[Red Moon]

Blundering jungle Joe's Jade Goody-style gaffes

Stars taking part in the latest series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! may have a new Jade Goody amongst them.

In tonight's opening show contestant Joe Swash, who played Mickey Miller in EastEnders, drops clangers in much the same vein as the comments that shot Goody to fame in 2002.

She generated massive publicity as a Big Brother contestant with questions such as 'Rio de Janeiro, ain't that a person?' and whether 'East Angular' was abroad.
Swash, 26, appears to have already coined a similar line in 'Swashisms', asking his fellow contestant, the tennis star Martina Navratilova, about her home country the Czech Republic.

'Is that near Prague?' he inquired, to which she explained that Prague was the capital.

He also insisted that he had three stops en route to Australia from London - 'Kuala Lumpur and Sydney' - as the other celebrities told him that actually constituted just two.

Before entering the show, Swash said: 'I haven't got my character to hide behind any more - I've got to be myself.

'So it's like I'm saying to everyone, "This is me - what do you reckon?" And if people don't like me then I've got to face up to that.'

Bookmakers have tipped Swash as the 4/1 favourite to win the show, but 52-year-old Navratilova, though joint third in the odds at 6/1, has so far proved more attractive to punters.

Ladbrokes spokesman Robin Hutchison said: 'We've taken more bets on Martina than anyone else and have already had to cut her price.

'Given the quirky winners in the past she may just have what it takes to upset the odds.'

Glamour model Nicola McLean, 25, and the ex-MP Robert Kilroy-Silk, 66, are the outsiders to win at 16/1, together attracting less than £20 worth of bets, he said.

This year for the first time the 10 contestants were presented with a task that would affect their time in the outback before they even arrived in their jungle camp.

The celebrities were split into two teams based on whether they had arrived at their hotel on Australia's Gold Coast by limousine or boat and told to nominate volunteers to go head-to-head.

Presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly did not reveal what the Trauma Tank challenge entailed but warned the result would impact on how the celebrities would live for the foreseeable future.

Swash was taken up on his offer to face the tank, with Star Trek actor George Takei, 71, telling him: 'You've got youth and confidence.'

He found himself up against Simon Webbe, 30, formerly of boy band Blue, who warned: 'Don't mess with the Si. You get caught up in the Webbe!'

The Trauma Tank was revealed to be full of rats, eels and scorpions guarding small stars, with the person collecting the most by hand winning more food and a better camp for his team.

Preparing for his ordeal, Swash said: 'If I could change my mind I would now. I'm starting to think it wasn't the brightest decision I ever made.'

Meanwhile the rest of his team prepared to make the hair-raising journey to camp.

Accompanying Navratilova and Takei on the traditional parachute jump were Dani Behr, former presenter of The Word, 37, and former police chief Brian Paddick, 50.

Takei, the oldest ever contestant, said the jump looked a 'piece of cake' before leaping fearlessly from the plane leaving his teammates awe-struck.

Webbe's teammates Kilroy-Silk and McLean were joined by TV presenter Esther Rantzen, 68, and Carly Zucker, 24, fiancee of England footballer Joe Cole, in trying to cross a large lake on floating feet.

While the two Wags Zucker and McLean opted for the manually-operated feet, Kilroy-Silk took the motorised kit, meaning it fell to him to tow Rantzen in a boat.

After plunging into the water several times, he gave up and swam to shore, while Rantzen helped him out by using his hat as a paddle.

Viewers will also see footage of when the nervous celebrities met for the first time at their hotel.

Rantzen told the group: 'I'm rather elderly, badly co-ordinated, I will try my hardest but I might not be good at stuff, please forgive me.'

The eighth series of the ratings-grabbing ITV jungle show, which was won last year by Christopher Biggins, kicks off tonight on ITV1 and ITV2.

Source: Daily Mail