ALL ITV bosses need now to make this year’s Extra Camp a rerun of last year’s main show is a presenting job for Jungle King Harry Redknapp.
I’m told that as well as signing up Emily Atack, who finished second on I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! in 2018, show bosses are also giving a job to her outback pal John Barrowman.
Torchwood actor John, who came third behind her and football boss Harry, is in talks to join the spin-off show with producers hoping he and Emily can recreate some of the chemistry they showed on screen.
They would join Joel Dommett as one of three hosts on the ITV2 show, after Joe Swash and Scarlett Moffatt both quit.
A source said: “Producers loved John and Emily together last year and were looking for formats for them once they left Australia.
Madness
“When the chance to do Extra Camp came up ITV bosses thought it made sense.
“Joel can hold it together, as he’s done the show before, and the newbies can bring their own madness to the table. It’s all but a done deal.”
Since Extra Camp started it has had 21 presenters — 11 since 2009.
I’m told Caroline Flack was also in the frame for the role, but she has got her hands full with two series of Love Island a year.
That’s enough sunshine for you, Flack . . .
AMBER DAVIES was doing more wading than working 9 to 5 as she took a break from her West End duties.
She swapped the limelight for the sunlight in Marbella, Spain. She was snapped in her bikini before jetting back to play Judy Bernly in 9 To 5: The Musical at London’s Savoy.
Amber won Love Island with Kem Cetinay in 2017 but is now a star thanks to the Dolly Parton-inspired show.
I bet she still tuned in to the series finale last night with the rest of us.
WHAT? Counting Tigers: A Survival Special, ITV, 9pm.
WHY? Joanna Lumley narrates this examination of a wildlife survey being conducted to count India’s tiger population – the results of which could be hugely important to the animals’ future.
SIMON COWELL has taken a swipe at acts who refused to compete on Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions despite finding fame via the show.
By contrast, he praised rollerblading siblings Billy and Emily England, who appeared on BGT in 2015 before getting their own Vegas show.
They jetted in to take part in The Champions’ final heat at Wembley Arena.
Simon said: “You’ve come all that way to thank the audience for giving you that chance and you put your lives on the line every time you compete.
“So I can’t thank you enough. We’ve had acts we’ve asked to come back and they’ve said, ‘We don’t want to compete but can we do a guest appearance and plug our tour’. And it’s like, ‘No!’”
I can’t imagine which acts he’s talking about . . .
Might one of them be a well- known dance troupe?
QUITE a few TV shows have had a role played by several actors – which means the cast must pretend nothing has changed or the writers conjure up some bizarre explanation.
But The Crown has come up with a clever solution as Claire Foy hands over playing the Queen to Oscar-winner Olivia Colman. The opening sequence of the third series, set to appear on Netflix this autumn, shows Her Majesty looking at two sets of stamps – an old set featuring Claire’s image and new ones featuring Olivia.
A TV insider said: “The makers of The Crown didn’t want the change of actors to go without any kind of acknowledgment. So instead of trying to cover it up, they highlight the swap.
“They explain it by suggesting she is simply older. After all, the Queen has aged 18 years from the start of the first series to the third.”
The new episodes begin in 1965, the same year older portraits of Her Majesty were replaced with the silhouette that is still on stamps today.
Let’s hope the show also acknowledges the fact that Tony Benn, the loony lefty head of the Post Office at the time, tried to take her head off stamps completely.
If the MP had succeeded, the creators of The Crown might have had to pretend Claire never existed after all.
THE Wild West comes to the Yorkshire Dales during EMMERDALE when Bernice does her best to win back Dr Liam with a fundraiser for the local hospital.
However, the beautician is left down in the dumps when Liam tells her he has no plans to attend the event.
She manages to convince him to go, giving him a special role – and swoons when Sheriff Liam rides into town.
An anxious Bernice then confesses to Nicola that she plans to ask Liam to marry her.
Meanwhile, in EASTENDERS, Sharon puts her foot in it when she lets slip to Ben that he has been ousted as benefactor in Phil’s will by Keanu – thinking that the young Mitchell already knows.
Coincidentally, Phil is later left for dead at The Arches after finding himself in a fight.
AFTER two years fronting Soccer AM, comedian LLOYD GRIFFITH has quit Sky’s series ahead of the new football season. Lloyd says he wants to work on other projects and continue with his stand-up career.
