Sleb Safari campaigned long and hard last year for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! to be set in Carrickfergus Castle but ITV decided on Gwrych Castle in Wales and they have only gone and done the same thing this year. How they sleep at night is anyone’s guess.
Last year’s show was great. We were in lockdown, the celebrities were being starved and made to play with rats, so all seemed fair and equal.
2020 camp life was as entertaining as always. Both Shane Richie and Mo Farah had fallen out of their hammocks before dawn broke on the first morning in camp, setting the tone for the next three weeks.
On top of that we had Beverley Callard tripping on the vibes of life, Jordan North vomiting two minutes into the first show when told he had to abseil down a rockface, awful offal, the unsolved mystery of the toilet seat sprinkler, long johns rather than sunscreen, Shane Richie and Mo Farah performing scenes from EastEnders, Jessica Plummer and Shane’s drinking trial, squirrel for dinner, retching, gagging, hanger, Kiosk Cledwyn, an outbreak of ‘that’s not my job’ and, as always, camp medics were on standby with Gillian McKeith strength oxygen in case of emergency.
A launch night record was set for the number of times the campmates repeated “I don’t want to be a screamer” and Shane Richie came a close second due to the frequency with which he let everyone know he had won ‘sexiest man alive’ three years on the trot.
Day nine was the obligatory ‘cracks are starting to show’ episode. Hanger set in when a meal couldn’t be cooked until the pots had been washed and the pots couldn’t be washed until there was hot water and the water wouldn't be hot until the fire was lit.
AJ Pritchard (face of an angel, appetite of a blue whale), was always ravenous and the people at home enjoy it when hanger rears its head as they sit on the sofa with a sharing bag of Revels all to themselves and the central heating on full blast.
Rice and beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner is disheartening and Sleb Safari loves it when the campmates are given garlic and react as though they gained one million new Instagram followers overnight.
This year’s contestants include professional dancer/choreographer and former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips, former footballer David Ginola and Emmerdale's Danny Miller. Danny and his partner had a baby last month so she must be over the moon that he signed up for I’m A Celebrity.
EastEnders' Adam Woodyatt, Coronation Street’s Simon Gregson, GMB's Richard Madeley, Saturday's singer Frankie Bridge and Matty Lee, Olympic diving partner of Tom Daley, are also rumoured to be taking part.
Other confirmed faces are BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Snoochie Shy, Rudimental’s DJ Locksmith and songwriter/producer Naughty Boy and Sleb Safari dearly hopes all three insist on being called by their professional names for the duration of their time in the castle.
I’m A Celebrity starts at 9pm on Sunday November 21.
Richard Branson is back in the book of showbiz injuries
Richard Branson is a man who likes adventure and with adventure comes scrapes.
Off the top of its head Sleb Safari can remember Richard crash landing a hot air balloon in the sea near Rathlin Island, escaping a fire that burned his Necker Island home to the ground and being hurled over the handlebars of his bicycle in the dark.
Now it can add a second humdinger of a bike accident to that list. Richard was participating in a charity bike ride in the British Virgin Islands (where else?) when his brakes failed and he careened into another cyclist and the pair crashed to the ground.
The pictures of Richard’s injuries are as gruseome as those of the last accident. Check out that lump on his hip. Richard, Sleb Safari will add you to its book of showbiz injuries, again, but let this be the last time.
Diana Ross to headline Glatonbury's legends' stage
IT is hard to believe that an icon like Diana Ross has yet to perform on the legends’ stage at Glastonbury but that affront is about to be fixed.
Diana has agreed to headline the legends’ slot at the festival in summer 2022, joining the ranks of Dolly Parton, the Bee Gees and Kylie Minogue who have gone before her.
When Sleb Safari was a university student the soundtrack to getting ready to go out on Thursday nights was provided by a VHS recording of the the 1997 Brit Awards when Gerri Halliwell wore her union jack tea towel mini dress and Diana Ross and Jamiroquai performed Upside Down.
How it has taken Glastonbury and Diana so long to arrange this is a mystery. All hail Ms Diana Ross.
