Ann Widdecombe was set to make an appearance on television the day before she was found dead, with her lack of response causing concern among the production team.
Later in life, the politician had a separate career in TV, appearing on Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother, as well taking part in numerous debates on talk shows.
Dan Walker, who presents 5 News, has revealed that Widdecombe was booked to appear on an early afternoon show for the broadcaster on Wednesday (8 July), but didn't appear.
Related: Suspect released in murder investigation into death of Ann Widdecombe
"Ann was due to appear on 5 Daytime on Wednesday afternoon but stopped responding to messages and didn't turn up for the show," he said on social media.
"The team contacted her agent to ask them to check in on her. This information has been passed to police as it's part of the investigation."
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ITV News states that Widdicombe was booked to appear on Matt Allwright's show at 1pm via video call, and had been speaking to a researcher earlier in the day.
According to the publication, the last message received from Widdicombe was at 12:19pm. At 12:48pm, the researcher messaged again to ask Widdicombe to jump on a Zoom call in preparation for the show, but did not hear anything back.
Phone calls and messages went unanswered, which the team thought was highly unusual for the politician, who is regular contributor to 5's daytime shows.
Related: Jeremy Vine reacts to Ann Widdecombe murder investigation: "Almost impossible to take in"
Her final TV appearance was on a video call with Mark Dolan on his Talk TV show on Tuesday, and he said that her appearance was "like every other".
He told The Sun: "It's devastating to think that as I signed off that interview and wished her well, it would be the last time we would speak."
Another tribute came from Anton Du Beke, who partnered with Widdicombe in the 2010 season of Strictly Come Dancing.
In a video uploaded to his Instagram Stories, Du Beke said: "I have to tell you, I had the most brilliant time with Ann on Strictly Come Dancing. She became a real friend. She was fun, she was upbeat, she was positive, she was supportive. She was game, wanted to enter into the spirit of the whole thing. And we had an incredible time together and we stayed firm friends.
"My thoughts go out to all her nearest and dearest", he concluded. "I shall remember her fondly and miss her."
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
