Celebrity Traitors' Joe Lycett's tribute to viral TikTok nan

Image source, Joe Lycett

Image caption,

Comedian and artist Joe Lycett's tribute to Anne Hughes for his art exhibition

ByMatt Murray

BBC Wales

Celebrity Traitors star and comedian Joe Lycett has paid colourful tribute to the Welsh grandmother who went viral on TikTok after getting caught in shop shutters and being hoisted into the air.

The moment Anne Hughes was left dangling 7ft (2.1 metres) in the air was captured on CCTV - and viewed tens of millions of times on social media.

Lycett, who is also an artist and a fan of the viral video, painted the incident for his art exhibition at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Anne died in 2025, but her granddaughter, Lilly Hughes, said Lycett's "lovely" painting has meant her nan's legacy has lived on and she would "have it on my wall any day".

Figure caption,

Anna Hughes was reluctantly shot to fame when a clip of her mishap went viral on TikTok

The Everything Must Go exhibition is Lycett's first major solo art exhibition and is "about things which are no longer with us".

Lycett, who was banished from Celebrity Traitors for being too keen to be a traitor, said on Instagram: "My painting in tribute to the great Anne Hughes, who brought joy to millions when she was hoisted into the air outside the best-one she worked at in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales.

"She took the experience in good spirit, saying in an interview with the BBC, 'my grandchildren ask me why I am holding on to my trolley and I say I just don't know'."

Image source, BBC/Studio Lambert/Cody Burridge/BBC Creative/PA Wire

Image caption,

Joe Lycett was a contestant in The Celebrity Traitors, but banished after being too keen to be a traitor

Anne's interviews with BBC Wales and footage from the famous CCTV ended up being viewed at least 58 million times on the BBC News Instagram account alone.

Lilly, 28, who was very close to her grandmother, said: "I thought she's back from the dead, she's risen again and now my nan is in a museum.

"It's lovely, I would have it on my wall any day."

In the past 12 months, Lycett, 38, from Birmingham, has been producing works the museum has described as celebrating "nostalgia, grief and loss", from a sculpture of an extinct large woolly mammoth to an abstract painting of TV personality Cilla Black, who died in 2015.

Image source, Family photo

Image caption,

Lilly and Anne were very close

The artwork, including Anne's moment, are painted in a child-like style and in bold and bright colours.

Lilly said her grandmother's legacy has lived on. She said: "Every time that it's mentioned people laugh about it. And then it just brings a smile to my face because I think 'oh nan, if you were here today'.

"It's absolutely hilarious, so it definitely helps with the grieving process."

Image source, Matt Murray

Image caption,

BBC reporter Matt Murray with Anne Hughes after she found reluctant fame

The viral moment was previously immortalised by graffiti artist Tee2Sugars on the shutter she was caught on.

Lilly, who is a midwife and lives in Caerphilly, added: "Honestly if she was alive today she would say that the world has gone mad. I find Joe really funny and the fact that he's now painted my nan is a bit mind-blowing."

She also revealed her grandmother had told a "little fib" in her BBC interview about holding onto her trolley, and said she was in fact holding onto it because "she didn't want anyone stealing her fags".

Image source, Family photo

Image caption,

Anne's family say her legacy lives on through the viral moment

Lilly says she still uses the story as an "ice breaker" in her work.

"I'll be looking after a woman and I will tell her about my nan and all of sudden I'm in the room with her whole family watching the video and they'll be absolutely peeing themselves. It's brilliant," she said.