Tears, tantrums, eating grubs for dinner: it can only mean one thing.
That’s right, the new series of I’m A Celebrity is heading back to our screens. The line-up, which dropped just a few days ago, includes people like Ruby Wax, Martin Kemp, Alex Scott and Kelly Brook – all of whom will be heading into the middle of the jungle to pit their wits against the great outdoors.
With our timelines about to be inundated with celeb content, what better time to round up some of the best (and worst) moments to have ever happened in the jungle? There are certainly a lot of them… brace yourself.
Ashley Roberts’ dance class
Pussycat Dolls star Ashley Roberts’ time in the jungle came complete with a rather unique challenge: tricking her campmates into performing the dance routine to the chorus of her hit song Don’t Cha.
Not much tricking was required, to be honest; they did it with gusto, with darts player Eric Bristow bumping and grinding with particular enthusiasm. Ahh, 2012.
Anything Gemma Collins did
Such as? Oh, the helicopter ride that she needed to get on to even get to the jungle.
“Can you stop a minute please, I’m serious, just stop,” she said, while holding the pilot’s hand. “I need to get out, seriously I’m going to be sick, I can’t do it, no way.”
Soon enough, she was out of the helicopter. Collins’ explanation for what happened? “It’s like the turtle and the rabbit, or the horse and the rabbit, I can’t remember what it was… but the slowest one won in the end.”
Um, sure. And that was before she burst into tears and announced, “I’ve malaria,” with a mascara-streaked face. Or hating the jungle jail – “People who are murderers are treated better than this!”
To be honest, we’re surprised she lasted more than two days.
Yep, you read that right. The late David Gest made himself (more) famous overnight in 2006 after deciding to regale the camp with stories – some more tall than others.
One of the tallest involved his supposed maid, called Vaginica Seaman. “Her mother loved her body part so much, that she decided if she had a girl, she was going to call her Vaginica,” he told his bemused campmates. “No bull.”
Paul Burrell’s hell holes
Royal servant, meet Australian jungle. Paul Burrell’s time in the jungle was not a very noble one, but the nadir came when he was picked to take on the show’s infamous Hell Holes challenge. For the uninitiated, that involved Burrell sticking his hand onto holes in the wall, behind each of which lurked a random creepy crawly.
Watching him do it is like watching a man lose his mind in real time. It’s kind of hypnotic – but on the plus side, he did get those stars for camp.
Jordan North goes to his happy place
A story from a more recent edition of I’m A Celeb involves Jordan North and the 2020 edition of the show. The BBC Radio 1 DJ didn’t exactly acquit himself well to start with – in fact, he was sick on top of a cliff during his first challenge – which meant he was of course a magnet for the trials.
He was voted to do the Viper Vault with Shane Richie, which involved him facing off against his biggest fear, snakes. How did he get over it? By screaming the words ‘Happy Place!’ for the entirety of the challenge. The happy place in question turned out to be the stadium for his beloved football team Burnley FC.
The phrase took off, obviously – and Jordan eventually redeemed himself by winning 12 whole stars a few episodes later.
Gillian McKeith ‘faints’
Talk about dramatic licence. Despite making a career out of discussing poo on live television (thanks to You Are What You Eat), apparently the prospect of participating in a trial was too much for McKeith.
Her dramatic swooning after being selected for a live trial meant we saw more than we ever thought we would of the on-set medic, Bob – and instantly caused her to elevated to meme-worthy status. Her constant fainting spells also drew the ire of her camp-mates, who accused her of faking them. Well…
This one made headlines akin to the Great British Bake-Off’s baked Alaska bin-gate. Boxer Amir Khan and fellow contestant Iain Lee got their hands on some strawberries and cream after Khan won a Dingo Dollar challenge. Some more charitable people might have shared them with the rest of the camp.
Not Khan. “I’m having them. I want them now!” he shouted, pouring cream over the strawberries and eating the whole lot. Khan swore Lee to silence and the pair entered the camp to tell their fellow contestants that they had lost the challenge. Oh – and Khan was wearing a giant cat costume the entire time. Truly Machiavellian.
Katie Price and Peter Andre’s meet-cute
One of the most enduring D-list celebrity romances began in the jungle. That’s right, Peter Andre and Katie Price ended up being contestants on the same year – that is, 2004 – and viewers basically watched them falling in love in real time. When they left the show, they were inseparable, and got engaged in May that same year.
“The first time I went in the jungle, I never thought I’d bloody fall in love with someone, and obviously I met Pete and had two beautiful kids,” she told the Sun, before adding, “but I’ll tell you what is sad about all of it – we fell in love in the jungle, got married, had kids, had an amazing life but like 20 years on and we don’t even speak, it’s just crazy what happens with time.”
At least we’ll always have the jungle.
Gino D’Acampo cooks a rat
One of the most bonkers things to happen in the jungle involved series nine winner Gino D’Acampo, who came up with his own rather novel solution to the food shortages: he cooked a risotto using a dead rat that the production team had found.
This caused a massive furore. “The production was asked if a rat could be caught and eaten by the celebrities in exile camp to supplement the basic rations they had been provided with for their evening meal,” ITV said in a statement.
“Having sought health and safety advice, the go-ahead was given purely on this basis… the production was unaware that killing a rat could be an offence.” Well, it was, and ITV was fined for the incident.
Joey Essex can always be counted on to deliver the one-liners. Such as when he left the camp on his way to a Bushtucker Trial in 2013, and spotted a jungle lizard on the rope bridge.
“Woah – there’s a dragon on this bridge!” he yelped, and ran the opposite way. Not quite.
I’m A Celebrity begins on ITV from November 16
