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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England have been handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences – but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament.
England will play all three of their group games in the United States, with their first two matches against Croatia, on 17 June, and Ghana, on 23 June, kicking off at 21:00 BST.
Their final group game against Panama on 27 June begins at 22:00.
Scotland will play their Group C games in Boston and Miami, with their opener against Haiti on 14 June at Gillette Stadium kicking off at 02:00.
England’s opening match in Dallas will be played under a closed roof, with air conditioning in the AT&T Stadium, because of the expected heat in Texas.
Their matches in Dallas and Boston – where Scotland play twice – will be on a temporary grass surface, as they normally operate with artificial turf.
Miami, the location of Scotland’s final group match against Brazil – which will kick off at 18:00 local time – is one place extreme heat might prove an issue during next summer’s tournament.
Should they qualify through two rounds of Uefa play-off matches in March, Wales or Northern Ireland would play all three group matches at 20:00 BST.
They would face Canada in Toronto on 12 June, Switzerland in Los Angeles on 18 June, and Qatar in Seattle on 24 June.
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When and where England and Scotland will play
All times BST
England – Group L
21:00, Wed, 17 June v Croatia – Dallas
21:00, Tue, 23 June v Ghana – Boston
22:00, Sat, 27 June v Panama – New Jersey
Scotland – Group C
02:00, Sun, 14 June v Haiti – Boston
23:00, Fri, 19 June v Morocco – Boston
The match venues and kick-off times for the tournament were confirmed one day after the draw for the group stage took place in Washington DC on Friday.
The first 48-team World Cup will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States between 11 June and 19 July 2026.
Mexico will take on South Africa at Mexico City’s historic Estadio Azteca in the opening match of the expanded tournament, during which 104 matches will be played in 39 days.
That game – a repeat of the first match at the 2010 World Cup – will kick off at 19:00 BST on Thursday, 11 June.
The World Cup final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey will kick-off at 20:00 BST on 19 July.
The semi-finals, hosted in Dallas and Atlanta, will also begin at 20:00 BST.
The final match schedule will be confirmed in March, following the conclusion of the Fifa and Uefa play-off tournaments to decide the final six places.
The tournament will be hosted across 16 cities, spanning four time zones and three countries, at locations up to 2,800 miles apart.
‘England fans face gruelling travel schedule’
Analysis by BBC Sport football issues writer Dale Johnson
England fans face one of the most gruelling travel schedules if they are to follow their team all the way to the World Cup final.
If the Three Lions win Group L and go on to the final, supporters will have to travel 6,468.5 miles.
That is starting off in Dallas and finishing up in East Rutherford, with a total travel time of just under 19 hours.
The flight from Dallas to Foxborough for the second group game, and the trip to Mexico City and back between the last 16 and the quarter-final, accounts for most of it.
England would have less travel as group runners-up, with their journeys amounting to 5,970.4 miles and a total travel time of 18 and a half hours.
Portugal and Spain have it worse, even though they stay in Houston and Atlanta respectively for their first two group games.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal travel 6,781.9 miles with more than 22 hours in the air, while Spain must make trips totalling 6,667.2 miles, which will take 18 hours and 15 minutes.
France fans are the big winners, with just 2,675 miles on the clock, taking 12 and a half hours. They even have the luxury of two short train trips between East Rutherford and Philadelphia. The 1,561-mile journey from Foxborough and Dallas for the semi-final accounts for well over half of the travelling.
Mexico fare second best, largely because by winning their group they would have three consecutive games at the Azteca – from their final group game through to a last-16 tie. Their total travel works out of 3,199.7 miles. At just over 10 hours, El Tri supporters have the lowest travel time.
Third best are Germany on 4,141.5 miles, which would take 15 and a half hours.
And what about Scotland? If they shocked Brazil and Morocco, won their group and went on to reach the final, they would travel 6,083.3 miles taking 18 hours.
England have been handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences – but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament.
England will play all three of their group games in the United States, with their first two matches against Croatia, on 17 June, and Ghana, on 23 June, kicking off at 21:00 BST.
Their final group game against Panama on 27 June begins at 22:00.
Scotland will play their Group C games in Boston and Miami, with their opener against Haiti on 14 June at Gillette Stadium kicking off at 02:00.
England’s opening match in Dallas will be played under a closed roof, with air conditioning in the AT&T Stadium, because of the expected heat in Texas.
Their matches in Dallas and Boston – where Scotland play twice – will be on a temporary grass surface, as they normally operate with artificial turf.
