Celebs Go Dating star Tom Read Wilson has opened up about being picked as a latecomer to enter the I’m a Celebrity jungle
A new contestant is being parachuted into I’m a Celebrity – and is already feeling the pressure.
Celebs Go Dating star Tom Read Wilson says he is fully braced for one particular hardship in the jungle…no champagne. The ultra-posh 39-year-old receptionist on the E4 show, also said he was looking forward to bonding with rapper Aitch when he enters the jungle as a latecomer, who he compared to Shakespeare.
Of the booze ban, he admits: “I do have a penchant for champagne, and as it is quite a naughty tipple, I confine it to the weekend. So it is just going to feel like a very, very long week. I will never usually have a coupe of anything until Friday.” And opening up about Mancunian Aitch who he will meet when he enters the jungle alongside Vogue Williams on Thursday, he said he found him “fascinating.”
“I know that he is very bendy with words, which I adore,” Tom said. “I love new coinings. It is the reason I am mad about Shakespeare, is all the endless coinings and the sense of play with lexicon. And he has got that in spades. I know he has. And I also really think of rap as modern poetry. I wish I could do it.” For Tom, any shared love of language or the arts is enough to bond campmates, no matter how different their backgrounds.
“I have always felt that it does not matter how divergent your tastes are. If your feelings about the arts are the same, it kind of pleads you together, you know. You get excited about those things,” he said.
He says that beneath his polished exterior he is “terrified” of what lies ahead. “I shan’t sugar the pill. I am terrified. I do not think I have ever been quite so frightened,” he confessed. “But it is a funny thing with fear historically for me because it is one of those things that swells and swells and swells in my mind. And as soon as I start something, I am actually much better.”
A recent conversation with a driver called Abdi, who he describes as a “philosopher”, has helped him reframe that fear. “I got into a car the other day, and I had a little bit of a wobble,” Tom said. “Without telling the driver anything, I said, ‘Well, I am just about to do this thing that is rather challenging and I do not know if I am very well equipped’.
“His name was Abdi, the driver, and he turned out to be a philosopher. And he said, look at that enormous tree outside the car. If I told you to climb that tree, you would be very daunted. But he said, once you had started, you would find a little groove to put your foot in. You would find a branch that would bear your weight.
“And before you knew it you would be in the canopy and you would not know how you got there. I could not believe it. I was so, so delighted because it just suddenly put everything in perspective. So I think I have got the same fear, but he really contextualised it for me.”
As a lover of luxury, Tom knows jungle life will be a shock to the system. The booze ban is one thing. The rations and rice are another. “I have done intermittent fasting for years now. I never knew I was in training. It does help I think. I don’t really get hungry now until 2pm,” he says.
Asked if he will bring energy to the camp, he replies: “Oh, I hope so although I gather that they are a very zestful bunch, as it is. But I suppose it is slightly incumbent on you, if you come late, to sort of be a little bit of a warm zephyr.
“Because by then, I suppose they have endured quite a lot of hardship. I mean, they probably would have done a task or two, and they certainly would be maybe food and sleep deprived by then.” He is also slightly starstruck about finally meeting Ruby Wax, thanks to a lifelong devotion to Absolutely Fabulous, which she wrote.
“I am excited and nervous about this in equal measure, because historically I have not done very well when I have been a big fan of somebody,” he admitted. “But I am a very, very big fan of Ruby Wax. In myriad ways, because, I mean, she can talk chapter and verse about Jung, which I find fascinating. And also, I am a devotee of Ab Fab, and I have been told many times that a lot of the zingers and some of the more caustic lines in Ab Fab were Ruby’s.”
Tom says he will miss the “small people” in his life most of all. “I have got five godkids and three nephews, all of whom I speak to multiple times a week and see multiple times a month. So that is going to be a real wrench.”
To prepare, he has leaned on former jungle stars including his close friend Roman Kemp. “Roman Kemp, who is a dear friend, whom I love, he said, you must make sure that you wean yourself off coffee at least . five days before,” Tom explained. “Because, he said, that is the biggest shock. You suddenly crash and you get headaches. And that is terribly good advice for me.”