I’m A Celebrity star Tom Read Wilson’s career path could have been very different after fans unearthed old footage of the Celebs Go Dating star on another TV programme
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Tom is currently entertaining in the I’m A Celebrity jungle(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Fans of I’m A Celebrity were shocked to discover Tom Read Wilson’s previous reality TV appearance almost a decade before his spell in the jungle. The Celebs Go Dating star described himself as an “oddity” but a “nice surprise” as he appeared on singing contest The Voice in 2016.
Taking to the blind auditions stage to sing Accentuate The Positive, Tom, then 28, put in a performance that brought a smile to the judges’ faces. However, he failed to get a chair turn by any of Paloma Faith, Will.i.am, Ricky Wilson or Boy George – who was a jungle star himself in 2022.
It didn’t stop the quartet sharing their views on Tom shocking them. Will joked he thought he was an 85-year-old man, while Paloma sarcastically said she didn’t guess his musical theatre background as she mimicked his well-spoken voice.
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Will was stunned by his actions as Tom called himself a “cultural throwback”. Will explained how his behaviour would have seen him be great friends with Michael Jackson, before Paloma added: “You’re everything that Will.I.Am thought he was going to find when he arrived in Britain.”
Boy George then suggested a new career for the hopeful – reading the Tube announcements. He told him: “I feel like you should read the news or something. Or the Tube, you know the Tube? ‘Next stop,’ can you do it for us?”
After pleasing the group with his joyful persona, Tom said: “I loved it. I felt like I was surfing a crest of a great wave. Regardless of the outcome, I just had so much fun. I couldn’t trade it for anything.”
However, it was far from his only TV appearance, with Tom racking up a number of shows over the years. Tom has also graced screens on shows like Strictly’s It Takes Two, Love Island: Aftersun, The Wheel, Celebrity Mastermind and Celebrity Best Home Cook..
And away from any voiceover potential, Tom’s sister recently revealed how her brother would love to turn his hand to TV presenting. Speaking with guest presenter Ranvir Singh on Lorraine, Tom’s sister Miranda revealed: “He would love to do some more presenting. I think he’d be great at that.
“I’d love it if he had a chat show, because the way he talks to people, he really cares, he really listens, I think he’d be really good at that.” She went on: “It’s amazing.
“I’ve never been this proud in my life, I’m so proud of him. It’s so nice because everyone is seeing that beautiful soul that we get to see every single day, so yeah, I couldn’t be prouder.”
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Addressing his unique voice, Miranda added: “He’s always grown up loving language, like he said, my dad’s an English teacher and he really followed in his footsteps and he’s watched musical theatre throughout… he’s such an old soul, literally since he was two, he’s spoken like that.”
Tom is currently pleasing viewers of I’m A Celebrity after making it to the final four in this year’s series.
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Lee Mack hosts The 1% Club Rollover which is on ITV for five nights nextv week, starting on Monday at 9pm.(Image: ITV)
Forget smiling people in Christmas jumpers, Lee Mack’s family album is filled with photos of his mum taking her false teeth out and his dad with a cigarette stuck up his nose – playing for laughs.
So it’s hardly surprising that, at 15 he wanted to be a comic. He says: “At 15, I said in my head, ‘I want to be a comedian,’ but I didn’t know what that meant. It was always the thing I did with my mates. I would make my mates laugh.”
Now 57, for five nights, starting on Monday, Lee will be hosting The 1% Club Rollover. Described as ‘event TV,” this spin-off from the usual ITV quiz show sees the prize pot growing to a life-changing £500K.
Although Lee would never win it – he says his memory is so bad that he can never remember the answers. A great fan of the show, he says: “At the pilot I didn’t get any laughs, as everyone was intrigued by the questions.
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“I thought ‘this is a good format as my jokes are brilliant!’ The questions are researched to within an inch of their lives.”
Endlessly funny, Lee’s life has been a balancing act between comedy and tragedy. He started out as an aspiring jockey, working with Ginger McCain, who trained Grand National winner Red Rum – the first horse Lee ever rode. But, in his inimitable style, he developed a lucrative sideline selling Red Rum’s manure for 50p a bag – declaring it was “good for rhubarb!”
Away from the comedy, he speaks movingly of his brother Darren McKillop’s death in 2014, after taking an overdose of anti-depressants, aged just 47. Speaking on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, he says: “I don’t really like to talk about this. He did take his own life, but it was alcohol connected.”
