Has reality television finally grown up? When the format first emerged in the late Nineties, it was brash, tacky and overwhelmingly young.
Eight of the 11 contestants in the first series of Big Brother, for example, were in their 20s and the oldest was just 37.
But as the genre proliferated — from The Great British Bake Off and The Real Marigold Hotel to Britain’s Got Talent — broadcasting executives began to learn a powerful lesson.
Older people make just as good, if not better, TV than the young. They can be wiser, funnier and far less afraid of speaking their minds.
Looking good in a bikini is not the same as being interesting, after all.
This year’s I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here!, which kicked off last night, is a case in point. Four of the contestants are over 50, and former football manager Harry Redknapp is 71, proving that wrinkles are no longer a barrier in image-obsessed television.
Survivors: Reality TV stars Stanley Johnson, Janet Street-Porter, Jan Leeming and Jenny Eclair
The audience has changed, too. Young people are switching off scheduled TV in their droves, turning instead to Netflix and YouTube. According to Ofcom, teenagers and children are watching a third less TV on traditional sets than they did in 2010.
Advertisers and TV bosses have begun to take note. A report published earlier this year nominated ‘senior television’ (programmes that feature older people) as one of the year’s biggest trends.
A spin-off from The Voice called The Voice Senior, exclusively for singers over 60, has already aired in the Netherlands and is currently in production in Germany. Expect a British version soon. So, what’s it like being an older reality TV star? Here, four celebrities who have braved it reveal their winning tips and behind-the-scenes secrets. Prepare to be shocked . . .
It revived my stalled career
Jenny Eclair, 58, has been on I’m A Celebrity . . .Get Me Out Of Here!, Celebrity MasterChef and Splash!
Jenny Eclair, 58, has been on I’m A Celebrity . . .Get Me Out Of Here!, Celebrity MasterChef and Splash!
I was 50 and a size 14 when I went into the Jungle. I was very much a last minute booking. I got the call from my agent on the Saturday morning and flew out on the Sunday night.
Fortunately, I just had time to buy a new swimsuit and slather myself in fake tan.
I decided to go in because the tour on which I’d just embarked was doing dreadful business and I was depressed.
Also, I was rather fat: I figured I’d lose weight and possibly get a panto out of it. My career had stalled, so why not? Fact: anyone who is doing really well is too busy to bother and those who say otherwise are lying.
I think originally I was flown out to sit on the reserve bench but, at the last minute, both comedian Dom Joly and I were dropped in after everyone else, having first spent a night in a hut of snakes together. Larks!
Dom and I are still mates — he tried to teach me every capital city in the world. I can now remember about six.
Food was going to be the biggest problem from the off. I’m a cow when rationed; I managed to smuggle in a breakfast roll in the breast pocket of my shirt. No one dared challenge me in case I was naturally lopsided.
My first night in camp was spent throwing up. I developed a tension/hunger migraine and was violently ill everywhere. So I was convinced I’d be first out.
Who wanted to see a lopsided, middle-aged, vomiting monster on the telly?
As it happened, I came third, possibly because, in 2010, others were even more irritating than me — including TV presenter Gillian McKeith, whom the public quickly twigged would be rubbish at just about any challenge, so consequently kept voting for her to do everything.
Meanwhile, I sat on a log, being vaguely pleasant and trying not to eat anyone.
Hunger and cold were the hardest parts of being out there and, because the weather was so grim, none of the leggy lovelies were doing the daily bikini shower shots. Usually, it was just me and TV presenter Alison Hammond braving the freezing stream of water.
You could almost hear the cameramen tutting in despair.
Vanity is pointless in the Jungle, but I did come out wearing a pair of jeans I hadn’t been able to get into for seven years. As for getting a panto out of it? Oh, yes I did!
I came out 10lb lighter
Janet street-porter, 71, has been on I’m A Celebrity, Celebrity MasterChef and So You Think You Can Teach
Janet street-porter, 71, has been on I’m A Celebrity, Celebrity MasterChef and So You Think You Can Teach.
I had no idea who anyone else in the Jungle was. It’s a bit like the first day at school, when you have to remember so many names. I just said ‘Hello, I’m Janet’ a lot, smiled and let them talk about who they were. They probably thought I was an endangered species.
For anyone used to listening to Radio 4 or Classic FM, noise in the Jungle is a real problem. Not the screeching of birds or wildlife, but human small talk.
All the younger people chat to each other about absolutely nothing, all the time, 24/7. They just fill in any gaps.
That’s the most challenging thing about it — not the open-air sleeping, the bugs or the stench of smoke from the camp fire.
Some snowflakes will start whimpering about the water ‘not tasting right’ (you are told to get it from the river and boil it on the fire, which must never go out).
Singer Stacey Solomon, only 22 when she went into the Jungle in 2010, told me she was sure the drinking water had a ‘smoky’ flavour.
And there’s no ice, which upsets quite a few campers. Brian Harvey, from the boyband East 17, had a meltdown in front of me because he couldn’t last another day ‘without Perrier’.
Older people are more stoical and complain less, but they snore and fart and have a tendency to keep repeating themselves: Paul Burrell couldn’t stop talking about Diana wanting to ‘lead a simple life’ once he realised he had a captive audience.
Younger people are used to photographing themselves all the time for social media, so they are very image-conscious. Older people don’t realise the hidden cameras will be filming everything all day and night, except their time inside the camp toilet tent.
I met Carol Thatcher for a drink before she went in the Jungle a year after me, in 2005, and gave her plenty of advice. She ignored it and was mortified to discover that her midnight wee was filmed and later enjoyed by millions of amazed viewers.
As a former TV producer, I knew the form and didn’t let slip anything that I would be embarrassed about later.
