Andy Burnham let wife go on Blind Date and it was disastrous

A lot of people have disastrous blind date stories, but I doubt they’re in the same league as Andy Burnham’s wife’s experience.

You see, Marie-France van Heel, or Frankie to her friends, didn’t go on any blind date; she went on THE Blind Date.

As in the TV show hosted by the one and only Cilla Black. So how did this happen?

Well, 24 years ago, when Frankie and the future King in the North first started dating at Cambridge University, she had a request for her new beau.

She had been chosen to go on Blind Date, and she wanted his permission to appear on the show.

Andy agreed — although he’d later admit he watched from behind the sofa – so off Frankie went to the studio.

If Andy was worried, though, he needn’t have been as Frankie ended up choosing ‘Will from Surrey’ who’d dressed in blue dungarees and a red sweatshirt.

That’s right, he’d turned up dressed like Mario.

And things got even worse when they started going through the classic Blind Date questions.

When Frankie asked what he did in the shower, Will replied: I generally make up poems and short stories.’

And then, as if to prove he wasn’t lying, he quickly rhymed: ‘Oh Frankie, oh Frankie, your name is quite cranky, pick me for your Blind Date, and there’ll be no hanky-panky.’

Hardly Shakespeare, is it? It’s barely even William McGonagall.

Things only got worse, though, when she asked: ‘What would you do if you were my first taste of British men?’ To which he replied: ‘You give me half an hour and I’ll give you the best time of your life.’

Charming.

Anyway, they then travelled to Gibraltar for their date, and the situation didn’t improve.

During filming, Frankie could be seen telling Will to ‘try and look attractive’ while posing for a picture.

When they eventually made it back to the studio, neither Will nor Frankie seemed to have a good time. Will even called Frankie a ‘cold fish’ to which she responded by telling him to ‘f*** off’ and throwing a pillow at him.

Still, all’s well that ends well, and 8 years after her disastrous blind date, she married Andy.

But there’s a final twist in this tale. What happened to Will? Well, Andy knows him.

‘My wife and I have been together for 25 years, but in the early days she was on Blind Date,’ he said [via The Mirror].

‘She was the picker, and to add insult to injury, she picked Will from Surrey, who ended up being the director of communications for the Conservative Party.’