I'm a Celebrity, seventh eviction review: Seann Walsh sent packing as 'cyclone' awaits Matt Hancock
Football isn’t yet coming home but Seann Walsh definitely is. An hour after England limped to a drab World Cup draw with the USA, comedian Walsh half-sprinted out of the Australian jungle. We’ve reached the semi-final stage of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! (ITV) and just four campmates remain. Defying all predictions, Matt Hancock is among that top Queensland quartet.
The former Health Secretary has outlasted the show’s highest-paid contestant ever in Boy George, who commanded a £500,000 fee. He’s also seen off a Radio 1 breakfast DJ (Chris Moyles), a Coronation Street actress (Sue Cleaver), a newsreader (Charlene White) and not one but two comedians (Walsh and Babatúndé Aléshé). Hancock is now one day and one vote away from the grand final. Not too shabby for an absentee MP who was a national pariah a few weeks ago.
Controversial comic Walsh, previously best known as the Strictly Come Dancing “love rat™”, was a latecomer alongside Hancock. He has rehabilitated his image almost as successfully. Walsh was clearly damaged from being hauled over the tabloid coals, neurotic about how he’d be perceived and prone to mirthless laughing to ingratiate himself.
However, arriving alongside lightning rod Hancock took the heat off him, enabling Walsh to find his feet. He grew in confidence with each elimination, realising he wasn’t the hate figure he feared. Indeed, during his exit interview, he ruefully admitted: “When I first saw Matt Hancock, I thought ‘Maybe I’m not going out first after all’.” Both far exceeded expectations.
He might have been a whinge-bag during Bushtucker Trials, much to Mike Tindall’s amusement (and sometimes annoyance), but Walsh came across as thoroughly decent. He won viewers over with his self-deprecating wit, expressive face and eye for the absurd. He was also a loyal, non-judgemental friend, whether it was to Hancock, Moyles or Boy George. There was no side to Walsh. He seemed one of the most humble, genuine characters in camp.
Upon leaving, he said the show had been “the best experience of my life” and that his supportive, accepting campmates had helped him move on from Strictly-gate at last. Admirably open about his struggles and evangelical about the benefits of therapy, Walsh was a fine advocate for men's mental health.
As the field thinned out, the 36-year-old stand-up came into his own as the king of inconsequential banter. His trips to the Bush Telegraph, full of off-kilter humour and incredulity at the surreal nature of bush life, grew ever more entertaining. As he said: “You only jungle once. YOJO.” Walsh leaves with his reputation repaired and career back on track. His pregnant girlfriend Grace Adderley awaited, keen to show how much her bump had grown while he was away. On a bad day for the Welsh, it was a far better one for Walsh.
The latest trial, the rather pointedly named “Fallen Stars”, was undertaken by the balding midlife crisis dream team of Tindall and Hancock. The latter proved impressively adept at solving jigsaw puzzles, even inside cages full of curious rats and biting ants. Tindall was embarrassed about wrongly answering a quiz question about pigeon-fanciers, considering the Queen was one. The duo earned four out of a possible five meals. Not the full complement but rather better than yesterday’s one.
Elsewhere in a snappy hour-long show - a refreshing change from the bloated 90-minute editions earlier this week - the final five whiled away the time with daft but oddly absorbing chit-chat. Walsh did an uncanny impersonation of Michael McIntyre. Loveable Hollyoaks actor Owen Warner did a rather less convincing Sir David Attenborough but redeemed himself by teaching campmate Jill Scott to cry on cue. Hancock was dubbed “Han-clock” when he named time travel as his dream superpower. Wonder how much of the past three years he’d hop back to undo?
Hancock now progresses to “Celebrity Cyclone”, the cartoonish obstacle course which has become a beloved semi-final fixture. The supersized slip-and-slide challenge sees the final four struggle up a wet, windy incline, dodging missiles while dressed as superheroes in colourful capes and goggles. Hancock might never live the images down. Perhaps someday, he’ll regale Kevin Keegan and Pocahontas about it over dinner.
