There were also some distressing scenes of vulnerable contestants becoming overwrought. Tears had flowed on Monday when boxer Barry McGuigan and uber-Wag Coleen Rooney became upset discussing loved ones who had passed away. Tonight, it was the turn of McFly’s Danny Jones, who talked about his struggles with anxiety and dancer Oti Mabuse, who discussed the death of her brother by suicide.
The introduction of raw emotion into a jolly jungle jape-fest jarred, and you do wonder if it’s appropriate to simply present the audience with these scenes on a platter for our entertainment. On the other hand, the producers were surely desperate for “content”, given the stunning dreariness of the rest of the broadcast, which generally consisted of celebs sitting on logs complaining they were hungry.
If there is a positive aspect to I’m A Celeb (and that’s an “if” larger than the huge gold lettering spelling out the show’s name in the opening credits), it is to remind us celebrities are human – never more so than when asked to dive into a tank full of eels in search of prize-bringing stars, as was the case with the unfortunate GK Barry.
But while this season has made clear that the vaguely famous are as vulnerable as the general public, it has demonstrated that they are as boring as everyone else, too. ITV will pray the arrival of a Reverend and a Love Islander will bring some heavenly zing to a season thus far stuck in limbo.