I’m A Celebrity: Mike Tindall and Matt Hancock bag 5 out of 5 stars during puzzling trial
I’m A Celebrity 2022: ‘We’ve got the dream team’: Mike Tindall and Matt Hancock bag 4 out of 5 stars as they’re covered in fish guts while teaming up for puzzling Fallen Stars trial
I’m A Celebrity‘s Mike Tindall and Matt Hancock teamed up to take on the latest gruelling Bushtucker Trial during Friday’s episode, bagging four out of five stars for camp.
The duo found themselves dunked in fish guts and covered in spiders as they worked together in the Fallen Stars challenge, which saw them answering a string of puzzling questions.
Raring to go, the former Health Secretary dubbed himself and the rugby player, both 44, ‘the dream team’ as they took on the tough challenge.
I’m A Celebrity 2022: ‘We’ve got the dream team’: Mike Tindall and Matt Hancock, both 44, bagged 4 out of 5 stars on Friday as they were covered in fish guts for the Fallen Stars trial
Talking a big game before the trial, Mike assured: ‘You won’t be hearing any ‘Get me out of here’ words. Bring it on.’
While Matt added: ‘We’ve got the dream team really, we’re up for this, we’ll give it a go.’
And as the pair arrived to the trial, co-presenter Dec explained the rules: ‘This is Fallen Stars. There are five stars, but they’ve been smashed into pieces. One of you needs to enter these cages and put them back together.
Challenge: The duo found themselves dunked in fish guts and covered in spiders as they worked together in the Fallen Stars challenge, which saw them answering a string of puzzling questions
‘The other person will win the amount of time you’re allowed in the cage by answering questions. That celebrity will be sat behind you there on the dunk tank. If they get a question wrong, they’re going in.’
While Ant added: ‘You’ll be given 30 seconds per round, but we’ll ask you three questions – for every question you answer correctly you’ll earn another 30 seconds. And the star puzzles will get harder as the cages progress.’
When it came time to decide who would do which job, Mike asked Matt if he liked puzzles, with the MP explaining that he did and would take on that job.
Dunked: Each question they got wrong saw a dunking into the horrible liquid-filled ‘dunk tank’
Making a splash! Mike suffered a few dunkings as they struggled to get all of the questions correct
Almost: And despite the tough work, they managed to bag just one off of a full house
Each question they got wrong saw a dunking into the horrible liquid-filled ‘dunk tank’.
As Matt worked his way through the first couple of puzzles, Ant said: ‘He’s good at puzzles – he said he was. He wasn’t fibbing!’
However, the MP was unable to finish one puzzle in the time given, so they earned four out of the five stars available.
‘So close to nailing it, but four out of five, I’m sure in camp they’ll be thrilled. For us, we’ll still be thinking about how we could have just got that fifth as it was so close,’ Matt said after the trial.
And being supported by their remaining campmates after the trial, Jill Scott said: ‘Four stars which was absolutely brilliant as it didn’t sound straight forward.’
It comes after Mike discussed staying over at Buckingham Palace during Thursday’s episode – admitting he strolled the royal residence in ‘jeans and a tee’.
No idea: Mike did struggle when hosts Ant & Dec ask: ‘What is the collective noun for a group of spiders?’
Shoe on the other foot: Mike had a smile on his face when it was Matt’s turn
The former rugby pro is married to Zara – who is the niece of King Charles III, the daughter of his sister Princess Anne, and 20th in line to the throne.
And despite her royal status, the sportsman told his campmates that he wasn’t at all nervous to meet his wife back in 2003, after rubbing shoulders with a slew of her family members prior.
During the episode, the six remaining campmates were down to four while Jill Scott and Seann Walsh took on today’s Deals On Wheels trial, with Owen Warner probing Mike on his royal ties during the downtime.
The Hollyoaks star asked: ‘Have you been to Buckingham Palace much?’
‘More than most,’ simply replied Mike, as his campmate questioned what it was like there.
The sportsman explained: ‘A lot of it’s all the state rooms and there’s only a little bit of living. Yeah I’ve stayed there.’
‘I went down in the morning wearing jeans’: Mike Tindall reveals what it’s like staying the night at Buckingham Palace
Keen to know more on the protocol in the Palace, Owen continued: ‘In the morning could you go down in your joggers and T-shirt, or did you have to get dressed up again?’
‘No, jeans and a tee,’ confirmed Mike.
A surprised Owen admitted: ‘I thought you had to be suited and booted,’ before checking: ‘Do you mind chatting about it?’
Mike assured the actor that he didn’t mind the conversation, before being asked if he knew his wife was a royal before meeting her.
Romance: The sportsman also told his campmates that he wasn’t at all nervous to meet Zara back in 2003, after meeting a slew of her family member first
‘Yeah [I knew], because I know she’s Princess Anne’s daughter. Princess Anne is patron of Scottish Rugby,’ he explained.
Owen then asked: ‘Did you feel a bit of pressure? If I was chatting to a girl and then found out she was royalty I’d be nervous.’
‘No because we were friends first and then William and Harry were massive England fans at the time, so we’d met them numerous times. Met more of the family than you’d normally have met of the woman you start dating,’ said Mike.
He and Zara met during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, the same year the sportsman was awarded an MBE after helping the England team win the World Cup in Australia.
Royalty: Zara is the daughter of Princess Anne, and was the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II (Mike and Zara pictured with Her Majesty in 2006)