I’m a Celebrity 2024, day 4 review: Reverend Richard Coles descends – but only God could make this lot interesting
More whee, Vicar? In search (presumably) of gee-whizz jungle excitement and (potentially) a divine payday, Reverend Richard Coles has descended upon I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Or at least he’s packed his parachute. The Communard-turned-clergyman was unveiled in the final minutes of I’m A Celeb’s fourth night – but has yet to be officially unveiled to his new camp-mates.
The same was true of the other “surprise” contestant joining the show – former Love Islander Maura Higgins, who will be heading into camp alongside Coles. How will they fare when all they have to live on is rice, beans and undercooked Ant and Dec banter? Their introductory clips gave little away.
“Five hundred calories a day? I have five hundred calories for elevenses,” said Coles, donning an Indiana Jones hat. Higgins was even more direct. “I don’t want to eat testicles on TV,” she said – a statement sure to be filed under “famous last words”.
Testicles may or may not feature in future weeks, but the latest episode was a bit of a kick in the goolies for the celebs already in situ. YouTuber GK Barry and DJ Dean McCullough flopped at their Bushtucker Trial, failing to win any stars and depriving the camp of a treat at tea-time. The episode was a letdown for viewers, too, with zero drama and lots of forced camaradarie.
There were also some distressing scenes of vulnerable contestants becoming overwrought. Tears had flowed on Monday when boxer Barry McGuigan and uber-Wag Coleen Rooney became upset discussing loved ones who had passed away. Tonight, it was the turn of McFly’s Danny Jones, who talked about his struggles with anxiety and dancer Oti Mabuse, who discussed the death of her brother by suicide.
The introduction of raw emotion into a jolly jungle jape-fest jarred, and you do wonder if it’s appropriate to simply present the audience with these scenes on a platter for our entertainment. On the other hand, the producers were surely desperate for “content”, given the stunning dreariness of the rest of the broadcast, which generally consisted of celebs sitting on logs complaining they were hungry.
If there is a positive aspect to I’m A Celeb (and that’s an “if” larger than the huge gold lettering spelling out the show’s name in the opening credits), it is to remind us celebrities are human – never more so than when asked to dive into a tank full of eels in search of prize-bringing stars, as was the case with the unfortunate GK Barry.
But while this season has made clear that the vaguely famous are as vulnerable as the general public, it has demonstrated that they are as boring as everyone else, too. ITV will pray the arrival of a Reverend and a Love Islander will bring some heavenly zing to a season thus far stuck in limbo.