ITV confirms additions to I’m A Celebrity line-up

ITV has confirmed two additions to this year’s I’m A Celebrity… line-up.

Former Tory minister Edwina Currie and X Factor departee Jake Quickenden complete this year’s line-up of celebrities. They will be seen entering the jungle in tonight’s episode.

Currie, known for her outspoken views, says: “If I hear someone talking complete bo**ocks, then I will probably say so. I am a Scouser and there is no such thing as a meek Scouser.”

She thinks politicians will be split on her decision to go on I’m A Celebrity: “Some of them will be saying ‘what is the programme like?’ If there is any logic in politics, which there isn’t, my political opponents will be voting for me to stay in and my political friends will be going ‘no let’s get her home as quick as we can’.”

“I am 68 and I like having adventures,” she says of her decision to appear on the show. “If an advanced stage of life is not an adventure, then you might as well give up on everything! This will certainly be something I have never experienced before. What does also worry me are the bugs like mosquitoes. They always find me and they eat me.”

“That would be gob-smacking,” she adds of a potential win. “I would never live it down.”

Quickenden said of his decision to appear on the reality series: “I said yes straight away. It is such an amazing show. I used to watch it with my older brother and we both said we’d love to do it one day. It’s a real adventure and it is going to be so much fun.

“I am going to take this opportunity with both hands. I want to relish everything that is thrown at me. I actually haven’t stopped grinning since I got offered this.”

Jake added: “I am not keen on rats but I don’t mind heights or water. I like physical challenges and I will give them a go. The eating trials are funny but I will do them. I am happy to do everything. If you do win it, it is acceptance that people like you for who you are. But I am not going in there to win. This is all about having fun…”

Jake thinks his acquaintances from The X Factor will “have a little giggle” over his new experience. “It will be pretty funny. At the end of the day I am not doing anything wrong. I really have landed on my feet and it is so nice. If I hadn’t left the X Factor, I probably would not have been offered this. Doing I’m A Celebrity could open up so many different doors.”

Last night’s episode saw Gemma Collins withdraw from the show after failing to adjust to jungle life.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! continues tonight at 9.00pm on ITV.