James Delingpole James Delingpole

Don’t sneer at I’m a Celebrity. The show is teaching us to become model citizens

And if Jimmy Bullard wins out over everyone’s favourite Milf, Melanie Sykes, I may have to become a feminist

issue 29 November 2014

One of the great benefits of having teenage children is that they force you out of your fuddy-duddy comfort zone. There was no way, for example, that the Fawn and I were ever going voluntarily to watch I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! because we’re snobby old farts who only like history documentaries and University Challenge. But Girl decreed otherwise.

That’s why, unlike many of you, but like most of the nation, I am now able to comment knowledgably on how well Michael Buerk is doing, who Tinchy Stryder is, why it was a sensible idea to choose world superbike champion Carl Fogarty to undertake the first bushtucker trial, and why Melanie Sykes is currently Britain’s favourite Milf.

You think you don’t need to know this trivia? I’m with Nadine Dorries. When the MP was given stick for appearing on the show last year she defended herself thus: ‘I’m doing the show because 16 million people watch it.

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