Storm-hit I’m A Celebrity returns to TV screens after three days off air

The live episodes on Saturday, Sunday and Monday were all cancelled

Dame Arlene Phillips and Kadeena Cox faced 50 snakes as I’m A Celebrity returned to screens after three days off air.

The show was back on ITV on Tuesday night after extreme weather conditions during Storm Arwen caused production difficulties at Gwrych Castle in North Wales.

The majority of the footage featuring the contestants was filmed before the storm hit, which led to Saturday, Sunday and Monday’s live episodes being cancelled.

The show’s co-hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly welcomed back viewers at the start of the episode and praised the teams that worked around the clock to get the show back up and running.

The pair showed images of the destruction caused by the storm on the production site and confirmed that the castle was not damaged, but explained the celebrities were evacuated as a precaution and taken to separate locations without phones, internet or TVs.

McPartlin said: “Welcome to Wales. I can’t tell you how good it feels to say those words and be back.”

The first trial back saw Paralympian Cox and former Strictly Come Dancing judge Dame Arlene taking part in a trial in complete darkness called Bed Chamber of Chills.

Cox was closed inside the top bunk of a bed and had to move stars around a maze and release them through a hole to Dame Arlene in the bottom bunk, where she placed them into a collection rack.

The pair were joined by 25 snakes in each of their bunkers which Cox struggled with and burst into tears shouting: “Arlene, please I need to get out of here!”

They completed the challenge with 10 of the 11 possible stars, which secured them a meal of oxtail later that day.

Broadcaster Louise Minchin and French former Premier League footballer David Ginola took on the latest Castle Coin Challenge.

The pair went in search of apples in barrels of tomatoes and bonded by speaking French to each other.

They managed to win their coins and had the choice of Twiglets or an apple pie for the campsite from Kiosk Cledwyn’s Ye Olde Shoppe.

Their fellow campmates secured the apple dessert by correctly guessing that 20% of adults have pretended to be bad at a job so they would not be asked to do it again, according to a recent survey as told on the show.

The episode also saw Coronation Street actor Simon Gregson and EastEnders regular Adam Woodyatt compare their respective soap careers.

Gregson admitted that he had originally planned to race cars or fly planes when he was younger but joined the soap around age 14 and had been acting in it for the last 32 years.

He admitted fame had been challenging, saying: “It was difficult for a while to adjust. This isn’t what I planned for myself and I do not like it. I hated it. The fame side of it I hated it. I still don’t (like it).”

Woodyatt, who is on a break from the long-running BBC series, explained his reasons for leaving the show.

He said: “I just had another opportunity. This play came up. I just fancied doing something different. The way the storyline is, they needed me to take a break. Yeah… the break’s just got longer.”

At the end of the show the celebrities were seen reuniting in the castle after Storm Arwen led to them temporarily exiting the camp.

Singer Frankie Bridge said: “It’s so amazing to see the family’s faces coming through the door. It feels so nice to be reunited again and just straight away we all feel comfortable and it just feels like we never left each other.”

Actor Danny Miller did a forward roll in celebration of his return to the castle and said he was “buzzing to be back”.

Ant and Dec also announced at the end that the public have voted for music producer Naughty Boy to compete in the next trial, titled Savage Steakout, which will be shown on Wednesday’s episode.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! continues at 9pm on ITV and ITV Hub.

Published: 01/12/2021 by Radio NewsHub