It’s been described as Game for a Laugh meets Saturday Night Takeaway – but Joel claims he was terrified during one particular challenge
Joel dressed as a chair and was praying no one sat down on him(Image: ITV)
Joel Dommett said he experienced “one of the most frightening moments of my life” after being disguised as a set of dog toys while trying to get a collar off a Great Dane in new show Celebrity Sabotage.
The Masked Singer star is joined by fellow disruptors GK Barry, Judi Love and Sam Thompson for the new Saturday night series which has been dubbed Saturday Night Takeaway meets Game for a Laugh. And at one point he was tasked with trying to grab the collar while GK tried to distract the owner from realising what was going on.
“I think it’s genuinely one of the most frightening moments of my life because we had this lady who had a Great Dane and so she was there with the dog. And so GK was there trying to distract the owner whilst I was dressed as dog toys, trying not to get caught by the owner, but trying to get the collar off the dog without being noticed.”
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The dog, at the time, was wearing a wig. “It turns out, not that safe,” he laughed. “Obviously the dog just wanted to eat me. Face to face with a dog, I can’t remember if I fell. You would bloody panic if you were on the floor. It’s called a Great Dane for a reason.”
GK admitted she was worried for him, telling him at the time. “Honestly, it’s not that deep, but I’d love you to still have a face after this episode. And he was like, ‘I’m going to go again’.”
Another time comedian Joel was made to hide inside a chair. “I dressed as that chair and I was just hidden in a room and we were all there. The entire time I was just thinking, ‘Please, nobody sit on me.’ That was all I was thinking.”
For the series, producers took over a manor house where they staged six fake reality shows, each with its own celebrity host, who were all in on the joke. Once the unsuspecting contestants arrived to take part, the four saboteurs set about carrying out missions being set for them by producers, with each set of players genuinely believing they were taking part in a brand new show for ITV. They were – but not the one they thought.
The good news for all of them, however, is that every time the saboteurs were successful, they were winning money for the unwitting contestants worth up to £30,000. Joel, 40, said that when they finally worked out what was going on, it made for great TV. “The reveal at the end when they realise that they’re winning money. It’s just like so heartwarming.” And he added “We just cause absolute chaos, carnage. I don’t know about you guys, but it’s the most fun I’ve had working on a show in a really long time.”
One of the challenges sees the team tasked with ruining the face masks being applied to people who were in on the joke in a fake spa – by lacing it with green dye, which stained their faces and left them filled with fake fury.
Judi said that one of the saboteurs spent a lot of time using one particular disguise. “We dress up as mad stuff. Basically every single episode GK is dressed as a bush,” she laughed. For herself, she said: “I think the skill I learned is that I can roll quite well. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Over the weeks the team are joined by guest saboteurs, one of whom was Jo Brand. ‘She was so funny. She just did not care about what we were saying,” they laughed. “There was one bit we were like, ‘Don’t get caught.’ She was just wandering around the corridors.
-Celebrity Sabotage starts on Saturday March 21 at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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