Of the ‘misadventure’ inquest verdict, he says: “I think that’s a fair assessment of the situation.” According to Lee, his brother and his parents – who were publicans – all died through alcohol abuse. No longer drinking himself, he adds: “When you’re in a pub, you see everything. I saw the parties, I saw the fights in pubs, I saw my dad in very violent situations having to throw people out of pubs. “I’ve seen him dancing on a pool table, the happiest looking man in the world. “So I’ve seen all the gamuts of emotion that come with alcohol.”
Lee stopped drinking after reading Allen Carr’s Easy Way book. He says: “Not the comedian, a different Alan Carr. “I love Alan to bits, the comedian, but I don’t really look at him for my lifestyle choices!” Lee’s wife used the Alan Carr book on quitting smoking, so he read the alcohol one, saying: “I just suddenly for the first time saw alcohol for what it was, and decided I just wasn’t interested.”
The flipside of Lee’s early life was the comedy that came with a family life based around a local boozer on a tough Blackburn estate. He says: “My dad was as close as you can get to being a comedian without being paid for it. It’s like a little stage being behind a bar.”
He also recalls his dad being the spitting image of comedian Bobby Ball. Lee says: “He did have a permanent moustache like Bobby. Because in the 1980s, it was a criminal offence to live in the North and not have a permanent moustache.”
Lee’s uncle remembers Bobby Ball – who played his dad in his sitcom – performing in his parents’ pub, before finding fame. He says: “My uncle said, ‘I remember Cannon and Ball coming because they were just breaking through.’ I like the fact that my fictional dad and my real dad probably did meet.”
Lee’s dad also encouraged his comedic personality. “I can’t remember any serious conversations as a child,” he says. “Everything was brushed under the carpet. Even when they [his parents] split up, I don’t remember a big chat about it. “After my mom died, I went through the photos. There’s far too many where she’s taken her false teeth out to get the laugh for the photograph. There’s a lot of the ones with my dad with a cigarette up his nose, because it’s a funny image, isn’t it?”
Marrying when his dad was 21, Lee is fairly sure his mum was pregnant, but he says: “They seemed very happy. They were party animals.“ But they split up when Lee was 11. His dad was a heavy drinker and he recalls his parents having ferocious rows when they were on holiday in Spain. “They were feisty. It was chaotic. He’d slam the door and walk off,” he says.
“My mum went to bed, woke up the next morning, and very calmly and casually said, ‘go by the pool and see if your dad’s asleep on one of the deck chairs. We’ve got to leave for the plane in a few hours.’ We couldn’t find my dad anywhere near the pool. Turned out he just couldn’t face going back. And he just went. He left and started hitchhiking. He was drunk.
“He told me years later that in the middle of the night, the guys that picked him up stopped in a layby, pulled him over. And he genuinely thought he was going to get killed.” Lee says his dad was more like an older brother. “He wasn’t dad material,” he says. “He was a really nice guy. He was funny. He was a good person. He just didn’t know how to be a dad.“
He recalls telephoning him from Australia, where he went backpacking for a year, saying: “I just said, ‘I just wanted to say hello’. And he said, ‘Well, that’s really good of you to ring me today of all days. I thank you.’ And I said, ‘what do you mean of all days?’ He goes, ‘I’m getting married in three hours.’”
His dad hadn’t told anyone, but Lee continues: “To him getting married is like pancake Tuesday. You know, it’s not a big thing. It’s just another marriage. Yeah, I met the second wife. She was part of my upbringing, but the next two, not at all. They were very quick.”
Outside the chaos of home, Lee’s academic results were failing. He says: “I dug out my school reports. It is literally like a declining graph of academic achievement. It starts off, I’m your textbook, swotty kid, top marks. Then it slowly just goes downhill to the point where, by the time I leave, I just scrape through two O levels.”
His academic decline coincided with moving schools as his parents split-up. He says: “I became the class clown.” With the advent of alternative comedy, thanks to The Young Ones and Ben Elton in the early 1980s, that ‘class clown’ grew up to become a household name. And, of course, his parents loved the anarchic humour. Lee says: “My mum’s favourite programme was Bottom. She loved anarchy.”
A night at The Comedy Store in 1990, with Eddie Izzard as compere and Steve Coogan headlining changed Lee’s life – inspiring him to go to university, where he hoped to be surrounded by people like the kids on TV’s Fame. Instead, he met his wife Tara during Fresher’s Week. Together for 32 years, they have three kids and he says their marriage succeeds as: “The same things make us laugh.”
