Matt Hancock on I’m A Celebrity: Could the former health secretary actually win? The contestants – and public – seem to be thawing

Published

2 years ago

November 15, 2022

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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.

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.

“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.

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.

Entertainment

Influential artist Sir Michael Craig-Martin says he’s had ‘terrible things’ said about his work

Published

6 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Influential artist Sir Michael Craig-Martin says he's had 'terrible things' said about his work

Sir Michael Craig-Martin is one of the most influential artists of his generation – but he says he’s had “terrible things” said about the work he’s now famous for.

The 83-year-old’s long career is now the subject of a major retrospective opening this weekend at the Royal Academy.

But he told Sky News: “I’ve had terrible things said about all the work that now people think is wonderful… If you can’t survive criticism… you’re in the wrong game.”

The Royal Academy retrospective brings together his life’s work in one show, including his early experimental sculpture, his landmark conceptual work and a new immersive digital work.

While much of Sir Michael’s painting has been dominated with depictions of modern icons, like laptops and iPhones, he says technology has made it “harder for people to look” at his work.

“We’ve become probably the most visual age there’s ever been and at the same time it’s become harder and harder for people to actually look,” he said.

“[Paintings] don’t move – you have to come to them, you have to give them a little time,” he explained, adding that nowadays people are more “used to something that’s doing something for them”.

The subject matter of much of Craig-Martin’s large-scale, vivid colour paintings of everyday objects – from trainers to paperclips, glasses to coffee cups – is universally understood and easily accessible.

“What’s ordinary is what unites everybody,” he explains.

“When you buy a coffee, they give you the cup. You don’t buy the cup, it’s free with the coffee, and yet to make a painting out of it is to give it a certain kind of presence, a certain kind of dignity, a way of looking at it that may be different, to what its value or use is.”

Now in his 80s, Sir Michael’s work has become sought-after around the world. Not only has he proven to be one of the most successful artists of his generation, he’s also been one of the most influential teachers.

In the late 80s, his students at Goldsmiths would go on to be the headline-making Young British Artists, or YBAs as they became known – and they include Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas.

“They were very, very young,” Sir Michael explained. “There were people who said to me that it was very dangerous for them to be having this kind of success because they were so young and my advice to them at the time was ‘if the door opens, it’s best to go through it’.”

Decades before, in 1974, he’d made headlines of his own with a piece called An Oak Tree – now widely considered a landmark moment in the history of conceptual art.

Recreated for the retrospective, provocatively you won’t find any big logs propped up in a gallery as the piece is just a glass of water on a glass shelf.

“People often do say to me… it changed my idea about what I thought art was, what it could be, my relationship, and that’s an amazing thing to be able to say.”

Challenging us all to look with fresh eyes at the ‘ordinary’ all around us, Michael Craig-Martin’s body of work is proof of why he is one of the most extraordinary artists working today.

Michael Craig-Martin is at the Royal Academy in London from 21 September to 10 December.

Entertainment

Thunderbirds and Peppa Pig actor David Graham dies aged 99

Published

12 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Thunderbirds and Peppa Pig actor David Graham dies aged 99

David Graham, whose voice featured in some of the UK’s favourite TV shows, including Thunderbirds and Peppa Pig, has died.

The London-born star was 99.

Jamie Anderson, the son of Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, led the tributes on X as he called Graham a “legendary” actor.

Graham brought to life the Thunderbirds puppet characters Gordon Tracy, scientist Brains, and Lady Penelope’s driver, Aloysius “Nosey” Parker, in the series about the secret International Rescue organisation.

“We will miss you dearly, David. Our thoughts are with David’s friends and family,” Anderson’s post on X confirming the death on Friday said.

Anderson went on to pay tribute to Graham, who also voiced the evil Daleks in Doctor Who, saying: “David was always a wonderful friend to us here at Anderson Entertainment.”

‘What a talent’

Anderson also told the PA news agency: “Just a few weeks ago, I was with 2,000 Anderson fans at a Gerry Anderson concert in Birmingham where we sang him happy birthday – such a joyous occasion.

“And now, just a few weeks later, he’s left us. David was always kind and generous with his time and his talent. And what a talent.”

Highlighting all the characters played by Graham, Anderson added: “He will be sorely missed.”

Graham returned as Parker for ITV’s remake Thunderbirds Are Go, which ran between 2015 and 2020, but not for the live-action 2004 film which saw Ron Cook take on the role.

The original 1965 Thunderbirds was created by Gerry Anderson, who died in 2012, and his second wife, Sylvia, the voice of Lady Penelope, who died in 2016.

Graham also played Grandpa Pig in children’s show Peppa Pig, and provided the voice for characters in Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.

His in-person acting roles included Doctor Who, Coronation Street and Casualty.

Entertainment

Cleo Sylvestre: ‘Trailblazing’ actress dies aged 79

Published

14 hours ago

September 20, 2024

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Cleo Sylvestre: 'Trailblazing' actress dies aged 79

“Trailblazing” actress Cleo Sylvestre who starred in films, soap operas and stage plays has died aged 79, her agent has said.

Sylvestre, also known as Cleopatra Palmer, appeared in productions as diverse as Crossroads, Shakespeare’s As You Like It and the first Paddington movie.

A spokesperson for Fulcrum Talent said: “It is with deep regret that I have to announce the sad news that Cleo Sylvestre MBE died this morning.

“Much loved and admired by her peers, she will be remembered as a trailblazer and a true friend. She will be sorely missed by so many.”

Sylvestre was also a singer and recorded with The Rolling Stones, who backed her on a 1964 cover of To Know Him Is To Love Him. She later worked as a musician with her blues band Honey B Mama And Friends.

Born in Hertfordshire in April 1945, she was brought up in London by her mother Laureen Sylvestre and studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

She was made an MBE in 2023 for services to drama and charity and was married to Ian Palmer until his death in 1995.

Sylvestre enjoyed roles in some of TV’s best-known shows, including playing Melanie Harper, the adopted daughter of Meg Richardson in ITV’s long-running Crossroads, during the 1970s.

Other TV roles came in The Bill, New Tricks, Till Death Do Us Part, Grange Hill, Doctor Who and Coronation Street.

Her more recent parts included ITV thriller Platform 7, and Channel 5’s revamp of All Creatures Great And Small.

Sylvestre began her acting career on the stage and was the first black actress to take a leading role in a National Theatre production – in National Health in 1969.

She made her Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) debut playing Audrey in a 2023 production of As You Like It.

Her film roles have ranged from the 2014 film Paddington, Kidulthood from 2006 and 1993’s The Punk.

US-born playwright and author Bonnie Greer wrote on X that Sylvestre was “one of the reasons that-from my vantage point in NYC (New York City) that I thought that this country has the best anglophone theatre, and the best place to be a Black woman in it”.

She added: “I still think that. Thank you, Cleo!”

Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, the UK’s first sickle cell nurse specialist, wrote that she was “devastated” at the death of her “wonderful, kind friend”.