Rylan Clark will front new historical BBC documentary series about the Essex Witch Trials alongside Professor Alice Roberts

The Celebrity Gogglebox star is said to be working with historian Professor Alice Roberts on the new show, which is titled ‘The Witches of Essex’. The documentary series explores Henry VIII’s law against witchcraft introduced in 1542, which ultimately led to thousands of women being persecuted and killed.

A source told The Sun’s TVBiz column: "Rylan has been busy learning about art and history over on the BBC, but now — he’s diving in closer to home. The three-parter will see Rylan investigate the epicentre of the persecution of witches, and the thousands of women who met their deaths thanks to laws against magic.

“He’ll learn about the three most notorious witch trials, all of which were held in Essex, and the consequences it had on the people of his home county.”

The pair have already teased the new Sky History programme on social media, sharing a photograph of them on stage at Shakespeare's Globe. The show is produced by Louis Theroux’s production company Mindhouse.

It comes after it was confirmed that Rylan would be returning to travel with Rob Rinder for a second series of Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour. The first series of the BBC show saw the pair jet off to Italy, with the upcoming second series seeing Rylan and Rob heading to India on an epic adventure.

Rylan confirmed the news, saying on social media: "So excited we’re back for series two and this time we’re off to INDIA. Bumped into each other yesterday and this is how excited we are. Thank you everyone that watched our show and we can’t wait until we get going for S2. I’ll try not to kill him."