The household name should prove a hit with ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here viewers after his many decades in the public eye and hugely successful career
A huge TV and pop icon from the ’80s is in ‘advanced talks’ to appear on this year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Martin Kemp is poised to become the first star to join I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here as the second member of a family to have the jungle experience. The Spandau Ballet star is in “advanced talks” to join the hit ITV show when it launches next month.
And he’ll be following in the footsteps of his radio presenter son, Roman, who took part back in 2019. One insider said: “Martin is a household name having been top of the hit parade with Spandau Ballet in the 80s and then in EastEnders in the early 2000s – he’s a great signing and everyone is very excited at the prospect of getting him Down Under.”
One person who’ll be particularly thrilled is Roman himself, 32, who told the Mirror a couple of years ago that he’d be “very up” for his famous dad to take part.
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When Roman did it, he lasted the full 22 days and finished in third place, behind Corrie star Andy Whyment and winner Jacqueline Jossa.
But along the way he tackled some pretty tricky Bushtucker Trials – for which he held his dad partially responsible after he urged the public to nominate his son.
“Listen, I would do anything to see my dad eat llama anus,” Roman told the Mirror in 2022. “I’ll tell you why, because when I got nominated the first time it was the eating trial,” he recalled. “When you’re in there, you get so paranoid about why people are voting for you, because you’re like ‘am I coming across as a d*** and people want to see me suffer’?
“When I got out I was looking through some of the headlines, and it turns out the only reason I got voted to do that trial at the beginning was because my dad tweeted: ‘Let’s get my son to eat kangaroo anus’. So, my God, I’m very up for him going in.”
Once Martin arrives in the jungle, there will be a Kemp TV takeover in Britain with him on ITV alongside hosts Ant and Dec and his kids Roman and elder sister Harley Moon competing on BBC1’s Race Across the World from next week.
And Martin, who is a regular on Celebrity Gogglebox with Roman, will also be following his old bandmate Tony Hadley, who competed on the show in 2015, finishing in sixth place.
The singer of hits including True, Gold and To Cut a Long Story Short, afterwards described his jungle experience as “one of the best things I’ve ever done” despite his endless conflict with fellow contestant Lady Colin Campbell, who took an instant dislike to him.
Martin, 64, married to former Wham backing singer Shirley Holliman, is unlikely to ask Hadley for tips, after the rest of the Spandau members fell out with the lead singer when he quit the band in 2017.
Hadley told the Mirror earlier this year that he and Martin’s brother Gary – the band’s songwriter – were unlikely to work together again. “I haven’t spoken to him in 10 years. I don’t have anything to do with the Spandau thing at all,” he said.
This came after Gary claimed, in 2021, that he and Tony had never been mates “even at school”. But Martin has always remained hopeful about the possibility of a reunion, saying a few years ago: “It’s something I would love to do and I know Gary would love to do it. It’s very difficult to get five adults to say ‘yes’ at the same time. Tony at the moment doesn’t want to do it and I understand his reasons for wanting to be a solo singer.”
I’m a Celebrity is expected to start on ITV on November 16 with other camp-mates likely to include Emmerdale’s Lisa Riley and ex- EastEnder Shona McGarty plus radio host Nick Ferrari, comedian Ruby Wax, model Kelly Brook and presenter Vogue Williams.
A show spokesman said the official announcement would come soon, adding: “Any names suggested for I’m A Celebrity are speculation.”
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