Michael Buerk: Masturbation and homophobia are banned on I’m A Celeb
By Micah Sulit
Former BBC broadcaster Michael Buerk, who was a contestant on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! last year, has revealed the list of behaviours banned in the jungle.
The veteran newsreader, , who was the third contestant to be voted off the 14th series last year, told Radio Times that the reality show’s executive producer Becca Walker showed up at his hotel room and laid down the law.
“She came in waving them like Moses coming down the mountain with God’s Commandments,” he said. “She had more than 10, as it happens, and they weren’t burnt into stone but typed up on a laminated sheet that she drew out of her handbag.”
Forbidden behaviours included “bullying, ‘non-consensual touching’, masturbation (she seemed particularly concerned about that), homophobic language or attitudes and ‘category A’ swear words (which include the f-word and the c-word)”.
Meanwhile, nudity (“in a non-sexual context”), reciprocated sexual behaviour and rudeness weren’t a problem.
Buerk also said some pretty harsh words about the show, drawing comparisons between its format and “techniques perfected by the Gestapo and the KGB”.
The 69-year-old v said, “The ‘jungle’ is part prison camp, part torture centre, part laboratory experiment in social anthropology; cruelty with its tongue in its cheek, staged at vast expense (and huge profit) for the amusement of millions.”
He did say the producers “were kindness itself”… when they weren’t “torturing” him.
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