EX I’M A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contestant Dom Joly has revealed behind-the-scenes secrets from the show – comparing his appearance to being held “hostage”.
The 53-year-old comic finished in fourth place in the 2010 series, which was won by Stacey Solomon.
Follow our I’m A Celebrity 2020 live blog for all the latest updates
Speaking on The Matt Haycox Show, Dom dished the dirt on everything from blindfolds to blacked-out Land Rovers that were used to hide the show’s location from the contestants.
He explained: “If anything, I’m A Celeb is weirder and darker than they make it look, the real problem is boredom.
“What they don’t show you is the whole thing is based on the hostage mentality of keeping control over you and keeping you unstable.
“When I first walked into the camp I was literally having a panic attack, it was such a headf**k.
“I felt so out of place, like: ‘What am I doing, everything is a shock, there’s people controlling you – I just slept in a shed overnight with spiders, I ate spiders, I’m tired, I hate this place…’
“What’s weird about the human brain is in two days you adapt so quickly. They do this thing that hostage-takers often do; they move you around and keep you blindfolded.
“You adapt, you don’t want to leave.”
He added: “When you go off to a trial that’s far away, you get chucked in the back of what I call ‘Beirut Buses’ – blacked out Land Rovers.
“You get put in the back like a hostage. It’s really weird, quite creepy.”
Dom also recalled being told that “time is a luxury” when he asked why hosts Ant and Dec had covered their watches when they were around the campmates.
He said that producers knew what they were doing with the “stress hostage” tactic – adding that it is why some celebs appear to break down over trivial things while on the show.
Dom shared: “You see people overreact when you’re watching TV and think: ‘Come on, get over yourself’.
“But the stress they put you on subtly… They know what they’re doing, it’s very interesting – it’s very thought through.”
Despite his description of the ITV programme, Dom insisted that he enjoyed his time on the show, adding that he lost two stone over 23 days.
He explained: “You see an edited hour a day but 23 hours a day you’re sitting with people you often don’t like with nothing to say and it’s just boredom.
“But I loved it, it was 23 days where I had no distractions, no phone, nothing to do, nothing to worry about.
“Everything was taken care of for you, you had basic food – rice and beans were fine – I lost two stone in there.”
This year’s series of I’m A Celeb relocated camp from the usual Australian jungle to a haunted castle in Wales, with the final airing tomorrow night.
Giovanna Fletcher, Shane Richie, Jordan North, and Vernon Kay are the last campmates standing, with viewers set to see them take on the iconic Celebrity Cyclone challenge in tonight’s show.
