‘Puritan-in-chief’ to enter the jungle
Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 15:00 I haven’t watched I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Here! for years.
When Antony Worrall Thompson, Forest’s patron, appeared in the third series in 2004 I watched it in a partly professional capacity to see how he got on.
Thereafter I made a mental note of how the smokers fared compared to the non-smokers.
In terms of their popularity with the public or their fellow contestants it seemed to make no difference whether contestants smoked or not.
What mattered, surprise, surprise, was whether they were nice, thoughtful and considerate people.
Antony came fifth in 2004 after leading a mutiny in which he demanded more cigarettes when the camp ran out of supplies.
Since then kings of the jungle have included Phil Tufnell and Shaun Ryder who were often seen smoking on screen.
There were other smokers whose names escape me but as a social experiment I found it quite interesting because it was clear that for most people - either voting at home or exposed in camp to someone smoking around them - the habit was not a significant issue, contrary to what we are led to believe by anti-smoking campaigners.
More recently however smoking has been edited out of I’m A Celebrity, effectively censored, with smokers told to light up in smoking areas off camera.
That said, I’m not sure how many smokers have even been signed up to appear on recent series. It may not be a deal breaker but I suspect the number of contestants who smoke is close to zero these days.
Which brings me to Matt Hancock.
Personally I’m delighted the former health secretary is appearing on this year’s programme and I shall definitely watch.
Of course he should be at work, not gallivanting about on the other side of the world earning a large fee for doing relatively little, but can anyone really blame him?
I just wish there were a handful of smokers in camp to test the puritan-in-chief’s tolerance but looking at the 2022 cast (half of whom I’ve never heard of) I think he’s safe.
Of the ten other confirmed contestants only former Radio One DJ Chris Moyles is a known smoker (as of 2020) while ex-smoker Boy George is reported to have said that ditching the fags was ‘the best thing he ever did’.
If George confides in him that should be music to Matt’s ears. But will they agree on anything else?
See: Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to call for smoking to be wiped out in England completely by 2030, a leaked government plan has revealed (Politics Home, July 2019)
See also: Vernon Kay reveals I’m A Celeb's secret smoking room before trials (Radio X)
Reader Comments (2)
How degrading that a former Government minister should appear on a trashy reality show. How the mighty have fallen 😂 How can he ever be taken seriously again.
Wasn't I'm a Celebrity ...designed to try and re-boot the careers of has-beens? I do hope it doesn't bring that pocket politician back into Government to again be ASH's stooge pushing untruths like "it is abundantly clear that smokers are 14 times more likely to get COVID" when it is abundantly clear from all the evidence to date that the absolute opposite is true.
Well, I'm absolutely astonished that the non-smokers left the camp without becoming smokers having been exposed to all that smoking 😉
As for Hancock it might be worth watching to see him eating revolting insects. I've been saying for several years now, in view of I'm a Celebrity..., BBC programmes reporting creative ways of creating insect based dishes and interviewing 'cutting edge' bakers using ground insects instead of flour and the increasing supermarket shelving being devoted to 'plant-based' produce, that it wouldn't be long before we're eating mealworm moussaka and cricket curry and, here we are, with Dutch farmers having their land taken by the government, the UK government offering farmers £120k to retire from farming, fields being used for solar panels rather than growing crops, cows becoming public enemy no. 1 and Aldi apparently considering stocking edible insects to help shoppers weather the cost of living crisis.
I recently watched a horror film which was violent and gory and included the usual trigger warnings but also warned of 'smoking' (two characters each smoking in one scene, probably one minute in total out of a 105 minute film).
We are now living in Wonderland.😶