Good’ay folks my names Jake Quickenden and you may remember me from coming second in the jungle in 2014 - can’t believe it was so long ago.
Welcome to my first ever Mirror column all about I’m a Celebrity gossip.
I’ll be playing host to you over the next threeweeks and I’m super excited to be sharing all of my thoughts and experiences with you as we settle down night after night to watch Bushtucker Trials, Dingo Dollar challenges and some of the biggest strops you’ll ever seen on TV.
I’ll also be doing some Facebook lives on Tuesday and Thursdays so make sure you drop in and say hi.
We have to start by talking about Olivia Attwood and her s uddenly leaving the new series after just 24hrs.
I feel it’s such a shame for her as it would have been one of the biggest opportunities of her career. Love Island is a massive show, but this is the jungle and creates next level opportunities for people. It would have been a brilliant moment to change people’s perspective of Olivia and also show how good her sense of humour is.
BUT, Health is wealth and if they found a problem during medial checks then they have to take precautions – the team behind the scenes are super careful to ensure everyone is really well looked after and they won’t ever take a risk with someone’s health.
I underwent many health checks before entering and during the show, our health is their responsibility so it’s important that they stay on top of everything. The Bushtucker Telegraph (phone box) is always there for you to call the team if you don’t feel well. But I know that won’t soften the blow for Olivia, she seemed a firm favourite.
Gemma Collins left early on my series but sadly I never got to meet her as I was a late entry – and I think the mood in camp had returned to normal by the time I went in, time goes slow and days can feel like weeks so everything is distorted.
But I can imagine it would be a bit sketchy feeling a dynamic change and wondering if anyone else will come in and change the vibe.
Especially when it’s a big character – it can give some of the lesser known campmates a chance to blossom a bit. I really do think Olivia will be missed by the public and her campmates.
Now we can’t go any further without addressing the elephant in the room. Matt Hancock is obviously a massive talking point, whether or not you think it’s right one thing is for sure – people will tune in to watch him suffer in the trials, and I am sure they will all vote for him one day after the next.
It would be a shame not to give everyone air time though, it’s important everyone gets their personality out there for all to see so we can form a bond with them as viewers, rather than it just turning into the Matt show.
Personally I can’t wait to watch him eat something nasty.
And talking of trials, I actually thought the first trial was fairly easy and the plank has been done a lot. I mean, this is easy for me to say on hard ground but if you’re scared of heights it will be a nightmare and clearly was for Babatunde who I think said ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ on the way up in the lift.
But then look at him last night, he redeemed himself. Seemed a little weird to me that he couldn’t even stand on the plank on night one, but I guess it might be the pressure of knowing you have 9 mouths to feed from it.
Jill proved herself early by sprinting across it easily. I’m hoping they ramp it up this year and make them harder than ever, I think there will be lots of eating trials which are always fun.
I’ve heard a bit on social from people who think Boy George is getting it easy, but I think he seems to be having a similar experience to everyone else. Obviously some campmates will be exempt from certain trials and that can’t be helped, but it will begin to get annoying if he is never up for them, I will say that.
We tend to love to see someone grow throughout their journey and get better and better at the trials, like Jordan North did.
It’s hard because the tiniest thing can blow up in camp – if someone has the smallest irritation it can become something massive, like Boy George getting narky about Charlene on Monday night’s show.
It’s a small area, you don’t know the people there that well and you need to be true to yourself. I found myself staying quite quiet at times as I was so new to the industry and didn’t feel overly deserving of a place, but someone like George won’t bite his tongue.
He is used to having things his own way so I can imagine after a few days of hunger and lack of sleep we could see some explosive behaviour. He’s already sounding more and more like a volcano waiting to erupt.
I am so chuffed to see everyone back in Oz in the jungle again, it felt like the world was back in tune again seeing Ant and Dec on the bridge – long may it continue!