It’s most important not to complain and never to cry. Viewers are only interested in watching people dissolve into floods of tears as they try and fail at jungle challenges. It’s the modern version of gladiatorial sport.
As a contestant, you need to pray for a weeper in the camp, a fragile being like Gillian McKeith or Sinitta — someone who can’t cope with the food or the insects, who starts shaking with fear at the mention of a bug.
Former All Saints singer Natalie Appleton was in my camp and she seemed to believe that the leaves on the trees all around us were poisonous because Doctor Bob, the camp medic, had warned us about dangerous plants — then she sobbed uncontrollably if a leaf touched her.
Finally, try to put yourself in charge of the catering. That way, you can monitor portion control and everyone gets something to eat. Remember to remove as much facial hair as possible beforehand — the producers confiscated my tweezers.
Spend a week before you fly to Australia eating one meal a day and turn down the free booze on the plane. Giving up sugar and salt is the worst trial, so cut right back. I came out 10lb lighter and felt fantastic.
No, they don’t want to kill you!
Jan Leeming, 76, has appeared on I’m A Celebrity, The Real Marigold Hotel and Celebrity First Dates
Jan Leeming, 76, has appeared on I’m A Celebrity, The Real Marigold Hotel and Celebrity First Dates.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. That was me with I’m A Celebrity. Reality wasn’t my thing. I had already been asked twice and declined. Then my 24-year-old son said: ‘If they ask again, do it. You’ll be first out and can have two weeks of luxury in a six-star hotel.’ I’d not watched the programme, but had a rough idea of what went on and was sure that I’d be voted off quickly. I was in for 17 of the 21 days! Thank you, son.
Older people make better leaders and it’s important to have a good one to look after food rations and cooking. Having said that, David Gest, who had staff and no idea how to organise cooking, let alone on an open coal fire, was a total nightmare.
At one point, seeing me washing my smalls in the stream, he asked me to do a pillowcase full of his dirties. I told him where to put it!
There is no four-star restaurant round the corner. You get the food you win and no more than that. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been asked whether we really were half-starved. I lost more than half-a-stone.
The only time you are not wearing a mic is bedtime. Extra mics are hidden where you’d least expect. There are cameras everywhere, too. On one occasion, when I thought I was safely behind a towel changing into swimwear, a hidden camera caught a great deal more of me than I would have wished.
Frankly, there was a lot of bitching from most of the women, which upset me. Many participants forget they are on camera all the time and don’t think about the poor impression they may be giving the audience. In the pre-show psychological testing, I attempted to hide my worst fear, but the producers sussed it anyway. Snakes.
When voted to do ‘Snake Pit’, I was almost hysterical.
The voice in the hut said I could have someone with me as an aid, but when I asked for radio presenter Toby Anstis, the voice told me he was more afraid of snakes than I was, so singer Jason Donovan held my hand.
The trials are mostly unpleasant, but remember, the snakes are de-venomed, the rats are sanitised and the production team really don’t want to kill you.
Did I make the right choice going on? I was 64 and had no ‘career’ to revamp but, while it probably changed the public perception of the po-faced newsreader, it probably sank my chances of doing what I love most — interviewing and making documentaries.
Thanks to the money from the voting lines, I did raise a lot for Cancer Research, though.
Even today, 12 years later, I’m asked if I enjoyed it. Enjoy is not the word I would use, but it was a challenge and taught me I was far braver than I’d ever imagined.
Always keep your trousers on
Stanley Johnson, 78, has been on I’m A Celebrity and The Real Marigold Hotel
Stanley Johnson, 78, has been on I’m A Celebrity and The Real Marigold Hotel.
Harry Redknapp, the famous football manager, has just entered the Jungle. At 71, he’s the Doyen d’Age, the senior citizen — which was precisely the position I held last year at 77.
Yes, the Jungle is tough. But I was at boarding school in the Fifties and we didn’t even have doors on the loos in those days!
And I’ve had plenty of jungle experience since, in my travels around the world in search of wild and endangered species.
I’m sure for Harry, a man who has licked Premier League football teams into shape, the trials won’t be a physical or mental challenge. But here are a couple of tips anyway.
When I did the ‘Fear Factory’ trial, I was told to wear those red shorts. I reluctantly agreed — and that was a mistake. I was eaten alive by ants, while being strapped to the revolving table top!
So insist on keeping your long trousers on.
Try not to be filmed under the rock shower, unless your tummy is a good deal flatter than mine.
Looking back, I can’t believe how nice my fellow contestants were to me, even when they were on short rations because of some incompetence on my part.
In an early mass vote by the Great British viewing public, I was elected as the prime minister of ‘No 10 Downing Creek’!
I remember Jamie Lomas, the Hollyoaks star, quipping: ‘At last, a Johnson in No 10’! as Ant McPartlin announced the news. And Georgia ‘Toff’ Toffolo was elected, on the same ballot, as deputy prime minister.
Toff could have been my granddaughter, but we just got on with the job. And, as PM and Deputy PM, we had some difficult decisions to take, not least who was going to have to empty the dunny or do the washing-up!
Win or lose, if Harry Redknapp has half as much fun as I had, he’ll come home a changed man and probably with a lot more Instagram followers (I now have 144,000!).
Stanley is biking across India in support of endangered tigers. Visit toftigers.org
Linkhienalouca.comhttps://hienalouca.com/2018/11/19/four-previous-jungle-celebs-reveal-the-life-lessons-they-learned-in-the-snake-pit-of-reality-tv/
Main photo article Has reality television finally grown up? When the format first emerged in the late Nineties, it was brash, tacky and overwhelmingly young.
Eight of the 11 contestants in the first series of Big Brother, for example, were in their 20s and the oldest was just 37.
But as the genre proliferated — f...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
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