Matt Hancock on I’m A Celebrity: Could the former health secretary actually win? The contestants – and public – seem to be thawing
If a week is a long time in politics, a few days in the I’m A Celebrity jungle is almost a lifetime.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock joined the camp in Australia less than seven days ago as the most controversial and disliked contestant in the show’s 22-season history, but after gamely eating a camel’s penis, a sheep’s vagina and a fish eye – and facing up to a coffin full of snakes – he’s now placed as third favourite to win by several bookies.
Before the MP – still serving the constituents of West Suffolk – joined the I’m A Celebrity camp as a late arrival, his decision to appear on reality TV after breaking the government’s own lockdown rules was heavily condemned by campaigners and members of the public who lost loved ones during the pandemic, and he was effectively booted out of the Conservatives to serve as an independent until he is reinstated.
Pic: James Gourley/ITV/Shutterstock
The welcome from some of his campmates was also unsurprisingly frosty.
Singer Boy George explained he would feel guilty “sitting here like I’m having fun with him” as he wasn’t allowed to see his mother in hospital during the pandemic, even when he “thought she was going to die”; radio presenter Chris Moyles questioned why Mr Hancock wasn’t at work; and comedian Babatunde Aleshe said it was “hard” to push views aside “because of the many people whose lives have been affected”.
In what came as no surprise to anyone, Mr Hancock, 44, was voted by the public to carry out every single disgusting, terrifying bushtucker trial from the moment he entered the camp.
From the stomach-churning eating task to the “tentacles of terror” and “house of horrors”, he has faced all the nasties Ant and Dec have thrown at him with a robotic, non-fussy functionality that has seen him win plenty of stars to keep his campmates fed.
After years of knowing how to avoid political questions he didn’t like – a tactic he fully admitted to his campmates and described as the “pivot” – it seems he has deployed the same keep-calm-and-ignore-your-way-through-it-until-it’s-over mentality in the jungle.
And then, in Monday night’s episode, for the first time since he entered the camp, viewers have let him off the next one. Despite three campmates being needed for the “angel of agony”, Mr Hancock will not be one of them; it seems the public’s desire to see terrified campmates screaming their way through critter-filled tunnels and winning no stars is starting to trump any contempt for, or thirst to humiliate, a politician who broke the rules.
Bookies including William Hill and Betfair have slashed the odds on the MP winning the show, with Betfair saying he is now 6/1 third favourite after Lioness Jill Scott and rugby star Mike Tindall, and William Hill giving him 5/1 odds and the same top-three running order.
Most of his campmates are also thawing. Despite a simmering tension with Boy George, there have been no full-on rows… yet. In Monday night’s episode, Moyles said he had managed to separate Matt Hancock the politician from Matt, his jungle campmate.
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Matt Hancock: ‘I messed up’
“This is how I look at it,” Moyles said. “There is Matt Hancock… And in camp there is our campmate, Matt, who is, God love him, doing every single trial, every day, and bringing back stars so we can eat.” Then, giving a slight grimace to show reluctance, but almost affectionately, he added: “I may have voiced my opinion about Matt Hancock before, but in here, the star-winning Matt, he’s doing all right.”
I’m A Celeb voting entails viewers getting in touch to keep in their favourite (or most entertaining or controversial) campmate, rather than voting out their least favourite, which usually means the quieter contestants who have had less screen time leave first – so it stands to reason that Mr Hancock will probably remain on the show for a decent period, if not until the final episode.
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As health secretary, Mr Hancock was up there helping to make a lot of the government’s decisions during the pandemic and he broke coronavirus social distancing rules by having an affair in his ministerial office with an aide, Gina Coladangelo – caught on camera “grabbing booty, bruv”, as Aleshe put it.
Questioned by his campmates, he has apologised and admitted he made mistakes, told them he is hoping for the public to see the “real” him and is searching for “forgiveness”.
Ms Coladangelo, who is now his girlfriend, could well be waiting for him at the end of the rickety wooden bridge all I’m A Celeb stars traverse when they leave the show, the photographers waiting with even more purpose than usual to get the shot of their kiss.
But could that photograph really be of Matt Hancock, King of the Jungle? Or will it be Matt Hancock, the former health secretary who broke the rules and really should have resisted the pull of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!?
The show is expected to come to an end around 27 November, three weeks since the first campmates entered the jungle – a very long time in politics, and an even longer time in reality TV.
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John David Washington says he felt like he had to conceal his desire to act because of the external expectations of him being the child of Denzel and Pauletta Washington.
