it surely wasn’t sufficient to persuade the panel to save her as they determined to ship Owl by means of to the following spherical, after their efficiency of Middle of the Road’s “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep”.

The panel made a number of guesses about who might be hiding behind Bubble Tea’s masks, together with Fearne Cotton and Miriam Margolyes, however ultimately, Bubble Tea was revealed as actor Julia Sawalha, who performed Saunders’ on-screen daughter in Absolutely Fabulous.

“Darling, what are you doing? Silly girl. You got yourself in a mess but you were very good,” Saunders joked.

Sawalha replied: “I was like ‘she’s going to know it’s me.’ It’s beautiful to see you again.”

“I wanted to do something that would really take me out of my comfort zone,” Sawalha stated following the present. “I like to do jobs that actually I’m really terrified of because then they’re a big challenge. This lived up to that!”

Sawalha admitted that singing is “not my thing at all” and that she discovered the method of singing on stage “really scary”.

“My favourite thing about becoming Bubble Tea was just being able to be really playful and young, and people thinking that I was a young pop star when I’m a little older than that!” she stated.

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Bubble Tea turned the fourth contestant to exit the collection following Rat, who was unveiled as Strictly Come Dancing star Shirley Ballas, Chicken Caesar, who was unmasked as presenter and actor Alexander Armstrong and Weather, who was revealed to be legendary soul singer Dionne Warwicokay.

Owl, Air Fryer, Piranha and Eiffel Tower progressed to the following spherical.

The Masked Singer returns on Saturdays on ITV1 and ITVX.