The new series of I’m A Celebrity South Africa kicked off on ITV last night, and Shaun Ryder is already emerging as a fan favourite.
The Happy Mondays star was one of several famous faces who headed into the star-studded camp, in its new location in South Africa.
Also joining the new spin-off of the hit ITV show were Amir Khan, Helen Flanagan, Jordan Banjo, Carol Vorderman, Fatima Whitbread, Paul Burrell, Phil Tufnell, and Janice Dickinson.
But the series had already promised a few more surprises and late-arrival campmates – and their first surprise delivered some TV gold.
Right at the end of last night’s episode, as the celebrities were settling in to their new home, ITV dropped a mysteriously giant box into camp.
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Shaun Ryder, who had previously commented that ‘there doesn’t seem to be any knobheads’, was soon eating his words when his former TV nemesis Gillian McKeith burst out of the box.
Gillian McKeith arriving in a giant box on I’m A Celebrity. Credit: ITVGillian McKeith arriving in a giant box on I’m A Celebrity. Credit: ITVShaun Ryder and Gillian McKeith are back together in the I’m A Celebrity jungle
The smile dropped from his face the second he recognised his former campmate, who he butted heads with back in 2010.
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He had labelled her ‘a f***ing irritating woman’, and frequently lashed out at her.
Shaun even told told Ant and Dec when he left the jungle: “If Gillian was my wife, she would be in pieces in a plastic bag, deep in a hole in the back garden.”
In response to Gillian entering the I’m A Celebrity camp, he simply said: “Oh… F***ing hell.”
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And when Paul Burrell asked if she was ‘mad as a box of frogs’, Shaun replied: “Yeah. I nearly killed her.”
He later said in the diary room: “Gillian arrived in a box. She should have stayed in the box folks…”
Fans are obviously loving the drama, and seem to mostly be Team Shaun.
One person said: “I’m a celeb bringing Gillian mckeith in with Shaun Ryder is one of the best things to happen to British tv for years.”
Another wrote: “However this series pans out, putting Shaun Ryder and Gillian McKeith in the jungle together again is a genius TV move.”
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Someone else said: “Shaun ryder is gonna carry this series and if he dosent win its a robbery.”
Everyone strap in – there’s gonna be fireworks.
Featured image: ITV
TV & Showbiz
Blue Planet III live in concert is coming to Manchester next year
Daisy Jackson
The spectacular Blue Planet III will come to Manchester live in concert next year, bringing the hit BBC nature documentary to life with a live orchestra.
The new arena tour will pull together the most breathtaking footage beneath the waves from across the series, curated for a giant Ultra HD LED screen.
Blue Planet III will hit screens later this year, narrated once again by the legendary Sir David Attenborough.
Filmed across four years, it will take audiences everywhere from tropical coral reefs to the darkest depths of the ocean.
When the Blue Planet III Live In Concert show arrives in Manchester, it will be hosted by series executive producer Elizabeth White, who’ll share incredible stories and behind-the-scenes insights from the making of the series.
The score once again comes from Academy Award-winner Hans Zimmer, with Thom Lukas and Laurentia Editha for Bleeding Fingers Music, performed live by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
The companion live concert is preparing to take audiences even deeper into the underwater world on an epic audio-visual scale.
Specially curated footage from Blue Planet III will be shown on a state-of-the-art 200 sq metre Ultra HD LED screen – one of the largest of its kind used for an orchestral touring screen show and approximately the size of a tennis court.
Blue Planet III live in concert is coming to Manchester next year. Credit: BBC Studios
The brand-new Blue Planet III Live in Concert will kick off here in Manchester before heading to Birmingham, Glasgow, and London.
Executive Producer Elizabeth White says: “Making Blue Planet III has taken us to places we never imagined we’d film. But there’s something about bringing that footage into a concert arena full of people, with the score performed live all around you, that will be truly special.
“This tour is our chance to share the series on a completely different scale, and I can’t wait to be there live, revealing the extraordinary stories behind what audiences are seeing on screen.”
Hans Zimmer says: “There’s nothing like experiencing this score live with an orchestra, especially when it’s paired with the extraordinary visuals of the life underwater. Thom, Laurentia and I are ecstatic that audiences will be able to enjoy our score in this way.”
Blue Planet III Live in Concert will be at the AO Arena in Manchester on Friday 21 May 2027 – general release tickets start from £40 and go on sale from 11am on Friday 16 October HERE.
Molly-Mae Hague revisits first Manchester flat, now on the market for £185k
Daisy Jackson
Molly-Mae Hague’s first Manchester flat is now on the market for £185k – and the star herself has paid a visit to her old digs.
Those who have been following Molly-Mae since before she shot to serious fame on Love Island will have recognised the backdrop of her recent TikTok video.
The 27-year-old reality TV star and businesswoman posed around the one-bedroom flat, dancing to Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘House Tour’.
The apartment is where she lived just before entering Love Island, and where she and now-fiance Tommy Fury lived briefly when they left the show.
And now that exact flat where she really launched her social media career has been listed for sale, at £185,000.
The corner apartment stands on the 17th floor of Islington Wharf, overlooking New Islington tram stop and right on the doorstep of Ancoats.
Her former landlord, who arranged for Molly-Mae to have one look around her old flat before it’s sold, said that she was a ‘lovely, polite and down-to-earth young woman, and an excellent tenant who looked after the apartment extremely well.’
The one bedroom apartment has double-aspect floor-to-ceiling windows which look across Manchester on one side, and out towards the Pennines on the other.
It’s listed for sale with no chain and the option to include existing furnishings (which seems to include the same couch Molly-Mae had at the time).
The flat also has a kitchen/living space, a communal garden, superfast broadband, and is within walking distance of Manchester Piccadilly.
Daisy Jackson -
25th April 2023 