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As for comedy, from the moment he picked up the mic, he knew he’d found the right career. He says: “I remember before I even got to the microphone thinking ‘this is alright, I’m going to do this as a job.’” And while his stage name is Lee Mack, he says: “On my passport is Lee McKillop, my bank account is Lee McKillop. I’m only 5% Lee Mack. I’m 95% not that person. It’s just the one person who occasionally does this act.”
Liam Payne’s sister Ruth shared a heartfelt post in memory of the late One Direction star who tragically died in October last year while in Argentina
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Liam Payne’s sister Ruth shares an emotional post in memory of her late brother
Liam Payne’s heartbroken sister Ruth shared a sweet message in memory of her late brother Liam.
The One Direction star tragically died after falling from his third floor hotel balcony while in Argentina last October. Liam, who was only 31 at the time of his death, left behind a devastated family and a son, who he shared with former pop star Cheryl.
In the emotional post, Ruth told her followers that she was “missing him so much”. Sharing a picture of her and Liam, the image was from a 2019 Facebook post, which was in celebration of his solo album being released.
Their other sister Nicola shared the Facebook post with fans at the time and said: “Tonight at midnight my brother’s first solo album comes out. At 14 years old Liam set off to become a singer. He joined a band at 16 and the last 10 years has been on the most mad career path ever!”
She continued: “We as a family have stood side stage for the last 10 years cheering him on. All hoping that one day he would get his own album out and showcase just how talented he is, when I finally get in my car tomorrow and press play on the album I will feel so proud of his achievement,,.. I only wish my drive to work was longer than a couple of songs.”
Ruth who re-posted the sweet message captioned her post saying: “Oh mate, the best was yet to come. You’re missing so much.” This comes a few weeks after she paid tribute to Liam, 12 months on from his funeral. She shared a childhood picture of the two of them together.
Alongside her picture she said: “A year ago today, the hardest goodbye I’ll ever have, a funeral I should never have had to plan and every day since, I should have never had to live without him.”
She added: “Missing him now is part of breathing, it doesn’t get easier, that’s just a lie to make it feel better: Infinite love, infinite loss.”
In memory of her late brother, she posted an open letter to him where she gives fans an insight into the daily pain she feels as she grieves the loss of her beloved brother.
She penned: “I underestimated grief, woah, did I underestimate it. I am paralysed by it daily. I thought I had felt it before but I know the losses before you were just intense sadness, you are the loss of my life, the one person who l will miss at every single occasion in my life.”
She added: “I’d taken for granted that my little brother would be there through life. You shouldn’t have died.” Ruth also revealed she’s been having a recurring nightmare that places her in Liam’s hotel room moments before his death on that fateful night.”
Ruth went on to say that Liam “can’t hear me screaming for you, my brain is locked on your last minutes on this earth, the unaccounted minutes, the minutes I will never have the answers to, the minutes that changed everything.”
Explaining her grief, Ruth went on to add that she struggles to cope with life without him as she said that his absence “is something that happens to me everyday before I even open my eyes.”
She went to say that she would give anything to have five more minutes with her beloved brother, as she described all the things she love to tell him, including joke telling.
Asking for people to respect the family’s grief and privacy, she went to share: “Whilst I am still on my knees struggling to regain balance since my world burned down and every time I try to take a step, something comes and sets fire to all the progress I thought I had made in my mind, in trying to understand where or why Liam isn’t here helping me through this.”
She added: “Everyone only seems interested in the public side of this, some sadly seem more interested in the fame they can gain off this, but on the human side people need to remember when they speak, there is a son without his Dad, parents without their child and I am lost without my brother. Love always Liam, in every lifetime.”
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Liam Payne’s sister Ruth shared a heartfelt post in memory of the late One Direction star who tragically died in October last year while in Argentina
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Liam Payne’s sister Ruth shares an emotional post in memory of her late brother
Liam Payne’s heartbroken sister Ruth shared a sweet message in memory of her late brother Liam.
The One Direction star tragically died after falling from his third floor hotel balcony while in Argentina last October. Liam, who was only 31 at the time of his death, left behind a devastated family and a son, who he shared with former pop star Cheryl.