Miami, the location of Scotland’s final group match against Brazil – which will kick off at 18:00 local time – is one place extreme heat might prove an issue during next summer’s tournament.
Should they qualify through two rounds of Uefa play-off matches in March, Wales or Northern Ireland would play all three group matches at 20:00 BST.
They would face Canada in Toronto on 12 June, Switzerland in Los Angeles on 18 June, and Qatar in Seattle on 24 June.
21 hours ago
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1 day ago
When and where England and Scotland will play
All times BST
England – Group L
21:00, Wed, 17 June v Croatia – Dallas
21:00, Tue, 23 June v Ghana – Boston
22:00, Sat, 27 June v Panama – New Jersey
Scotland – Group C
02:00, Sun, 14 June v Haiti – Boston
23:00, Fri, 19 June v Morocco – Boston
The match venues and kick-off times for the tournament were confirmed one day after the draw for the group stage took place in Washington DC on Friday.
The first 48-team World Cup will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States between 11 June and 19 July 2026.
Mexico will take on South Africa at Mexico City’s historic Estadio Azteca in the opening match of the expanded tournament, during which 104 matches will be played in 39 days.
That game – a repeat of the first match at the 2010 World Cup – will kick off at 19:00 BST on Thursday, 11 June.
The World Cup final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey will kick-off at 20:00 BST on 19 July.
The semi-finals, hosted in Dallas and Atlanta, will also begin at 20:00 BST.
The final match schedule will be confirmed in March, following the conclusion of the Fifa and Uefa play-off tournaments to decide the final six places.
The tournament will be hosted across 16 cities, spanning four time zones and three countries, at locations up to 2,800 miles apart.
‘England fans face gruelling travel schedule’
Analysis by BBC Sport football issues writer Dale Johnson
England fans face one of the most gruelling travel schedules if they are to follow their team all the way to the World Cup final.
If the Three Lions win Group L and go on to the final, supporters will have to travel 6,468.5 miles.
That is starting off in Dallas and finishing up in East Rutherford, with a total travel time of just under 19 hours.
The flight from Dallas to Foxborough for the second group game, and the trip to Mexico City and back between the last 16 and the quarter-final, accounts for most of it.
England would have less travel as group runners-up, with their journeys amounting to 5,970.4 miles and a total travel time of 18 and a half hours.
Portugal and Spain have it worse, even though they stay in Houston and Atlanta respectively for their first two group games.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal travel 6,781.9 miles with more than 22 hours in the air, while Spain must make trips totalling 6,667.2 miles, which will take 18 hours and 15 minutes.
France fans are the big winners, with just 2,675 miles on the clock, taking 12 and a half hours. They even have the luxury of two short train trips between East Rutherford and Philadelphia. The 1,561-mile journey from Foxborough and Dallas for the semi-final accounts for well over half of the travelling.
Mexico fare second best, largely because by winning their group they would have three consecutive games at the Azteca – from their final group game through to a last-16 tie. Their total travel works out of 3,199.7 miles. At just over 10 hours, El Tri supporters have the lowest travel time.
Third best are Germany on 4,141.5 miles, which would take 15 and a half hours.
And what about Scotland? If they shocked Brazil and Morocco, won their group and went on to reach the final, they would travel 6,083.3 miles taking 18 hours.
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.”
Daniel Wiffen put in a strong recovery to claim a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle final at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Poland.
Team Ireland’s Wiffen, who holds the 800m short course world record from 2023, was sixth at the halfway point of the race.
However he rallied to battle back up the order and claim his third medal of the championships.
The race was won by Hungary’s Kamil Sarkany, who Wiffen pipped to gold in a thrilling 1500m final on Thursday, while Lucas Henveaux of Belgium was second.
The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland also won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle behind Jack McMillan to open his championships.
It is a strong return to form for Olympic 800m champion Wiffen, who had surgery in August after a bout of appendicitis ruined his chances of retaining his 800m and 1500m World Championship gold medals.
In Saturday’s decider, he started well in the race and was second in the opening 200 metres but he soon dropped back to sixth as he struggled to stay with the pace.
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“I’m very proud of myself about how I came back but I’m not very happy with how I lost my race,” Wiffen said.
“As soon as I dived in, I knew I was going to be tired from the rest of the week.
“I’ve come through a lot over the past couple of weeks, so I’m happy with the bronze and I’m still on the podium.”
In the women’s 200m individual medley, Ireland’s Ellen Walshe picked up a silver medal as she finished behind the Netherlands’ Marritt Steenbergen.
