Gillian McKeith has arrived on I’m A Celebrity… South Africa as the latest contestant to compete on the reality TV show.
The arrival of the TV personality – who competed on the original I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2010 – in camp for the all-stars spin-off show did not go down well with her fellow celebrities.
In the last few minutes of the first episode of this new series, Geordie duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly arrived saying they have a surprise announcement before leaving.
Shaun’s disdain for Gillian is a mood with a capital M ? #ImACeleb
— I’m A Celebrity… (@imacelebrity) April 24, 2023
McKeith, 63, was then seen emerging from the container after being brought in by several men carrying a box.
In a preview for Tuesday, Happy Mondays’ singer Shaun Ryder, who was known for his arguments with McKeith during his original run, could be heard saying: “I almost killed her.”
“Gillian arrived in a box, she should have stayed in the box,” he added.
In an interview ahead of the series, TV presenter McKeith, known for being on the Channel 4 nutrition show You Are What You Eat, said her family think she had “lost her mind” by returning.
“Doing the programme didn’t change me,” she added. “And I learned that knowledge is fear but one thing I would say is when I look back on the experience, it did surprise me that I could sleep outside.
“As a child, I’d never liked the idea of camping but sleeping in the hammock in the jungle was peaceful – so long as there were no insects crawling over you.”
She also said her famous fainting episode during a Bushtucker Trial in her original run was due to “history” of spells that she has had since childhood.
McKeith added: “I have never been able to forget about my fainting in the jungle.
“I have been reminded about I’m A Celebrity every single day since I came out by taxi drivers and people in the street.
“They all talk about it as if it were yesterday. They say I was entertaining. It might have been for them but it certainly wasn’t for me.”
She also said that returning to show “feels 1,000 times worse now and all of it freaks” her out.
Not Janice speaking to her Campmates like they’re criminals ? #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/2U4OnqmHzX
— I’m A Celebrity… (@imacelebrity) April 24, 2023
At the end of the first episode of the new series on Monday, presenters McPartlin and Donnelly revealed that there would be no “King or Queen of the jungle”, but that contestants would instead be competing for the title of I’m A Celebrity… Legend.
Unlike the original format, the new pre-recorded show will also not feature a public vote so celebrities will progress as they take on challenges.
Earlier in the premiere of the first season of the spin-off show, US supermodel Janice Dickinson went around camp asking how former Coronation Street star Helen Flanagan and ex-England cricketer Phil Tufnell are celebrities.
She said: “I’ve had to go up and say ‘Can I know what you’re famous for? What’s your celebrity’…I did it in a way that wasn’t offensive.”
The 68-year-old, who was a 2007 competitor in the reality TV show, was then shown asking Olympic athlete Fatima Whitbread if she was Italian.
The retired javelin thrower, 62, responded saying: “No, I’m Greek origin.”
Meanwhile, former royal butler Paul Burrell, Dickinson, Ryder, were all successful in earning stars – which earns campmates food as in previous seasons of the show – after their challenge which saw them stick their arms in ‘Hell Holes’.
Other contestants former Countdown star Carol Vorderman, boxing champion Amir Khan and Diversity dancer and Kiss radio DJ Jordan Banjo also earned stars after individually falling from heights.
However, Tufnell, Flanagan and Whitbread did not bring home any stars after they had to turn a row of giant, swinging red balls into a bridge so they could leap and grab stars.
The last series of the original format saw former England footballer Jill Scott become queen of the jungle.
I’m A Celebrity… South Africa continues on Tuesday on ITV1 and ITVX.