In the emotional post, Ruth told her followers that she was “missing him so much”. Sharing a picture of her and Liam, the image was from a 2019 Facebook post, which was in celebration of his solo album being released.
Their other sister Nicola shared the Facebook post with fans at the time and said: “Tonight at midnight my brother’s first solo album comes out. At 14 years old Liam set off to become a singer. He joined a band at 16 and the last 10 years has been on the most mad career path ever!”
She continued: “We as a family have stood side stage for the last 10 years cheering him on. All hoping that one day he would get his own album out and showcase just how talented he is, when I finally get in my car tomorrow and press play on the album I will feel so proud of his achievement,,.. I only wish my drive to work was longer than a couple of songs.”
Ruth who re-posted the sweet message captioned her post saying: “Oh mate, the best was yet to come. You’re missing so much.” This comes a few weeks after she paid tribute to Liam, 12 months on from his funeral. She shared a childhood picture of the two of them together.
Alongside her picture she said: “A year ago today, the hardest goodbye I’ll ever have, a funeral I should never have had to plan and every day since, I should have never had to live without him.”
She added: “Missing him now is part of breathing, it doesn’t get easier, that’s just a lie to make it feel better: Infinite love, infinite loss.”
In memory of her late brother, she posted an open letter to him where she gives fans an insight into the daily pain she feels as she grieves the loss of her beloved brother.
She penned: “I underestimated grief, woah, did I underestimate it. I am paralysed by it daily. I thought I had felt it before but I know the losses before you were just intense sadness, you are the loss of my life, the one person who l will miss at every single occasion in my life.”
She added: “I’d taken for granted that my little brother would be there through life. You shouldn’t have died.” Ruth also revealed she’s been having a recurring nightmare that places her in Liam’s hotel room moments before his death on that fateful night.”
Ruth went on to say that Liam “can’t hear me screaming for you, my brain is locked on your last minutes on this earth, the unaccounted minutes, the minutes I will never have the answers to, the minutes that changed everything.”
Explaining her grief, Ruth went on to add that she struggles to cope with life without him as she said that his absence “is something that happens to me everyday before I even open my eyes.”
She went to say that she would give anything to have five more minutes with her beloved brother, as she described all the things she love to tell him, including joke telling.
Asking for people to respect the family’s grief and privacy, she went to share: “Whilst I am still on my knees struggling to regain balance since my world burned down and every time I try to take a step, something comes and sets fire to all the progress I thought I had made in my mind, in trying to understand where or why Liam isn’t here helping me through this.”
She added: “Everyone only seems interested in the public side of this, some sadly seem more interested in the fame they can gain off this, but on the human side people need to remember when they speak, there is a son without his Dad, parents without their child and I am lost without my brother. Love always Liam, in every lifetime.”
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Geordie Shore star, Holly Hagan, has shared her final moments with her sister, Darci, who tragically died in October following an accidental drug overdose
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Holly Hagan has shared her heartbreaking last moments with her younger sister, Darci(Image: hollyhaganblyth/Instagram)
Holly Hagan has shared her heartbreaking last moments with her sister, Darci, following the teen’s tragic death.
Darci, 19, died in October following an accidental drug overdose after she took crystal MDMA at a nightclub in Manchester. Geordie Shore star, Holly, 33, who recently revealed she is pregnant with her second child, told fans she was “traumatised” without her sibling, who lost her life just 48 hours after mixing the drugs into her drink.
Opening up about Darci’s devastating death in the hospital after she suffered two cardiac arrests and was declared braindead, Holly revealed that she rushed out to buy her sister some new pyjamas in the middle of the night. Heartbreakingly, she also asked that Darci’s hair, including her £800 new extensions, be brushed so her mum ‘wouldn’t see any knots’.
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Talking candidly about the “horrendous” time, Holly told the Mail: “I got her some pyjamas, which seems crazy, I was in Asda or Tesco in the middle of the night shopping for pyjamas for my dead sister.
“I said, please ‘can you brush her hair because she’s just got £800 hair extensions and my mam will be absolutely fuming that her hair is in knots’, so they brushed her hair, they put her hair in a bobble and that was the end.”
In another devastating admission, Holly revealed she recorded Darci’s heartbeat before they left her for the last time. She shared: “We were all there and we had an opportunity to say goodbye. My mam rang me and she didn’t know how to leave the room because she knew it was the last time she was going to see her. Eventually I dragged her out. But before that, I had the opportunity to record her heartbeat. We had the opportunity to say goodbye.”