Walshe was 2.95 seconds behind Steenbergen, who set a new European record with a time of 2:01.83.
It was a fifth medal of the championships for Ireland after Wiffen’s trio and John Shortt’s gold in the men’s 200m backstroke.
Anastasia Gorbenko of Israel was third as Great Britain’s Freya Colbert and Katie Shanahan narrowly missed out on a medal as they finished fourth and fifth.
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Shamoon Hafez
Manchester City reporter at Etihad Stadium
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Rayan Cherki’s sublime rabona assist in Manchester City’s win over Sunderland on Saturday drew gasps from the home crowd and may be a moment of inspiration to turn the tide in this season’s title race.
But while former City defender Steph Houghton described it as the assist of the season, manager Pep Guardiola was not as excited – urging the French playmaker to keep things simple.
Cherki was the star of the show at a rain-soaked Etihad Stadium, as Guardiola’s men ensured there was no slip-up following leaders Arsenal’s last-gasp loss at Aston Villa, and now sit two points off the top.
The 22-year-old had rolled the ball to Ruben Dias for the first goal, which the Portugal international thumped into the net from 30 yards, but his second assist will be remembered for a long time.
Cherki ran at Sunderland defender Trai Hume, turned him inside out, before clipping an audacious rabona, which the onrushing Phil Foden headed into the net via the crossbar.
“I worked for that,” Cherki told BBC Match of the Day. “I know my quality, which is my technique, when I play with Phil [Foden], Erling [Haaland], Omar [Marmoush], it’s very important to give the good balls for them.”
It was a sublime pass but Guardiola’s reaction afterwards suggested he wasn’t a fan, warning Cherki may need to look at Argentine great Lionel Messi’s ability in keeping it simple.
“I never saw Messi play a cross like he has done,” said Guardiola. “Messi is the best player to play the game but I never saw these kind of crosses.
“Crosses are fine, right or left or which part of your feet, it doesn’t matter. If it is effective, it is fine, but I like the simplicity because I learned from Messi that I never make a mistake with the simple things.
“The simple things he does perfectly, then he dribbles past four or five players. I want players to do the simple things well and after that you have special talent and he can do whatever he wants.
“But if he doesn’t work now, it will be a problem. He will be in trouble.”
Cherki will play ‘huge part’ for Man City
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Cherki earned a standing ovation for his virtuoso performance when he was replaced by Savinho in the 82nd minute.
He reacted to being named man of the match by running his hand through his hair, smiling and nodding his head, knowing it had been a good day at the office.
The £30m summer signing from Lyon started the season in perfect fashion by scoring in the 4-0 thrashing of Wolves, but suffered a thigh injury thereafter which kept him out for two months.
He has now produced six assists in 13 games in all competitions this season, showing he is beginning to hit his stride for City.
Guardiola required a creative spark in the final third following the departure of Kevin de Bruyne in the summer and the France international may provide just that.
He created six chances against Sunderland, touching the ball 104 times and contesting 14 duels – metrics which rank higher than any other player on the pitch highlighting his influence on the game.
Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy told BBC Sport: “Rayan Cherki has been in and out of the City team, missing two months through injury at the start of the season, but he has wonderful skill and vision.
“Pep Guardiola is wary of having too many players in his side who aren’t defensive-minded and he might look at Cherki and ask: ‘Is he a number 10, can he play wide?’ But Cherki is capable of opening up teams at any moment with a bit of brilliance.
“From watching recent games, he is starting to build a nice relationship with Erling Haaland. When you are a centre-forward, you want players prepared to take a risk the final ball and Cherki is certainly a risk-taker.
Arsenal will drop ‘few points’
City’s comfortable 3-0 victory over the Black Cats cranked the heat up on Arsenal.
It was just the second league defeat suffered by Mikel Arteta’s side this season but it may be incredibly damaging come the end of the campaign.
On 1 November, the Gunners had beaten Burnley in the early kick-off to move nine points clear of City but a month later, that advantage has been whittled down to two.
Unai Emery’s Villa have launched themselves into the title race, moving just three points off the top following their impressive victory over Arsenal.
Guardiola said: “It is better to be closer than further to the top of the league but from my experience of winning the Premier League and titles, it is the consistency.
“Consistency comes from the way you play, not from the results or being two points in front or four in front. it is how you perform and how much you grow during the team. Today has been one of the best performances of the year during 95 minutes.
“With the Premier League, I have the feeling that Arsenal are going to drop [very] few points – and if we want to be there, we have to win games and games.
