Two decades ago today, Ant and Dec presented the first ever series of the reality show. From adorably candid moments to pomp-skewering redemptive force, no wonder it’s still going strong
“I’ve never met anyone like Joey before in my life.” So said the snooker player Steve Davis, after watching the beauty queen Amy Willerton teaching Joey Essex to tell the time by drawing a clock in the dirt with a stick. Davis’s total bewilderment offers a clue to the enduring appeal of the annual celebrity hazing show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!. Today, it turns 20 (and later this year, it will be returning to the Australian jungle after its Covid hiatus in Wales) but, thankfully, it shows no sign of growing up.
Obviously, the 2013 scene is innately hilarious – Essex grapples with the concepts of the big hand and the little hand and tries to see past the confusion induced by “all the ticking” normally associated with clocks. Meanwhile, Davis and EastEnders actor Laila Morse look on, curious, and increasingly incredulous, as Willerton gently tries to furnish Essex with a new life skill. But there is something sweet about it too: as perplexed as they are, no one is laughing at Essex, or at least not with any spite. It is just an odd, singular moment where, on national TV, defences have come down and something of the human realities behind the celebrities is revealed.
I’m a Celebrity does this kind of thing all the time. If it didn’t, it would not have made it to TV adulthood. Davis had never met anyone like Joey Essex before – and if it weren’t for I’m a Celebrity, he probably never would have. These oddball culture clashes happen surprisingly often: you may recall EastEnders actor Joe Swash’s 2008 triumph, but can you remember who claimed the lesser podium positions? Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and Star Trek actor George Takei. The show is a gloriously incongruous celebrity tombola, in which no potential friendship (or indeed antagonism) is off the table. Kate Price living in close proximity to John Lydon? Who knows, it might just work? Only one way to find out …
