When I was a kid, I was desperate for my school lunch lady. Get your own back. On a TV show hosted by Dave Benson Phillips, kids were asked to throw their nemeses into a basin of mud, and I planned dirty revenge on the woman who made me eat broccoli. Decades later, my thirst to please me doesn’t seem to have abated: Few were more excited than I was when I saw former Health Secretary (and current MP) Matt Hancock eating testicles/sponging off cockroaches/crocodiles. i’m a celebrity.
But I am disappointed—shocked even—by what should have been Hancock’s hour of humiliation. Because here he is next to the fan favorite in the last three holm oak Actor Owen Warner and football queen Jill Scott from England. Not only was Hancock greeted (mostly) with open arms by his roommates and received with irritating enthusiasm at every bushtacker trial, his reputation – defunct when he arrived on the show three weeks ago – has been somewhat restored.
Who could have foreseen this? Hancock, for example. Of course, this was his plan from the very beginning. Hancock is a shrewd man and, despite his shortcomings, above all a capable politician. His speech, in which he demanded the public’s forgiveness, was unexpectedly well received, and his passionate attitude and openness when it came to difficult questions about his romance and the pandemic were part of a campaign to get him to that final.
And therein lies the problem. Hancock has made a big impression over the last three weeks. A little awkward, sure, but what a handsome 44-year-old not used to the glitz and glamor of an ITV1 reality show wouldn’t be? He is cheerful, friendly, enthusiastic, almost charming. And we, the public, fell into this trap. “He’s just a regular guy,” we begin to say, almost forgetting about his violation of the rules of self-isolation and the bad decisions that cost his life.
The truth is, we shouldn’t have been put in this position at all. Hancock, apparently not a celebrity, should have been useful to his constituents in West Sussex, especially after his own party’s recent political clowning.
Especially reality shows i’m a celebrity, are the perfect rehab for disgraced celebrities, but never before has this attempt been so shameless and so successful. It was an easy way for Hancock to show viewers the “real him” (the real him was, of course, the version he wanted us to see). We’ll all see him next year when he appears on Channel 4’s Celebrities. SAS: Who dares winsto build on his “I’m just a normal guy” persona.
Hancock time on his hands i’m a celebrity was fertile? For him, yes (although ITV1 did not talk much about dyslexia – ostensibly to raise awareness, Hancock went there). In his opinion, the public likes him no less than Jill Scott or Owen Warner. As for him, it worked.
But for us, the audience? I’m not sure. As a result, I feel more trusting and controllable than ever.
Source: I News
I am Harvey Rodriguez, an experienced news reporter and author with 24 News Reporters. My main areas of expertise are in entertainment and media. I have a passion for uncovering stories about the people behind the scenes that bring the entertainment world to life. I take pride in providing my readers with timely and accurate information on all aspects of the entertainment industry.