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Daily Record

February 28, 2026

Jonathan Ross hosts a new contest in which 18 strangers, handcuffed in pairs, compete to win a £100,000 jackpot

How would you cope being handcuffed to a total stranger for 24 hours a day? That's the question posed in Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing, a new social experiment show hosted by Jonathan Ross in which 18 people from around Britain compete to get their hands on a £100,000 prize.

The nine pairs have to cope with being chained to their partner at all times, even when they need to go to the toilet or when they are sleeping.

They can uncuff themselves at any time but if they do they will be out of the competition. And whoever is left standing at the end takes home the cash. Jonathan, 65, isn’t handcuffed to anyone in the series but can see the benefits of being shackled to a stranger.

“I think getting to know someone really well and getting to see past the surface level [would be a positive],” he says. “Normally it takes so long to strip down people's façades — so actually seeing someone up close and raw means that you'll be seeing them in a way that rarely few people do.”

While Jonathan thinks he would be a good contestant - “I don't think there’s anything about me that is remotely annoying, I think I'd be the perfect person to be handcuffed to,” he jokes - he also knows what he'd find hardest about the experience.