Danny Jones crowned as winner of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - but we got it all wrong
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After three weeks of gruelling trials, tasteless meals and emotional moments, the British public had whittled down the contestants to a final three - Coleen Rooney, Danny Jones and Reverend Richard Coles.
The three finalists couldn’t be more different to one another. Coleen being an assertive figure, yet kind and wise beyond her years; Danny is forever enthusiastic, like a labrador being told it’s time for walkies; and then you have Rev Richard, a late arrival in camp whose eccentric but fun nature had his fellow contestants roaring with laughter.
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Hide AdAnd yet, the three of them made for some fantastic television all season long, forging the sort of connections that would otherwise simply never happen. In what other TV show would you see boxing champion Barry McGuigan singing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode alongside a member of McFly, or a lesbian podcaster explaining scissoring to a Reverend? (If you don’t know what that is, go into Incognito Mode before Googling it...)


Tonight, the public voted one more time and crowned Danny Jones the king of the jungle. And I for one can’t help but think we’ve got it totally wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, Danny is a worthy winner. From the moment he first appeared on screen, chomping at the bit to get started, you could tell he probably had this in the bag. McFly have a history of winning this show - Dougie Poynter won back in 2011, if you remember - and Danny is no stranger to taking the crown on ITV programmes, having won The Masked Singer earlier this year. But the winner in my heart is third place celeb, Reverend Richard Coles.
He wasn’t the loudest voice in the camp, the most extroverted personality or even the best at the trials, but Rev Richard gave his absolute all to this show. He reassured his campmates when they were feeling low, or struggling with an onslaught of critters. Even physically, he left everything on the table - after the final arcade trial he looked utterly exhausted, having tried his absolute hardest to bring home stars for camp.
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Hide AdHe may not have totally conquered the jungle, but in true Christian fashion he guided others to the top instead. Watching his relationship with podcaster GK Barry blossom was genuinely a joy to watch; he described them as being “kindred spirits” despite their age gap and vastly different lives.
My wife and I have been watching I’m A Celeb every night this year - a rarity, given her TV backlog has behemoths like Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries to clear - and from the moment he stepped into the secretly-luxurious junkyard camp, Rev Richard has been our favourite on the show.
It’s also rare to have an older contestant taking the crown. The only previous celeb who immediately springs to mind is actor Christopher Biggins, who won all the way back in 2007, and I for one am a big fan of not just voting for whoever does best in the trials as the winner; it’s a big portion of what we see on TV, but only a small part of jungle life itself.
I’m delighted for Danny, and his family must be over the moon, but I can’t help but feel the humble Reverend was robbed. How he finished third is beyond me.
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Hide AdAs Brits, we have a habit of getting votes like this wrong - we once voted for a dog to win Britain’s Got Talent, and the Boaty McBoatface fiasco is evident enough that we cannot be trusted with anything even remotely serious. Tonight, I think we kept that streak alive.
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