James Delingpole James Delingpole

Clash of egos

Clash of egos

issue 27 November 2004

A few years ago on a Caribbean island, I tried smoking crack. It tasted absolutely delicious, like toffee bananas, and for about ten minutes I felt quite fantastic. But I still don’t think it’s nearly as stupid or addictive or bad for you as I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here (ITV1).

I promised myself, as I always do, that I wasn’t going to watch it. But during North & South (BBC1, Sunday) — which I like but would probably like more if I weren’t slightly worried about the liberties I gather it has been taking with the novel — I couldn’t resist flicking over every now and again to see how the latest bunch of nonentities were getting on in the jungle.

Like most of you, I imagine, I hardly recognised any of them, apart from toothy annoyance Janet Street-Porter, disgraced butler Paul Burrell and former lovable TV cop sidekick Huggy Bear.

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