I'm A Celeb's worst-ever Bushtucker trials - from live spider meal to 'drowning' in a tube
I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! is finally back – and so are the grim and gruesome Bushtucker trials. The infamous trials have provided some of the show's most memorable moments since it launched two decades ago, with some famous faces undergoing the most challenging of tasks.
This year, TV personality and WAG Coleen Rooney, Dancing On Ice judge and former Strictly Come Dancing professional Oti Mabuse, N-Dubz singer Tulisa Contostavlos, Loose Women's Jane Moore and McFly star Danny Jones are among the contestants who will be forced to face their fears in the hope of winning stars to feed camp. Also starring on the series is Coronation Street actor Alan Halsall, BBC Radio 1 star Melvin Odoom, internet personality and Loose Women host GK Barry and former Irish boxer Barry McGuigan. Here's a look at the worst-ever moments from previous Bushtucker trials...
Chris Moyles and Boy George ‘Drown Under’
It was the first trial of I’m A Celebrity 2022 - and it was slammed by viewers who said it was ‘dangerous’ and like ‘something out of a horror movie’. Radio DJ Chris Moyles and 80s popstar Boy George took part in a challenge called HMS Drown Under - where they were locked in a tank called a 'torpedo tube' as water began pouring in and up towards their faces.
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With one minute to go in the trial, Chris was left coughing and gasping for breath. "It is getting quite high in here," he shouted in a panic to hosts Ant and Dec.
"I'm finding it hard to breathe. I swallowed some water!" Thankfully, Chris and Boy George were 'flushed' out of the tank when 10 minutes was up and both were unscathed. But fans were left shocked by the trial.
One wrote on social media: "That water trial looked so dangerous... surely that got too high... hard to watch." Another added: "I feel so sorry for Chris. That is so claustrophobic. That was something out of a horror movie."
Mark Wright’s bed bugs
TOWIE’s Mark Wright said it was “the worst thing I’ve had to do, ever”. In 2011, the I’m A Celeb camp was split into two teams and had to take part in a Beat the Bugs challenge - the task being to spend the night lying in a Perspex box bed accompanied by their worst fears – snakes, crickets, crabs, cockroaches and rats. The team that clocked up the most hours would win immunity from the public voting them off.
Mark had made the mistake of revealing that his only fear was rats - so of course he was surrounded by the furry critters. While in the box, he ranted: “I’ve got to get out, I can’t sleep, they are my worse thing in the world, they are crawling into my pyjamas, they are getting more confident, I can’t do it! I’m going to be sick, they stink and are doing poos all over my bed.”
Shaun Ryder and Lembit Opik's snake bites
History was made on 2010’s I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! as for the first time ever on the show not one, but two contestants were bitten by a snake.
Former MP Lembit Opik and Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder were both left bleeding after a young Australian carpet python sank his teeth into their hands during a trial. It nipped Lembit first before becoming angry and biting Shaun badly.
It then started to wrap itself around the Mancunian singer’s hand - prompting medics to rush in and remove it. The snake was then removed from the trial and replaced with rhino beetles.
Shaun and Lembit had been searching for keys hidden in various boxes to free them from their cells when they were injured. The Black Grape frontman received the worst wounds of the two but his campmates were left surprised by his calm reaction to the incident. When asked how he was, Shaun replied: “Alright. It’s a bite, a snake bite. If that weren’t someone’s animal I would have f***ing smashed it.
“It was like sticking your hand through a sheet of glass and it wouldn’t let go. It took two of them to get the thing off.”
Dean Gaffney and Joe Swash’s animal shakes
Host Ant described it as “the most disgusting piece of television I’ve ever been involved with”.
On I’m a Celebrity... South Africa - an ‘all-stars’ version of the hit ITV show featuring past contestants - former EastEnders actors Dean Gaffney and Joe Swash took part in a challenge where they were invited to drink a variety of blended animal parts. The trial, called Flipping Disgusting, saw the acting duo down mashed-up maggots and blended cow vagina - with the pair often gagging and regurgitating the liquid.
“Omg this drinking trial is the worst ever,” one viewer wrote on social media. Another added: “Howling. Funniest bit of telly I’ve watched in a long time. Disgustingly entertaining.”
Ferne McCann’s spider meal
It was widely-regarded to be the worst eating challenge in I’m A Celeb history and drew complaints from almost 1,500 viewers.
In 2015, TOWIE star Ferne McCann took part in the Bushtucker Bonanza and while she was served staple trial dishes such as witchetty grubs and lamb brains, she was also presented with a live water spider trapped in a glass. Ferne was then given the choice of her favourite meal - a roast chicken dinner - or she could eat the spider and win food for the rest of the camp.
After some screaming, Ferne decided to eat the spider - crunching it down until it had been chewed up and swallowed. Host Ant couldn't believe what he was seeing - saying to her: “You are a hero, how did you do that?”
Ferne replied: “It smelled of cockroach, tasted dirty, the body was mushy and gunky and the legs were spiky and crunchy.”
