I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! Some thoughts

By Ian Cullen Nov 15, 2010, 19:28 GMT

I\'m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here: Lembit Opik, Aggro Santos, Linford Christie, Nigel Havers and Shaun Ryder Photograph: Rex Features/ITV

Oh boy. You can always tell that it's approaching Christmas here in the UK.

Especially when it comes to television, because the Coke advert comes on at tail end of October, and as we hit the first weekend of November, hosts Ant and Dec come back on our screens direct from the Australian Outback to host the year's edition of ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

The reality series last year was totally ruined by Katie Price being a drama queen and trying to win back some credibility after having split with Peter Andre, who to be honest is just as insipid and talentless as she is.

However, the rumble in the jungle began again with a celeb line - up which includes: Actor Nigel Havers, Stacey Solomon from last years X - Factor Finals, former Olympic 100 Metres Champion Linford Christie, Bond Girl Britt Ekland, Sheryl Gascoigne,  Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder, Former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik, Kayla Collins, Aggro Santos and Gillian McKeith, who used to host the popular Channel 4 series ‘You Are What You Eat’ where she had a fondness for examining human feces.

Of course this is the show where we the general public get to decide which celebrity has to undergo the infamous Bush tucker trials in which the chosen celebrity has to eat an assortment of jungle insets, grubs, worms, slugs and all manner of nasty things, or swim through them. Either way its the usual gross out stuff.

The first episode was really to introduce the celebrities to each other, and to give us all an idea of how they will work as a group.

Much like in last years series the celebs have been split into two groups, and this year its the boys verses the girls, and early on in the episode we learn that Gillian McKeith has a serious phobia of bugs. Something which we all get to witness first hand when all contestants undergo a Bush tucker trail, which sheds an interesting spin of some of our popular game shows.

The Bush tucker trail was to determine which group was going to eat well on their first night. The winners would get to eat a luxurious last supper in the villa while the losers would have to spend their first night in the jungle on basic rations in a make shift camp.

The trail which was aptly titled Terror-Vision saw our contestants having to take part in sick and twisted versions of popular game shows.

The first game show was a variation on Hells Kitchen, which was retitled ‘Hell Holes Kitchen’ and starred Lembit Opik and Kayla Collins. The object of this game was for the contestants to dip their hands into a glory hole, which was filled with all manner of snakes, bugs and grubs to retrieve 3 stars, which they had to put on the shelves behind them. The first to get all three stars won the challenge, and in this case the winner was Lembit Opik, who was obviously used to bugs and nasty things from his time as a member of parliament.

The second challenge on Terror-Vision was a variation on the News, titled ‘Not The 10 O’Clock News’. This pitted Shaun Ryder against Gillian McKeith. The Object being to read out the news headlines, and to tell Ant and Dec if the news item was true of false. If you answer correctly then the other news reader gets bugs and stuff tipped over them. Answer incorrectly and you get the bugs. This challenge was once again won by the men because Gillian McKeith couldn’t get over her phobia of bugs, and abstained from taking further part in the challenge.

The third Terror-Vision challenge was a take on X - Factor titled ‘The Bug Factor’ and pitted Nigel Havers against Sheryl Gascoigne. The object of this one was to sing along to the hit song Summer Loving, and get the missing words from the track right while having random bugs, grubs, snakes and slime tipped over them. Sheryl won this one for the girls getting 3 out of the 6 missing words right while Havers only managed to get one word right.

The fourth an penultimate Terror-Vision challenge pitted Stacey Solomon against Aggro Santos in a various of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which was appropriately titled ‘Who Wants To Eat  A Willy On Air’ the object of this one was to see who was quickest to eat a one Kangaroo Penis. The winner being the one who eats one the fastest. The rule was simple. They had to chew them not try to swallow them whole. This challenge was won by Stacey Solomon. Which brought the score to two all.

The final challenge, which was the decider pitted Linford Christie against former Bond Girl Britt Ekland, and was a variation on the hit series Master Mind, which was titled ‘Disaster Mind’...

The object of this game was for contestants to answer a series of general knowledge questions. Each contestant had 30 seconds to answer as many as possible. Each correct answer is worth one point and gets added to the overall score. The twist to this was each contestant had to answer questions with a container on their heads in which all manner of nasty things are being tipped in to try and distract them. This challenge was won by Britt Ekland who answered 3 questions correctly and won the overall challenge.

The rest of the show looked at the first night on the show. The girls in the Villa and the guys journey to the jungle and their first night there.

The first show is always really just introducing the contestants and giving us a chance to get to see how they get on.

"I'm a Celebrity" is an acquired taste, and much like many reality TV series, you either love or hate it.

My view is of indifference in as much as I can take it or leave it. Though it is fun watching celebrities who normally lead a life of privilege have to rough it a bit.