Ant McPartlin back for 'I'm A Celeb' as he films 'really funny' promo with Dec Donnelly
Ant McPartlin is officially set to reunite with longtime collaborator Declan Donnelly for the new series of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
The 43-year-old presenter was dropped from the popular reality show - and replaced by This Morning’s Holly Willoughby - last year, after being convicted of driving under the influence.
Now, having sought help for his self-confessed addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs, he’s back on board - and ITV plans to hype up his return with a “really funny” promo.
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“The boys are in a boat which has got lost on the way to Oz,” an insider told The Sun, teasing what viewers should expect from the upcoming ad.
“It ends up going through all sorts of different continents and they get bombarded by bad weather, snow, rain, blistering sunshine and everything in between – before finally make their way to Australia in time to host the show.”
The source went on to add that the trailer was “big and very expensive” as it features “masses of special effects,” but the broadcaster wanted to pull out all the stops for McPartlin’s comeback.
“Holly was a fantastic stand-in and Dec enjoyed having her with him in Australia very much, but she always said it was a one-off,” they explained. “Ant is a huge part of the success of the series so everyone on the team was looking forward to working with him again.”
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Talking to The Guardian back in March, Donnelly explained that he and McPartlin had stopped enjoying each other’s company so much before the latter was involved in a three-vehicle collision last year.
He also admitted that McPartlin taking a step back from I’m A Celeb allowed them to reconnect as friends.
“We’d got to a point where we took our relationship for granted. We just assumed it would always be there. We took our eye off the ball a bit,” he recalled.
“For the first time in many years, all we talked about were deep things like how we felt and what the future held, and where we were, and all the chaos that has come along, especially for me,” McPartlin added. “Things happen in life that change you as a person. And we talked about life.”