He tells Sky News it took some time for him to pursue an acting career, choosing football instead to assert his “independence” and create his own “identity” separate from his famous family.
“I’ve been wanting to do this my whole life… but I was hiding it,” he said.
“I had to conceal that passion based on my relationship to the world and more specifically, my folks being in the industry, so I chose ball.
“I loved ball, but I was sort of hiding my love for the arts under a helmet – literally an American football helmet – and so when I wanted to become an actor, when I decided to pursue it, that was a big shock to some people.”
The 40-year-old actor says when he decided to pursue an acting career, he kept the decision quiet.
“Some people didn’t know I was even pursuing it professionally until I got a job,” he said.
John David with fellow actor Danielle Deadwyler. Pic: David Lee/ Netflix
Since switching to acting, John David has starred in a number of notable roles including the protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, Ron Stallworth in BlacKkKlansman and Joshua in The Creator.
He also led the stage revival of the 2022 Tony-nominated play The Piano Lesson on Broadway alongside Samuel L Jackson.
“He [Jackson] originated the role [I play] in 1987 at Yale with Lloyd Richards and August Wilson,” John David said.
“So it was of great importance for us to learn from both he and Michael Potts about August Wilson. It was a great blessing for me, I think, for all of us to have him present on set.”
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The Piano Lesson is the third August Wilson play to be adapted for the screen by Denzel Washington’s production company Mundy Lane Entertainment.
It is part of a pledge made by the Gladiator II actor to make all 10 of the playwright’s works into films.
The Netflix project is directed by another Washington family member, Malcolm, and stars most of the cast from the Broadway revival.
The Piano Lesson is Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut. Pic: Katia Washington/ Netflix
Set in 1936 Pittsburgh in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the film centres on a family heirloom, a piano, that is etched with the carvings of their family history made by their enslaved ancestor.
Malcolm says he started reading the play for the first time during the pandemic and immediately wanted to be involved in the film adaptation.
“I think with this movie, reclamation of story and identity is so central to the theme and it’s something that’s central to my life where I both acknowledge the fertile ground that I was raised on and who I am today.
“That’s what Wining Boy [played by Michael Potts] really is trying to do, he’s trying to build on that legacy, so that’s a story that really resonated with me.”
The filmmaker added: “I take all the gifts that my ancestors laid in front of me, and I’m trying to build something for the next generation to pass down – all of their gifts, plus mine to the next generation and let them build on it.”
Malcolm has dedicated his directorial debut to his mother, Pauletta Washington. Pic: David Lee/Netflix
Malcolm says his goal was to put family at the forefront of the production. By dedicating his feature debut to “Mama”, he is acknowledging the dedication and sacrifices that mothers make for the growth of their families.
“There’s so much pointing to my mother in particular, who inspired this adaptation so much. I see so much of her life in Berniece’s character [played by Danielle Deadwyler] – and that became a guiding light for me in this adaptation,” he said.
“As we made this thing and started reconnecting with our ancestors, my mum became like a kind of representative of them.
“She’s the matriarch of our family. She tells me about my grandparents and great-grandparents and the line that I come from, and I see them in her.
“And when the movie ends, I want people to kind of have that moment of reflection for their own lives. So in dedicating it to her, I was trying to dedicate it to all mums everywhere.”
The Piano Lesson is now available on Netflix.
Blockbuster Wicked has landed the largest opening weekend of 2024 at Vue International.
The film, starring Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo and Grammy-winning pop star Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, surpassed both Gladiator II and Paddington In Peru.
It has also had the largest opening weekend for a stage musical adaptation in the cinema chain’s history.
A boss for Vue International said it had seen a “sea of pink and green” over the weekend.
Ariana Grande (left) as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in the film. Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Released on Friday, Wicked is up 60% on Les Miserables’ opening weekend in 2012 and three times larger than the 2022 film adaptation of Matilda.
Founder and chief executive of Vue International Tim Richards said: “Vue has seen a sea of pink and green over the opening weekend of Wicked, which has shown continued high demand for the big screen experience.
“We saw record-breaking pre-sales for Wicked, followed by a chart-topping opening weekend – the biggest for 2024.”
The film is the first of two parts, with the second expected in November next year.
Wicked and Gladiator II – known together as Glicked – have reportedly failed to beat out Barbenheimer, Barbie and Oppenheimer, in its own opening weekend last summer.
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Glicked brought in £215m in worldwide ticket sales – with Wicked making the majority of that.
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