I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here’s Tom Read Wilson has revealed that Martin Kemp can speak Polari – a secret language that was primarily used by the gay community before homosexuality was decriminalised.
Polari is a code-like language which borrows terms from Yiddish, Italian and Cockney Rhyming Slang and was used within gay culture from the 19th Century onwards to speak covertly when homosexuality was illegal. By the 1970s, when homosexual acts were partly decriminalised, Polari fell into disuse – although words like “butch”, “naff” and “zhuzh” have made their way into mainstream slang.
