Britain’s Favourite Gogglebox Family Exposed: Inside the £233k Fortune and the NHS Row That’s Tearing the Siddiquis Apart
For more than a decade, the Siddiqui family have been the beating heart of Gogglebox — cracking jokes from their Derby sofa while the nation laughs along. But behind the cosy living-room scenes, the family has quietly built a six-figure fortune… and now their success is colliding with a very real workplace controversy.
From TV sofa to serious money
New company filings reveal that the Siddiquis’ business, Siddiqui Ents Ltd, is now sitting on £232,941 in reserves — a staggering figure for a family who began the show back in 2013.
In 2024 alone, the company’s holdings jumped by £115,449, following a £104,770 increase the previous year. Before that, records show regular corporation tax bills of around £20,000 a year — clear evidence their earnings were already surging.
Unlike other Gogglebox households, the Siddiquis are the only family to formalise their TV success into a registered company.
The firm is jointly run by:
Sid Siddiqui, 80 — NHS environmental manager
Bassit Siddiqui, 43 — IT teacher
Umar Siddiqui, 48 — microbiologist
Younger son Raza appears on screen but is not listed as a director.
The NHS controversy that exploded behind the scenes
In October, it emerged that Sid had continued filming Gogglebox while being signed off work for stress from his taxpayer-funded NHS role at Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.
Although he reportedly worked just three days a week, the Band 8a post carries a full-time salary of £55,690 to £62,682, meaning Sid is believed to earn around £35,000 pro-rata.
The Trust confirmed Sid had been granted permission — both medically and professionally — to keep filming, insisting the show was:
Outside working hours
Unrelated to his NHS duties
Beneficial for his mental health
But inside the Trust, anger was quietly brewing.
One insider said:
“We’re stretched beyond breaking point. We get home exhausted, put the TV on — and there he is laughing on Gogglebox while we’re left picking up the pieces.”
Another added bitterly:
“It feels like two fingers up to the rest of us.”
What Gogglebox really pays
Despite the six-figure reserves, Siddiqui’s personal Gogglebox wage is thought to be around £4,500 a year, with each household sofa typically earning £1,500 per month — roughly £18,000 a year per family.
Family games
Filming takes place twice a week in the run-up to each broadcast.
Mental health, pressure — and a nation watching
The controversy comes amid new figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, showing UK workers now take an average of 9.4 sick days a year, the highest level since 2010 — with mental health the biggest driver of long-term absence.
For Sid, the Trust insists he followed every rule.
For his colleagues, the sight of him back on screen days after being signed off is harder to swallow.
And for viewers at home, the revelation that Britain’s favourite Gogglebox family are quietly sitting on nearly a quarter of a million pounds has changed how that familiar sofa now looks.