Identity of Pigeon revealed on ITV’s The Masked Singer

Katherine Ryan has been unmasked as the character Pigeon on ITV’s reality singing competition The Masked Singer.

The 39-year-old comedian and actress ended up in the bottom two during Saturday night’s show alongside Jacket Potato, following a vote by the studio audience.

After deliberating, the judges decided to unmask Pigeon and offered their final guess of who the character could be – with suggestions including actress Liza Tarbuck, model Jodie Kidd, Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha and actress Emily Atack.

Following her reveal, Ryan explained that she had kept her involvement in the show a secret from her daughter Violet, saying: “You can’t tell my daughter anything because she’d spill it to her whole school so she’ll be finding out with everyone else. We watch the show together.”

Earlier in the episode Ryan had performed Cheryl Cole’s Fight For This Love and following her unmasking said: “I love Cheryl and I used to do a bit of roast comedy in my act about her.”

She jokingly added: “So I feel like it’s beautiful karma that I went off on her song.”

Ryan garnered additional praise from the judging panel – consisting of Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan, Jonathan Ross and Rita Ora – after sharing that she was heavily pregnant during her performances.

After host Joel Dommett commented: “You’re very pregnant right now,” Ryan, who has since welcomed her third child, replied: “I’ve got like a month left, I have a baby’s foot in my lung at most times. It’s actually harder than I thought.”

Following her time on the celebrity guessing game, Ryan admitted she loved her character Pigeon because “she’s a sassy nana. An East End bird. A real grafter. And crucially, a fan of hip hop who can bust a move”.

Throughout the competition Ryan adopted a cockney accent in an attempt to deceive the judges further.

Explaining why she opted for the Pigeon disguise, Ryan said: “I was quite pregnant while filming and I thought the big pigeon costume would hide that.

“It was important for me that the character had a face because some of them don’t, but I personally connect better to the characters with faces.

“I felt like it was important to represent a strong pensioner and I loved that Pigeon was all comedy and not trying to be attractive for anyone else.”

The latest episode also saw Fawn, Phoenix, Otter, Knitting, Jellyfish and Rhino – who are yet to be unmasked – perform.

McCall described Knitting as “hypnotic” following her performance of Secret Love Song by Little Mix.

Meanwhile Fawn impressed the judges with her rendition of Ironic by Alanis Morissette, leading Gilligan to become convinced he knew Fawn’s true identity as he guessed singer LeAnn Rimes.

Phoenix opened the show with a performance of I’m Still Standing by Sir Elton John, while Otter sang 9 To 5 by Dolly Parton.

Jellyfish sang Leave A Light On by Tom Walker, which led Ross to guess Glee star Amber Riley was behind the mask.

Jacket Potato gave a performance of Smooth by Santana and Rhino wrapped up the evening’s show with a rendition of I Just Can’t Wait To Be King from The Lion King.

The Masked Singer continues on Saturdays at 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX.