A ‘Handcuffed’ Derbyshire Green Party councillor can be seen taking on a new challenge under lock and key in a new Channel 4 reality TV show hosted by celebrity superstar Jonathan Ross.
North East Derbyshire District Councillor, Frank Adlington-Stringer, was delighted to be among 18 contestants on the TV show ‘Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing’ which was aired and began on March 2 after they all agreed to be paired and handcuffed with a total stranger with different perspectives for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Frank, aged 28, said: “I was up for the challenge straight away because I do door-to-door conversations with voters and this seemed like the next level.
“I thought can I change someone’s mind and learn something from someone else as well?”
The intrepid local politician, who is also the national Green Party’s spokesperson for social security and welfare, is well-known for tirelessly advocating his party’s policies but whether he made an impression on his ‘Handcuffed’ partner and political commentator Lin is for the viewers to decide.
Frank added: “We were literally eating, sleeping, showering and going to the toilet together.
“I spend time at Lin’s house, meet her dad and friends and she comes to my house and meets my mum so there were a few people in the know but we were all sworn to secrecy.”
Lin, aged 38, is a housing lawyer, a social media content creator and outspoken political commentator from London whose personal politics are very different to Frank’s making for some very interesting and inescapable debate between the unlikely pairing.
Frank said: “She was desperate to trip me up. It was hard to have a productive conversation. She is very complex. I realised that at least I get to walk away from my colleagues at the district council when we don’t agree on something.
“Lin and I do try to find some common ground but I am not sure I can go so far as to say we become friends but we are going to keep in touch.
“I think I make Lin realise that being nice is not so bad. It is not a weakness and that there is strength in vulnerability and I think I presented arguments that she has not heard before.
“Lin might not change from her own politics but she might just might think differently and consider other things differently in the future.
“At the end of the day we are all neighbours and we rely on each other. And in the community we don’t ever wonder what people’s politics are.
“There is an understanding that we relied on each other in the show and we had to negotiate and have some give and take and we talked to each other. It is a really interesting social experiment.”
To discover if Frank and Lin were the ‘Last Pair Standing’ to clinch the £100,000 of prize money, viewers can now watch the TV show on Channel 4.
‘Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing’ was inspired by the 1980s action comedy Midnight Run where Robert De Nero plays a bounty hunter chained to a mob accountant played by Charles Grodin, according to the producers.
Other ‘Handcuffed’ contestants include: A millionaire and a bartender; A plus-size fashion entrepreneur and a keep-fit fanatic; An aristocrat and a prison officer; A housewife and an adult content creator; A hairdresser and a mum-of-seven; A countryside advocate and a model; A countryside-loving Yorkshireman and a London-based youth worker; And finally an eco-warrior and vegan campaigner paired with a beauty salon owner and a lover of fast cars.
Frank was elected in 2023 as the first Green Party councillor in North East Derbyshire and despite missing out on the East Midlands Combined County Authority’s Mayoral role in May, 2024, he secured an impressive 50,000 votes.
In other hard-fought election contests he missed out on becoming a Derbyshire County Councillor in 2025 and missed out on becoming the North East Derbyshire MP during the General Election, in 2024, but his dedication and enthusiasm have been rewarded by the Green Party with his role as the national Green Party’s spokesperson for social security and welfare.
Frank has also become very well-known in the Green Party as a result of his regular and engaging social media content which continues to attract a large number of followers.
