Dressed in a red sequinned jacket, Vernon Kay guffaws on stage at a Glamorgan holiday camp.
In a video shared to his almost one million followers on Instagram, the Radio 2 host is also seen showing off caravans to potential guests. Boney M’s 1978 hit Rasputin can be heard in the background.
The cringe-worthy clip is for Parkdean Resorts, and Vernon is at its Trecco Bay flagship site for a lucrative endorsement campaign.
It’s prompted some colleagues to wonder why he signed the deal when he already earns £395,000 a year from the BBC to present its mid-morning show on Radio 2.
In fact, the post, which went up on December 18, led those who work with Vernon, 51, to wonder if the big-money contract is to make up for a loss of income after his wife, Tess, stood down from presenting Strictly after 21 years.
She is understood to have earned around £400,000 a year for the role, although a loophole means Tess’s salary is no longer published as Strictly is produced by the corporation’s commercial arm BBC Studios and therefore exempt from its annually released payments list.
Vernon Kay has shared a video of him advertising caravans for Parkdean Resorts in Trecco Bay
The BBC Radio 2 presenter also models regularly for Marks & Spencer, often wearing its garb
His wife, Tess Daly, and Claudia Winkleman left the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing last month
But it was a sizeable sum, making up half of her and her husband’s joint income.
And while her co-host since 2014, Claudia Winkleman, is on to more prestigious projects – set to host her own chat show – Tess, 56, has yet to reveal any new jobs.
Nor have I heard of anything in the pipeline.
‘It all looks a little bit desperate,’ says one observer. ‘We know Vernon likes a laugh and a giggle and he is incredibly relatable in some ways, but it’s all a little downmarket for someone who has such a prestigious role at the BBC.
‘He basically looks like a Butlins red coat.’
However, Vernon’s Glamorgan trip is not his only surprising affiliation. On November 13, just two weeks after Tess revealed she was leaving Strictly, Vernon unveiled an advertising deal with Lego.
Roping in their eldest daughter, Phoebe, the pair built a racing car and a Japanese maple tree while Phoebe interviewed her dad about his career. Social media agents tell me a post like that could have netted the former All Star Family Fortunes presenter around £50,000.
Another money spinner for Vernon are his DJ events called Dance Sounds Of The 90s, which he takes to places such as Scarborough and Newcastle. In fairness, they usually sell out, with tickets priced at £37.50 a pop and venues including Torquay and Guildford.
While the tours are in conjunction with Radio 2, it partners with Sony and uses an external promoter, RGLive, meaning Vernon will cash in from the nostalgic club night events that feature anthems from artists such as The Prodigy, Snap!, N-Trance and Underworld.
‘These can make you a fortune,’ one agent who has worked in the music industry for three decades tells me. ‘Tickets sell fast, helped by the Radio 2 tie-in. Vernon will be making tens of thousands of pounds from these.’
And that money will, of course, be welcome in his bank account.
In October, Tess stood down from Strictly, which she launched with the late Sir Bruce Forsyth in 2004. She and Claudia, 53, posted a video on their social media accounts. Claudia said: ‘There have been some rumblings and we want you to hear this from us.’
Tess added: ‘We have news. After 21 wonderfully joyful years on Strictly, we have decided that the time is right to step aside and pass the baton over.’ Claudia’s friends said at the time that she and Tess had made a pact that they would always quit together.
But while Claudia signed an eye-wateringly lucrative deal for The Claudia Winkleman Show, Tess has not yet announced any projects. She does have a few endorsement campaigns, including vitamin supplements giant Vitabiotics (she is the face of their WellWoman tablets), a jewellery brand collaboration with TV shopping channel QVC and travel firm All Inclusive Collection – with whom she has enjoyed glamorous free holidays. She also has her own swimwear range, Naia Beach, sold in John Lewis and online.
Of course Tess, who lives with Vernon in a £4million home in Buckinghamshire, may feel putting her feet up is entirely justified.
After all, when Vernon, once the golden boy of television, was caught ‘sexting’ Page 3 model Rhian Sugden in 2010, his work began to dry up – leaving Tess as the breadwinner.
Once the host of ITV’s All Star Family Fortunes, Vernon was replaced by Gino D’Acampo. Keen to make a comeback, he took part in I’m A Celeb as a contestant in 2020, with much sniping at the time as television insiders showed surprise at how far he had fallen.
‘Once upon a time he was hosting shows like that,’ one told me.
And since then, Vernon has certainly cashed in on his fame.
He models regularly for Marks & Spencer, with many Instagram posts of him head to toe in its garb and linking to the store online. In one, he walks past a branch in a cream suit. He captioned it: ‘Pavement or runway? Who can tell when you’re looking this sharp.’
Vernon also hosts a podcast sponsored by the retailer and, without fail, will post the item codes of the clothes worn by him and his guests.
Plus, he and Tess have a deal with high-end restaurant Nobu, for which they are paid ambassadors, appearing in pictures endorsing the venues – including a visit to its restaurant in Dubai.
It’s no secret that Vernon loves a freebie. Last February, he was a guest at the Super Bowl in California and then attended the Wimbledon men’s singles final with Phoebe, dressed, you guessed it, in M&S, tagged on Instagram.
While Vernon’s new roles are undeniably making up for Tess’s lack of income, they have angered some BBC colleagues.
In the past, the corporation’s internal rules have blocked stars from using their licence fee-funded fame for marketing purposes, although this has been relaxed in recent years.
‘Vernon is paid so much by the BBC yet is allowed to earn even more outside of it,’ fumed one BBC insider.
And with a serious dent in the family finances, one can only imagine there’s more in the way of side hustles to come.
