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)