He got people to flex and laugh their way to fitness with his celebrity exercise DVD, and now comedian Paddy McGuinness has met a St Albans slimming guru at an awards ceremony.

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Paddy, also known as the king of dating on ITV’s “Take Me Out” show, chatted with Liz Kay at the recent Slimming World awards, which he co-hosted.

Liz, who runs a Slimming World group in St Albans, described Paddy as “chatty and absolutely hilarious”.

He has filmed shows - including game and chat programmes - for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky.

Apart from hosting “Take Me Out”, which has a new series starting on Saturday (4), Paddy has appeared on “Rory and Paddy’s Great British Adventure” for Channel 5.

The documentary featured the comedian joining Rory McGrath while travelling the length and breadth of the UK in a small campervan.

Paddy has also appeared alongside Peter Kay on fitness DVD “The Power of Two”, which they described as being “perfect for ordinary people like us, overweight and underpaid”.

It was released in 2005 with at least one reviewer say they couldn’t get through the routine without laughing.

Paddy referred to the DVD at the award ceremony, telling those attending: “Before I started working in comedy I was a fitness instructor so I know how important it is to look after yourself, but equally I know it’s not always easy to motivate yourself.”

He said he was impressed with the number of people at the event who had lost “incredible amounts of weight and it had totally changed their lives”.