Darci’s death was announced by Holly in October and police later confirmed that the teen had fallen ‘seriously ill’, when she was believed to have taken drugs. Her funeral took place last month, with Holly sharing the order of service on her Instagram writing: “My sister, my forever friend. His auntie, his greatest gift. Now our guardian angel….I hope we did you proud today baby girl. We all miss and love you so much.”
Before the funeral, Holly admitted she wasn’t sure whether to post anything on social media, as she admitted her family had suffered the “toughest four weeks of our life.” She shared: “A little life update from last week. I wasn’t sure whether to share or not as honestly this is such a vulnerable time and I’m not really someone who sits and cries to the camera usually but this is the reality of where I’m at right now x.
“It is and has been the toughest four weeks of our entire life. I actually just don’t know how to process this whole situation, and neither do my parents.
“I don’t think anybody realises how much this affects everybody in their lives, the amount of people that’s been affected by this is just absolutely mind blowing. Like, my world has stopped. Her parents’ world has stopped. We feel, like, stuck and then the world keeps spinning.”
* If you have been affected by this story, Cruse Bereavement Support offers free help to make sense of how you are feeling. Click here for their website or call 0808 808 1677.
Geordie Shore star, Holly Hagan, has shared her final moments with her sister, Darci, who tragically died in October following an accidental drug overdose
View 3 Images
Holly Hagan has shared her heartbreaking last moments with her younger sister, Darci(Image: hollyhaganblyth/Instagram)
Holly Hagan has shared her heartbreaking last moments with her sister, Darci, following the teen’s tragic death.
Darci, 19, died in October following an accidental drug overdose after she took crystal MDMA at a nightclub in Manchester. Geordie Shore star, Holly, 33, who recently revealed she is pregnant with her second child, told fans she was “traumatised” without her sibling, who lost her life just 48 hours after mixing the drugs into her drink.
Opening up about Darci’s devastating death in the hospital after she suffered two cardiac arrests and was declared braindead, Holly revealed that she rushed out to buy her sister some new pyjamas in the middle of the night. Heartbreakingly, she also asked that Darci’s hair, including her £800 new extensions, be brushed so her mum ‘wouldn’t see any knots’.
READ MORE: Holly Hagan tearfully reveals sister Darci’s harrowing final hours after accidental overdoseREAD MORE: Holly Hagan announces pregnancy a month after tragic death of her sister
Talking candidly about the “horrendous” time, Holly told the Mail: “I got her some pyjamas, which seems crazy, I was in Asda or Tesco in the middle of the night shopping for pyjamas for my dead sister.
“I said, please ‘can you brush her hair because she’s just got £800 hair extensions and my mam will be absolutely fuming that her hair is in knots’, so they brushed her hair, they put her hair in a bobble and that was the end.”
In another devastating admission, Holly revealed she recorded Darci’s heartbeat before they left her for the last time. She shared: “We were all there and we had an opportunity to say goodbye. My mam rang me and she didn’t know how to leave the room because she knew it was the last time she was going to see her. Eventually I dragged her out. But before that, I had the opportunity to record her heartbeat. We had the opportunity to say goodbye.”
Darci’s death was announced by Holly in October and police later confirmed that the teen had fallen ‘seriously ill’, when she was believed to have taken drugs. Her funeral took place last month, with Holly sharing the order of service on her Instagram writing: “My sister, my forever friend. His auntie, his greatest gift. Now our guardian angel….I hope we did you proud today baby girl. We all miss and love you so much.”
Before the funeral, Holly admitted she wasn’t sure whether to post anything on social media, as she admitted her family had suffered the “toughest four weeks of our life.” She shared: “A little life update from last week. I wasn’t sure whether to share or not as honestly this is such a vulnerable time and I’m not really someone who sits and cries to the camera usually but this is the reality of where I’m at right now x.
“It is and has been the toughest four weeks of our entire life. I actually just don’t know how to process this whole situation, and neither do my parents.
“I don’t think anybody realises how much this affects everybody in their lives, the amount of people that’s been affected by this is just absolutely mind blowing. Like, my world has stopped. Her parents’ world has stopped. We feel, like, stuck and then the world keeps spinning.”
* If you have been affected by this story, Cruse Bereavement Support offers free help to make sense of how you are feeling. Click here for their website or call 0808 808 1677.
