I'm a Celebrity, day 3: Farage sulks while a rumble in the jungle leaves Nella no time to cry
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There’s already been a river of tears, shrieks and sobs on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! – and that was just viewers watching Nigel Farage munch crocodile anus in his first Bushtucker Trial.
But in a drama-packed, chaotic and occasionally entertaining third instalment, the focus went off Farage – to his apparent disgruntlement – and switched to YouTuber Nella Rose and her falling out with First Dates smoothie Fred Sirieix.
In a bracing exchange, Rose revealed to Fred that she was offended by his comments the previous night that he was “old enough to be her father”. He was aware her father had passed away four years earlier and she considered his remarks out of line. Sirieix’s dapper charm turned to disbelief as she made her feelings clear.
“I don’t care how you said it to me, it’s disrespectful and I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to be around you,” she said. “I only allow people to disrespect me once. You hurt my feelings. I was very upset.”
“Sacré bleu” didn’t even begin to cover his stunned reaction.
It was a challenging instalment for Rose – who next had to participate in a James Bond-themed Bushtucker event:
However, the real loser was Nigel Farage, who had been keen on another trial.
Bugs or no bugs, Bushtucker duty meant you were the focus of the audience’s attention – and that was seemingly worth the price of a few spiders in your undies, as he explained to journalist Grace Dent.
“If you do the challenges, it’s 25 per cent of the air time,” he muttered (ITV provided subtitles, European Parliament style). “I’m looking at reaching a whole audience. It sounds cynical but you know….”
One person who did not “know” was Jamie Lynn Spears, who had signed up for I’m A Celebrity...seemingly without any research. Britney’s younger sister was distressed at being away from her kids and shocked at the rough and tumble of life in the jungle.
Heaven knows how she would have reacted had it been her rather than Josie Gibson who spotted Nigel Farage in the shower the previous day. Chances are she’d already be halfway back to America, humming her sibling’s greatest hits out loud in an attempt to keep the Farage flashbacks at bay.
Instead, she sobbed through the episode – and threatened to quit when four other contestants fluffed a challenge and returned to camp without her “luxury item”. She was going to walk not because she was disappointed to miss out on her treat – a picture of her kids – but because her fellow campers were stricken with guilt at letting her down.
By the following morning she had changed her mind (and was perhaps thinking of her pay-cheque). Which was when she discovered she’d been nominated for Wednesday’s trial, involving claiming stars by climbing a height. Oops, ITV had done it again.
Her fellow jungle denizens will hope she does better than Rose, who had a breakdown during her “No Time To Cry” challenge. Surrounded by bugs, spiders and Ant and Dec, she understandably suffered an emotional collapse, yelled the safe word “I’m A Celebrity. Get Me Out of Here!” and was pulled out of the hellscape.
It was another dramatic moment for Rose. Along with Spears, she dominated the action – and attracted a great deal of commentary on social media. Most of the others seem happy for her to claim the spotlight. The one exception was Farage, who admitted that he wished he’d been allowed to go with her and to offer encouragement.
He’s the most famous participant this year (best paid, too – if rumours are true). Judging by his comments to Dent, he isn’t here to make up to numbers. Jamie Lynn is next in the firing line. But Farage looks determined to put himself back in front of the cameras - even if it means going hell for leather with another plate of crocodile innards.
